The Belgian railway line 26 is a

railway line Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...

connecting

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

to Halle in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. It first opened on July 19, 1926, between Schaarbeek and Watermael railway stations. The line was completed on January 3, 1930. It was conceived as a circumvention of Brussels before the

North–South connection The North–South connection (french: Jonction Nord-Midi, nl, Noord-Zuidverbinding) is a railway link of national and international importance through central Brussels, Belgium, that connects the major railway stations in the city. It is line ...

existed, which opened only in 1952. Today all passenger trains using the line travel from

Vilvoorde Vilvoorde (, french: Vilvorde ; historically known as ''Filford'' in English) is a Belgian municipality in the Flemish province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality comprises the city of Vilvoorde proper with its two outlying quarters of Koningslo ...

on a branch line called 26/1 and not from Schaarbeek, to various destinations South of Brussels. The line carries (parts of) several services of the GEN/RER: S4, S5, S7, S9. Some of these use the

Schuman-Josaphat tunnel The Schuman-Josaphat tunnel is a double track rail tunnel in Brussels, which entered into service on 4 April 2016. It links line 161 (Brussels-Namur) just after Meiser station and line 26 (Halle-Vilvoorde) at the Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark tunne ...

, which branches off just South of Meiser station. The line serves the following stations: * Schaarbeek * Haren * Bordet *

Evere Evere (, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region (Belgium). On 1 January 2006, the municipality had a total population of 33,462. The total area is which gives a population density of . In common with all of Brussels' m ...

* '' Schaarbeek-Josaphat'' *

Meiser Meiser ( ar, ميسر; he, מֵיסִר, also known as Shaykh Maysar or Khirbat Maysar) is an Arab village in northern Israel. Located half a kilometre west of the Green Line, north of the city of Baqa al-Gharbiyye in the triangle area of Wadi ...

* Merode * ''Etterbeek-Cinquantenaire'' *

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also ...

* Boondael * Vivier d’Oie / Diesdelle * Saint-Job * Moensberg * Beersel * Huizingen * Halle Schaarbeek-Josaphat is no longer an operational station, it was a freight yard very near the present

Evere railway station Evere railway station is a railway station in Brussels, Belgium, in the municipality of Evere Evere (, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region (Belgium). On 1 January 2006, the municipality had a total population of 3 ...

. Etterbeek-Cinquantenaire was also a freight station, it is now closed and (mostly) filled in.

References

26 26 Railway lines opened in 1926 Standard gauge railways in Belgium {{Europe-rail-transport-stub