Schaarbeek railway station
Encyclopedia
Schaerbeek - Schaarbeek is a railway station in the municipality of Schaerbeek, Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

.

Located to the north-east of the centre of Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, the station mainly serves trains travelling between central Brussels and Leuven
Leuven
Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...

, Antwerp or Brussels National Airport
Brussels National Airport railway station
Brussels National Airport railway station is a terminus train station at Brussels Airport. It was opened in 1958 in the old airport building, mainly for the universal exposition in Brussels. With the opening of a new airport terminal in 1994, the railway station was moved in 1998 to a new location...

.
On these routes it is the first station trains pass through after the North-South connection (North, Central
Central station (Brussels)
Bruxelles-Central / Brussel-Centraal is a metro and railway station in Brussels, the capital city of Belgium. It is the busiest train station in Belgium and one of three principal train stations in Brussels, but handles primarily domestic traffic...

 and South stations). Although only local trains stop at Schaerbeek, the station also serves as a terminus for a number of interregional and peak-hour services.

The station is relatively large, with 13 platforms, numbered from 3 to 15. Tracks 1 and 2 were used in the past for motorail services carrying passenger cars to destinations mainly in southern France. These were transferred to Denderleeuw
Denderleeuw
Denderleeuw is a municipality located in the Belgian province of East Flanders in the Denderstreek. The municipality comprises the towns of Denderleeuw proper, Iddergem and Welle. On January 1, 2006 Denderleeuw had a total population of 17,357. The total area is 13.77 km² which gives a...

 station in 2000, and eventually discontinued in 2003. Schaerbeek station lies to the south-west of extensive railway grounds including a goods station
Classification yard
A classification yard or marshalling yard is a railroad yard found at some freight train stations, used to separate railroad cars on to one of several tracks. First the cars are taken to a track, sometimes called a lead or a drill...

 and a traction workshop.
The magnificent station building in Flemish Neo-Renaissance
Neo-Renaissance
Renaissance Revival is an all-encompassing designation that covers many 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Grecian nor Gothic but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of classicizing Italian modes...

 style was designed by architect Franz Seulen and built in two phases: the left wing around 1890, the main (right) wing in 1913. The building was listed as a monument
Monument
A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or simply as an example of historic architecture...

by the Brussels Capital Region in 1994 and the facades have been restored. Today, the building is largely disused though: ticket counters are open for a limited time every weekday, and concessions have been closed since the demise of the motorail services.

The square in front of the station serves as terminus for tram route 92 as well as bus route 69. Bus routes 58 and 59 also stop at Schaerbeek railway station.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK