Belgian railway line 26 : Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Belgian railway line 26

Railway line between Brussels and Halle, Belgium

4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gaugeElectrification3 kV DC

Route map

Legend

					Line from Brussels-North
				0.0	Schaarbeek
					Line to Leuven
					Line to Antwerp
					from Vilvoorde
					Line Brussels–Leuven
				4.0	Haren
				4.7	Bordet
				6.1	Evere
				8.6	Meiser

				9.9	Merode

				11.2	Delta
					Line Brussels–Namur
				14.7	Boondael
				15.3	Vivier d'Oie
				16.2	Saint-Job
					Line Brussels–Charleroi
				19.7	Moensberg
				21.4	Beersel
				24.6	Huizingen
					Line from Brussels
				28.6	Halle
					Line to Mons

The Belgian railway line 26 connects Brussels to Halle, Belgium. It opened on July 19, 1926, between Schaarbeek and Watermael railway stations. The line was completed on January 3, 1930.^[1] It was built to bypass Brussels before the 1952 North–South connection existed.

Today all passenger trains using the line travel from Vilvoorde on a branch line called 26/1 and not from Schaarbeek, to various destinations south of Brussels. The line carries (parts of) several services of the GEN/RER: S4, S5, S7, S9. Some of these use the Schuman-Josaphat tunnel, which branches off just South of Meiser station.

The line serves the following stations:

Schaarbeek
Haren
Bordet
Evere
Schaarbeek-Josaphat
Meiser
Merode
Etterbeek-Cinquantenaire
Delta
Boondael
Vivier d’Oie / Diesdelle
Saint-Job
Moensberg
Beersel
Huizingen
Halle

Schaarbeek-Josaphat is no longer an operational station, it was a freight yard very near the present Evere railway station. Etterbeek-Cinquantenaire was also a freight station, now closed and (mostly) filled in.