Métro Léger de Charleroi | Ugliest metro in the world | Grand travail inutile | Premetro | Belgium 

Charleroi for some reason gives me the vibe of a North American city that lost all it's glory.

This system is in a better shape than in 1991 when the vicinal trams company closed and the TEC herited from it. Basically the vicinals refused to invest anything in Charleroi after around 1985. And yes that meant not even maintaining the trams that were then brand new (they were put into service between 1980 and 82, some went to the Belgian Coast Tram, others to Charleroi). When the TEC was formed and took over the service, they managed to restore about 15 trams rusting in some sidings, but that also meant they couldn't form multiple units as the trams were all rewired differently. They also managed to open 2 of the 3 never opened lines. After 30 years of restoring the system to at least a functioning state, funding from the EU and the construction of a new hospital near the last never opened line finally started the work needed to restore that last line. And Alstom is completely rebuilding the 1980's BN tram from scratch basically (since this tram have a very unique loading gauge and any change would make the tram not be able to pass some spots). Although the new design choice by Alstom isn't very good looking, this and the new line will still finally bring some life back in this system. Personnally I think this tram network is quite bad looking and you can feel very insecure in those stations, especially when you know that Charleroi is one of the cities with the highest crime rate in Belgium. It is in great need for those improvements.

I don't think this is ugly at all, I like it!

Wow that's depressing. Tho you have to say, some stations look atleast ok or have an interesting design. But seeing this low ridership and single car trains with station platforms six times the length of it...

That diamond crossing in the tunnel is kinda cool.

Welkom in charloroi waar wij een metro bouwen omdat het kan

1) Belgium is an awesome country with pretty blah railway infrastructure to begin with (with a couple of notable exceptions); 2) I believe that most of this system dates from the 1970’s, which is the ugliest decade in the history of architecture; 3) Charleroi is one of western Europe’s most distressed cities so they’re obviously struggling to make improvements. At least it’s not dangerous as some US systems are.

It once was a great tramwaynetwork which I had the pleasure of riding in the early 80's, then the industry closed and this metro came...

Compare this to ,for example, the stadtbahn system of Bielefeld in Germany (which is also a relatively small city). That's a night and day difference.

I think you’re exaggerating, it’s not that ugly and definitely not the ugliest in the world

My nephew loves this tramway and the landscapes surroundings ❤ it’s absolutely not depressing it’s just an old industrial city still living

At least Charleroi has a tram system still. In the UK most urban tram tracks were ripped up in the 1930s onwards. Some systems (Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield etc.) have been built or rebuilt since, but few smaller cities or towns have them now. In the Medway Towns in Kent (population in excess of 200,000) where I grew up and lived until about 15 years ago, there was once a fairly extensive tram network. But it was destroyed prior to World War 2. Now the place is clogged up with cars and smelly diesel buses.

This is similar to Liège, where the steel mill closed. It makes me sad to see, these industrial regions laid to waste, I wish there was a way to get them up and running again, bring the wealth back in.

It looks sad....especially the pre-metro stations. But at the moment signs are sort of in the good direction: some station are being refurbished, a line M5 is to be opened in reasonable time and the almost 40 years old trams, which are giving a very smooth ride, are undergoing a renovation so they can run at least 5-10 more years. Time will tell if this all is enough to safe the system in the future.

Such a smooth turn 1:27

I think is quite good compared to something like the vologograd and Philadelphia premetro/metotrams

They are working before the train station so the tramways don't turn around the city center till next year. They are turning back in station Vilette and station Tirou on the other side. By the way, all the tramways will be refurbished one by one in the coming months.

The jingle😍

I love the stations especially the underground ones! And the BN LRVs too

That's a lil uncool to coin it the ugliest network They are not very affluent but had and still have good intentions to make public transit available to the people and with the advent of the extensions are making the most out of a difficult situation

In the end the result of 'Waffle iron policy' between Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels

We should really start separating the words "ugly" and "neglected". Just because we let something fall into disrepair doesn't make it ugly.

toppie !! daar reden er was oude kusttrams die eerst reden aan de Belgische kust en dan naar Charleroi gingen , top!! there were old coastal trams that first drove on the Belgian coast and then went to Charleroi

Well, many things come together when you talk about Charleroi and its infrastructure. In general, the city suffered and still suffers from false decisions, political arguments and economic decline. For example: waffle iron politics made Wallonia build infrastructure in and around Charleroi, that is does not even need - for example the R9 highway ring road around the city, but also the metro stations that sometimes are so far away from buildings and neighborhoods, that nobody uses it - as you can see. There are some exceptions like the relatively newly built M3 service to Gosselies-Faubourg, following the Main Street from Charleroi to Gosselies. But yeah, it's an infrastructure for a million-metropole city with old, edgy, mini-trams that appear "lost" in this heavy beton viaducts and bridges. They might have thought in the 60s and early 70s that the City is about to shine due to the success of coal and steel industry - but this was not true, as we know now. The results: 25 % rate of unemployment, environment and skyline-destroying oversized viaducts and an entirely ugly, dirty city. But hey, at least there is Rive Gauche now...

If this was a proper metro would would there be more coverage and standard gauge tracks? Did they plan on this being pre metro to eventually become a true metro?

There is an English word for how this looks - grim! It is good to see some effort has been made at some stations but the whole thing needs some work. Everything just looks dated.

Mooie video 👍

Looks Nicer than a lot of American System's

This is the system with the infamous line M5 that is just about fully built, but never opened. The stations on that line "Chét" and "Pensée" are actually accessible to anyone willing to take the risk of urban exploring. These are fully built, then immediately abandoned stations with platforms, escalators, and even signage in a few spots. Apparently line M5 is supposed to be touched up and opened by 2026. Unsurprisingly, work hasn't started yet, so we'll see... It's odd that the line was even rescheduled for opening again given that the city's population is still declining. Bonus points for anyone that looks up another of this system's oddities. On the east side of the system, (line M4 and the ghost line M5) the tracks switch. Look up why for another laugh, lol 😂

Charleroi where they 'M' stands for 'Misère' instead of 'Metroline'. One positive: the TEC livry colours is much more attractive and vibrant than the dull almost colourless white-black-grey-yellow of De Lijn.

Finnely someone kan make en nice video of charleroi metro

The only metro that closes at 7pm.

Damn, the rails are loud!!!

Cool

That first station looked like it was abandoned.

Not true, cars with one person on average in each vehicle taking up vast amounts of space are far more ugly

My Godmother lives in Charleroi, some stations are really depressed of the metro and the train stations, I'm lucky I don't have to take the metro when I go to my Godmother.

0:27 of course the escalator doesn't work

Hello, Charleroi ? The 1980s called. They want their urban decay back.

и тут я понял,что Кривой Рог не безнадёжен....

Immernoch dieses schnelle zoomen,wo einem schwindelig wird 👎

Smart people should work for the city i can live without them

The titel is true. This "metro" system is terrible. They have built it... and neglected it! And I can say that. Because I was there.

En dire un tram

The hole City of Charleroi is so uglie...😵

FAKE, this was actually filmed in Mariupol after the Russian invasion

une ville socialiste quoi