You take the metro every day, but you’ve never seen where it “sleeps.” In Molenbeek, behind gates that no one ever crosses, the Jacques Brel Depot covers six hectares and houses everything the network keeps hidden. We’re talking about trains undergoing maintenance, maintenance pits, and kilometers of tracks. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Brussels Metro, the STIB will open this site to the public on Sunday, September 20—Car-Free Sunday. Just one day.
Six hectares that no one ever visits
The Jacques Brel Depot—formerly the Vandermeeren Depot—is anything but a shed. It’s a six-hectare complex, built in two phases. The bus section was built between 2002 and 2005, and the metro section between 2005 and 2008, with an official opening in June 2008.
The numbers are staggering when you consider a place you’re not allowed to enter. The metro section alone covers 1.5 hectares of buildings and 3.5 kilometers of tracks, used to park and maintain between fifteen and twenty-two trains. On the bus side, capacity reaches 160 vehicles. Add three 60,000-liter fuel tanks and a 200,000-liter rainwater tank, and you have a small industrial town nestled along the canal! Nearly 600 people work there: subway and bus drivers, mechanics, and administrative staff.
What you see when the doors open
The detailed schedule for the day will be published by the STIB in early September. But during the previous public opening of this same depot, visitors were able to walk through the metro maintenance hall and see the lifting equipment capable of hoisting an entire train, descend into the underground tunnels beneath the tracks, and get an up-close look behind the scenes of the bus operations: the wash station, the brake test bench, and the tire shop.
In other words, everything you’d never suspect while waiting on a platform. A metro train, viewed from below and at a stop, looks nothing like what you think you know.
An anniversary not to be missed
The date is no coincidence. On September 20, 1976, the Brussels Metro carried its first passengers between De Brouckère, Tomberg, and Beaulieu. Exactly fifty years later to the day, the network spans some 40 kilometers of lines, with about sixty stations and approximately 400 million trips per year. And on that same Sunday, the Region becomes Europe’s largest car-free zone, from 9:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Two exhibitions round out the program. One is at the Bourse-Grand-Place station, in the Qartier cultural space, featuring archival materials and winning posters from a design contest. The other is at the Botanique station, where it’s already on display. The full program of festivities will be announced in early September via STIB’s channels.
