The ghost lines of the Métro de Charleroi, abandoned without ever being inaugurated
Subway networks are an important communication infrastructure in many cities, but in some they have been a nonsense.
The most scandalous case was that of the Cincinnati Subway, an entire metro network that was abandoned in 1928 without being inaugurated. In Europe we have similar cases of waste of public funds. We recently saw here the case of the Gaudí Station of the Barcelona Metro, built but never inaugurated. There is an even worse case in Belgium.
The Charleroi Metro (actually a semi-metro, with some sections above ground) was first planned in the 1960s as part of a project to provide five Belgian cities with their own metro networks: one in Brussels (which has its own administrative region), two in Flanders and two in Wallonia. Two of the planned cities (Liège in Wallonia and Ghent in Flanders) withdrew from the project.
Due to a policy of equal distribution of funds between Flanders and Wallonia, in order to avoid the traditional disputes between these two large regions of Belgium, Charleroi, with 421,000 inhabitants in its metropolitan area in 1970, found itself with funds equivalent to Antwerp, with 855,000 inhabitants. This led to poor planning of its metro.
Taking advantage of this excess of funds, the Charleroi Metro was planned with eight lines. However, the city lost population, falling to 392,000 inhabitants in its metropolitan area in 1995. In addition, in 1980, due to the excessive public debt caused by the policy of equal distribution of funds between Flanders and Wallonia, the Belgian government gave greater autonomy to the regions and Wallonia decided to cut back on the Charleroi Metro project.
Due to these cuts, the initial eight lines were reduced to one, which was opened in 1976, although three more lines were finally opened in 2012. The other four, already well advanced, were abandoned. There are now plans to open the fifth line in 2027.
Two years ago, The Tim Traveller posted an interesting video exploring the ghost lines of the Charleroi Metro and explaining their history:
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Main photo: Robert Glod.
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