Brussels local transport company MIVB is seeing a sharp rise in the number of members of the public venturing onto the tracks illegally at metro and pre-metro stations. A large number of incidents have especially been reported in the wide area around the Brussels South Station.
The Brussels transport company recorded 477 incidents of track trespassers last year, outgoing Brussels mobility minister Elke Van den Brandt (Flemish ecologist/Groen) told the Brussels parliament. This represents an increase of 24 per cent in only one year (384 incidents in 2023) and even a 73 per cent rise over two years (276 incidents in 2022).
The figures only include the number of incidents that were reported to the metro dispatching centre and that led to interruptions in metro traffic. The transport company would not be drawn on an estimate of the number of unrecorded intrusions.
The sharp rise in the number of track trespassers is being linked to the increasing number of homeless people and drug users in Brussels metro stations. But there are also other groups venturing onto the tracks without permission, including taggers, pre-metro passengers who want to change platform quickly or metro passengers who have accidentally dropped something onto the tracks.
It could cost you your life if you go looking for a smartphone or other fallen object on the tracks, Ms Van den Brandt stressed. Not only is there the risk of collision with an approaching metro, but you could also be electrocuted by the 900-volt power supply on the tracks.
Top stations
The 5 stations where track trespassers are most common are Hallepoort, Lemonnier, Clemenceau, Zuidstation and Simonis, MIVB statistics reveal. Four of the 5 high-risk stations are located in or around the South Station.
The MIVB is currently testing a new security system at the Hallepoort metro station to reduce the number of track trespassers there. A roll-out of additional preventive barriers in each metro station is among the company’s future plans, but it will not be sorted in the short term, Ms Van den Brandt added.