When trams feel they are nearing their end, they drive to Jumet, near Charleroi. That’s what you tend to think as you drive into the city on the A54 motorway and linger your gaze on what you see to your right. A dozen trams with shattered noses, smashed windows and a layer of mud over them. They look dead, and they are. Some tram sets are of the type Light Rail Vehicle (LRV), almost perfect copies of the former coastal tram. Built from 1981 by the then Belgian manufacturer BN.
The trams were part of a mega order according to the then applicable principle of the waffle iron policy: 49 for the coast and 54 for the light metro of Charleroi.
With its countless useless tunnels and metro stations built high in the air or deep underground that have been waiting for the first passenger to board or disembark for half a century, it is by far the largest national hotspot for urbex adventurers.
Bird’s Nest
Until 1989, regional bus and tram traffic was federally managed by the National Maatschappij Van Buurtspoorwegen (NMVB), the predecessor of De Lijn and the Walloon TEC. With a route of 67 kilometers, the same number of stops and a summer frequency of a tram every 10 minutes, there was a need for 49 trams at the seaside. In Charleroi, where metro works virtually came to a standstill from 1989 onwards, 15 would have more than sufficed. The order, 35 million francs (875,000 euros) per tram, temporarily filled the empty order books at BN. At Van Hool in Koningshooikt there were probably people recently who were homesick for that time.
Here we have the explanation for the tram cemetery in Jumet. Most of the trams that are languishing there have never transported a single passenger. An item in the hilarious RTBF program Journal des Travaux Inutiles, which can be found on YouTube, shows that there were no fewer than 35 in the mid-1980s. In one of the trams, which were still considered relatively new and “very modern”, journalist Jean-Claude Defossé came across a bird’s nest with a bird in it. Which made him conclude that these trams “are not completely useless”. In 1989, the Walloon government hoped to sell 25 of these trams to Tunis, but that did not happen.
Scrapped
De Lijn said goodbye to its virtually identical LRV coastal trams in September 2023 after more than 40 years. Unlike elephants, they did not go to Jumet. The entire fleet was replaced by a 48-fold new one, supplied by tram builder CAF from Zaragoza, Spain.
3 of the original 54 coastal trams were donated to the non-profit organization Meta, which plans nostalgic tourist outings with old trams. The 51 others? “They have been scrapped,” says spokesperson Frederik Wittock at De Lijn. “Parts have been sold to the TEC, as well as spare parts from the warehouse.”
In the meantime, the Walloon government received financial support from the European Union and partial completion of the light metro network could be announced. Of the European recovery plan after corona, 60 million euros will go to making the ghost stations on the metro line to Gilly ready for use again, for which the new GHdC hospital must be made easier to access. “We are on schedule,” assures director Véronique Benoit at the TEC in Charleroi. “47 LRV trams will also be completely renovated. What you saw from the highway were four decommissioned LRV trams and five even older S-type trams. We take out spare parts. In the long term, these trams will disappear.”
The renovation, at the French manufacturer Alstom in Fleurus, will cost 22 million euros and will proceed at a rate of 12 per year. In keeping with local tradition, the operation does not seem to go entirely according to plan. Spotters from the specialized magazine Tram 2000 were able to report in their April issue that the ninth renovated LRV tram, with serial number 7422, did not return to the depôt in Jumet until November 29, 2023. Serial number 7421 followed on February 5. Still 37 trams to go.
