Sad video montage of abandoned Belgian tramway

murphaph

At least I find it sad anyway. It seems sort of symbolic of Belgium's slow decline Generally, or at least of Wallonia's. Lots of rusting old factories and whatnot in the area. I remember being struck by how depressing Charleroi feels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOgi6ypl3Co

corktina

sad indeed, look a modern line too, when did it shut?

murphaph

1993 apparently.

corktina

that is surprising...most places are opening lines like that nowadays!

munchkin_utd

theres also a metro line that was partially built in Charleroi but never finished or brought into operation even though 4 or 5 stations were completed!

all built essentially as an effort to burn a budget caused through having to match investment on the French side of Belgium every time the other side needed something and got a grant for it.
Building lines through industrial estates etc where nobody lives, and increasingly nobody works either is not the most sensible thing!
Crazy place.

GBOA

It's quite interesting to follow the old tram routes on Google (both maps and street). Although the aerial shots show trams using the line, Google street shows much of the track covered over.

This is near the end of the line https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Charleroi,+Belgium&hl=en&ll=50.400172,4.282828&spn=0.001166,0.000008&sll=54.59488,-5.926632&sspn=0.270909,0.466232&oq=charleroi&t=h&hnear=Charleroi,+Hainaut,+Walloon+Region,+Belgium&deg=270&z=19&layer=c&cbll=50.399796,4.282959&panoid=Z5D6ejwp7Cfzecl-_yaT3Q&cbp=12,331.67,,0,7.37