Brussels Metro

The Brussels Metro (French: Métro de Bruxelles, Dutch: Brusselse metro) is a rapid transit system serving a large part of the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium, EU. It consists of four conventional metro lines and three premetro lines. The metro-grade lines are M1, M2, M5, and M6 with some shared sections, covering a total of 39.9 kilometres (24.8 mi), with 59 metro-only stations. The premetro network consists of three tram lines (T3, T4, and T7) that partly travel over underground sections that were intended to be eventually converted into metro lines. Underground stations in the premetro network use the same design as metro stations. A few short underground tramway sections exist, so there is a total of 52.0 kilometres (32.3 mi) of underground metro and tram network. There are a total of 69 metro and premetro stations as of 2011.

Most of the common section of the first two metro lines (between De Brouckère metro station and Schuman station) was inaugurated on December 17, 1969 as premetro tramways, converted in 1976 to the first two lines of the metro, then considered as one line with two branches, between De Brouckère and Tomberg and De Brouckère and Beaulieu. The metro is administered by STIB/MIVB (French: Société des Transports Intercommunaux de Bruxelles, Dutch: Maatschappij voor het Intercommunaal Vervoer te Brussel). In 2011, the metro was used for 125.8 million journeys, and it was used for 138.3 million journeys in 2012. The metro is an important means of transport, connecting with six railway stations of the National Railway Company of Belgium, and many tram and bus stops operated by STIB/MIVB, and with Flemish De Lijn and Walloon TEC bus stops.

Brussels

Brussels (French: Bruxelles, [bʁysɛl]; Dutch: Brussel, [ˈbrʏsəl]), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (French: Région de Bruxelles-Capitale, Dutch: Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest), is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium, the French Community of Belgium, and the Flemish Community. The region has a population of 1.2 million and a metropolitan area with a population of over 1.8 million, the largest in Belgium.

Since the end of the Second World War, Brussels has been a major centre for international politics and has become the polyglot home of numerous international organisations, politicians, diplomats and civil servants. Brussels is the de facto capital (or one of three capitals including Luxembourg and Strasbourg) of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions. The secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are also located in Brussels.

Metro

Metro usually refers to:

Metro may also refer to:

Public transport

Metro station

A metro station or subway station is a railway station for a rapid transit system, often known by names such as "metro", "underground" and "subway". Such a station can be elevated, underground, or about ground level depending on the level of the train tracks. At crossings of metro lines, they are multi-level. There are entrances/exits at ground/street level, often with stairs or sometimes ramps or escalators leading to any elevated or lowered track level area.

At street level the logo of the metro company marks the entrance of the station, along with the schematics of the services at the station. Some metro operators also post the station name at the station entrance. Often there are several entrances for one station, saving one from having to cross the street. In such a case, tunnels or overhead stations can often also be used just to cross the street.

In some cases metro stations are connected to important buildings by a direct enclosed hallway (see underground city).

Guide book

A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place, designed for the use of visitors or tourists". Travel guides can also take the form of travel websites such as the free and open Wikivoyage.

It will usually include full details relating to accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying detail and historical and cultural information are often included. Different kinds of guide books exist, focusing on different aspects of travel, from adventure travel to relaxation, or aimed at travelers with different incomes, or focusing on sexual orientation or types of diet.

History

Antiquity

A forerunner of the guidebook was the periplus, an itinerary from landmark to landmark of the ports along a coast. A periplus such as the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea was a manuscript document that listed, in order, the ports and coastal landmarks, with approximate intervening distances, that the captain of a vessel could expect to find along a shore. This work was possibly written in the middle of the 1st century CE. It served the same purpose as the later Roman itinerarium of road stops.