National light rail company
The Nationale Kleinbahngesellschaft (NKG), Nationale Maatschappij van Buurtspoorwegen (NMVB, Dutch) or Société nationale des chemins de fer vicinaux (SNCV, French) was a state-owned company that operated narrow-gauge railways, trams and bus routes in Belgium .
history
Start time
The NKG was founded in 1884. Its task was to open up the regions of Belgium with public transport that could not be reached by the state railways. In 1885 it opened the first line between Ostend and Nieuwport . This route is still in operation today as part of the coastal tram. The railway lines were built as narrow-gauge lines with a gauge of 1000 mm and were mostly single-track on the side of existing roads. They were initially operated with steam locomotives, from 1894 the first lines were electrified. In 1910 the length of the entire network was already 3786 km. The absolute climax was reached in 1925 with a length of 5200 km.
Decline in rail traffic
With the competition of the bus, the decline of rail traffic began. The outdated rolling stock and the increasingly unfavorable location of many routes with the onset of car traffic also accelerated the closures. The length of the route sank over 4,250 km in 1950 to 978 km in 1960. After the closure of the network north of Brussels in 1978, only the line on the North Sea coast and a network around the industrial city of Charleroi remained .
In 1977 the national bus routes, which had previously been operated by the NMBS / SNCB state railway, were handed over to the NKG.
Split and end
In 1991 the NKG was split along the border between the two regions of Flanders and Wallonia. The new De Lijn transport company was established in Flanders . This took over the coastal tram and bus routes in Flanders from NKG, as well as the previously urban tram networks in Antwerp and Ghent . The TEC transport company was founded in Wallonia . Since then he has operated the metro in Charleroi and the Walloon bus routes. The third region of Belgium, the bilingual capital region of Brussels , has since been served by both the Flemish De Lijn and the Walloon TEC - in addition to the MIVB / STIB , the region's own transport company .
Electrified networks
The electrification of the most important routes resulted in several tram networks, some of which were interconnected. These were operated independently of the urban trams (in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi, Liège and Verviers). These networks were gradually shut down after the Second World War :
- Leuven: 1962
- Eupen: 1957
- Antwerp: 1968
- Limburg Province: 1958
- Ghent: 1959
- Liege: 1961
- Kortrijk: 1963
- Namur: 1963
- Mons: 1973
- Brussels: 1978
The only remnants of the former SNCV network are:
- The Kusttram , the route along the North Sea coast between Knokke and De Panne.
- The routes that went up in the Charleroi Metro . The majority of the metro network consists of new lines built from 1976. As the only original SNCV line, only a 3 km long line in Anderlues, a western suburb of Charleroi, is operated for passenger traffic.
Museum heritage
Various museums in Belgium own SNCV rail vehicles, including the Liège Transport Museum in Liège .
- The line Lobbes - Thuin or belonging, but not electrified, Thuin - Biesme-sous-Thuin west of Charleroi with trams and diesel vehicles as well are operated as a museum railway
- the Tramway Touristique de l'Aisne between Érezée and Lamorménil in the Ardennes with diesel vehicles.
- The Han tram, which was originally part of the SNCV network , is also used by tourists to develop the Han-sur-Lesse cave .
Web links
- mécénat pour le Vicinal (Tramania asbl) (English and French)
- archives photographiques sur le Vicinal (Tramania asbl) (English and French)
- ASVi (Center de découverte du Chemin de fer vicinal) (English, French and Dutch)
- TTA ou Tramway Touristique de l'Aisne (French and Dutch)
- site du Vicinal de Han-sur-Lesse (French)
- Site de Trolleybus & trams de Belgique et d'ailleurs ... (French)
- Tram trips: Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Vicinaux (SNCV)
- Early documents and newspaper articles to Vicinal tramway in the 20th century press the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ^ Ministry of the Walloon Region 2002: The National Small Railway Company and its history