Brussels Central

Station Brussels-Central is a railway station in Belgium, located on the underground North-South Connection, which connects the Brussels train stations North and South. With about 60,000 boarding passengers on weekdays and about 20,000 per day on weekends in October 2017, it is the busiest station in the country after Station Brussels-South, although there are only six tracks. Often a train arrives less than a minute after the departure of the previous one during peak hours on weekdays (wikipedia, n.d.).

The station building was designed before World War I by Victor Horta in the heart of the capital. After his death in 1947, architect Maxime Brunfaut took over his task. Due to the many elevation changes and entrances and exits, the design was very complex. The main entrance at the Europakruispunt at the corner of Putterij and Keizerinlaan is situated under a canopy in a hollow corner façade, which is adorned with nine tall vertical windows. These symbolize the nine Belgian provinces. Above each window a flagpole was installed. Via level -1, the station has a connection to the Grasmarkt through the Horta Gallery. On the east side of the train station, there is a 130-meter-long corridor leading to the Brussels-Central metro station. From this corridor, the station also connects to the Ravenstein Gallery (wikipedia, n.d.).

As one of the most important stations in the country, it provides a smooth IC connection to most major cities in the country. Moreover, the station is also served by various S-trains of the Gecentral Expressnetwork.

From Brussels-Central, there is also the possibility to travel further by metro/tram. The lines that service the station are: line 1: (Brussels-West/ Stokkel) and line 5: (Hermann/Debroux- Erasmus).

The station is within walking distance (about 1.5 km) of campus Bloemenhof, Kanal, and RITCS. The walk to these campuses takes about 15 to 20 minutes.

Lars vd