Six years after the track it runs on were deemed too unsafe and the line was closed for repair work, Ghent’s tram route 4 is running again to the Moscou terminus in the city’s Gentbrugge district. Foreign tourists are surprised when the tram passes through the centre and often take pictures of its strange destination.
Home News
Foreign tourists astonished to find that they can take a tram to “Moscou” when they visit Ghent
Published:
Moscou is the French for Moscow, the capital of the Russian Federation. The Moscou area of Gentbrugge was given its name after Russian troops from the Tsar's army stayed there for a few months after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815.
In November 2017, the tram tracks to the terminus were found to be in such poor condition that transport company De Lijn was forced to suspend services on the route between the Ledebergplein and the terminus at Moscou.
Initially work to repair the track was due to take two years. It wasn’t until March 2021 that the Flemish public transport company De Lijn, the City of Ghent and the water company FARYS were able to start renewing the tram tracks, the sewers under them and the streets along which tram route 4 passes in Ledeberg and Gentbrugge.
Tourists in Ghent are surprised by the tram’s somewhat strange destination. The Ghent tram driver Pietro told VRT News that “They take out their mobile phone and quickly and take a photo. We hadn't seen those kinds reactions for a long time, but now I see the tourists looking surprised again and then I have to explain to them that Moscou is a place in Gentbrugge.”