50 years ago – on September 20, 1976, to be exact – King Baudouin inaugurated the Brussels Metro. The network, which now comprises just under 40 km of track spread across 4 lines with some 60 stations, carries more than 150 million passengers a year, making it by far the most popular mode of transportation in Brussels.

Current CEO Brieuc de Meeûs, who has headed the MIVB/STIB since 2012, has also announced that he will retire at the end of this year. But that will not hinder the transport company’s ambitions. The future of the Brussels metro network is not only about new lines, such as Metro Line 3, but above all about a large-scale modernization of the existing infrastructure to move more passengers faster.

The first subway plans date from 1892

The MIVB/STIB (Brussels Intermunicipal Transportation Company) was officially established on January 1, 1954, to streamline Brussels’ public transportation system, which had been fragmented because various private companies managed it.

Of course, Brussels already had public transportation before that, including horse-drawn and electric trams, and there were even mentions of the first subway plans as early as 1892, but in 1954, everything was brought together under a single public transportation agency.

The first concrete steps toward a Brussels metro, following the much older examples of London and Paris, didn’t come until the 1950s, with the 1957 opening of a short tram tunnel at the South Station that runs to Lemonnier.

As in all major European cities, Brussels also wanted to move its tram lines underground and reserve the streets for the growing volume of car traffic. The fact that the World’s Fair was coming to the city a year later, acting as a catalyst for urban renewal, also played a role.

Expo ’58 as catalyst

In 1969, an underground tram network opened between Schuman and De Brouckère, with an above-ground terminus at Sint-Katelijne. A year later, a second underground tramway tunnel between Madou and the Naamsepoort/Porte de Namur went into service. Demand was highest then on the North-South axis, between the Brussels-North and Brussels-South stations, but the East-West axis was prioritized for political reasons because of infrastructure development in the European Quarter.

From the outset, again with Expo ’58 in mind, this underground tramway was designed to be later converted into a metro, an ambitious plan that called for the construction of 5 full-scale metro lines. A second plan followed later, featuring an even more ambitious network, in which the planned lines would extend beyond the city limits to suburban towns such as Tervuren and Dilbeek, as well as the airport.

That plan would ultimately prove too ambitious, but the transition took place in 1976 when the first true Brussels metro line – Line 1 A/B – opened following the renovation and expansion of the pre-metro tunnel on the east-west axis. The line was 11 km long, served 16 stations, and was operated with 45 subway trains. The event drew nearly a million people.

Still traumatized by North-South construction

50 years later, the network is considerably less extensive than the five separate lines of a 60-kilometer network planned in the 1960s. Financial considerations were the deciding factor. After the Belgian government had already invested heavily- 670 million euros by the time of the inauguration- it scaled back its investments.

Although the Brussels metro network has always enjoyed strong support from passengers, it has also had both supporters and opponents in the political arena, as press agency Belga notes in an overview. This is due, among other things, to the impact of its construction on residents’ daily lives, on public finances, and on transfers between modes of transportation.

Added to that is the problematic, swampy soil in Brussels: it consists mainly of sand and is therefore fragile, while in some places there is also a high level of groundwater.

In a city traumatized by the devastating consequences of constructing the North-South rail link—which involved demolishing some very old blocks of houses—civil engineers want to minimize damage as much as possible.

To do so, they primarily use what is known as the ‘Brussels method’: first, they build the tunnel walls, then the tunnel roof, after which they excavate the soil from above once the tunnel structure is complete.

And this problem has resurfaced, for example, with the now-suspended Metro 3-line Albert-North. Soaring costs, water seepage during construction, stability issues beneath the South Palace, and a difficult budgetary situation in Brussels have suspended the project indefinitely.

The Metro 3 project, whose cost has since risen to 5.2 billion euros, an increase of more than 477%, was originally scheduled to be completed by 2030.

Underground museum

But the future of the Brussels metro network – known internationally as an ‘underground museum’ because more than 80 works of art adorn its stations – is not just about new lines, but above all about a large-scale modernization of the existing infrastructure to transport more passengers more quickly.

Behind the scenes, the MIVB/STIB is replacing the traditional signaling system—which still relies on fixed safety zones—with the modern CBTC system, allowing trains to run more frequently. For example, on the shared section of Lines 1 and 5 between West Station and Merode, a metro runs every 2 to 3 minutes during rush hour.

The MIVB/STIB is also gradually replacing the older orange/silver subway trains, which used to be yellow and blue, with the latest generation of M7 subway trains, which have a sleeker design and a more modern color scheme: copper red and metallic silver/gray. These latest-generation subway trains, or “Boa” trains, are over 94 meters long and can accommodate more than 700 passengers per train.

The company is also investing in installing elevators in all older subway stations and raising platforms so the entire network becomes barrier-free for wheelchair users and families with strollers.

On an average workday, the entire MIVB/STIB metro network – its logo features a white “M” on an azure-blue background, a design by the Brussels-based sculptor and designer Jean-Paul Emonds-Alt – operates approximately 800 to 1,000 train trips.

The Brussels Metro is, in any case, a testament to the city’s evolution and transportation policy since the 1960s, but it also remains one of the fastest ways to get around in the city center.