Mons railway station

Last updated

Mons
SNCB logo.svg
Railway Station
Station Mons 2022.jpg
New station under construction in 2022
General information
Location Mons, Hainaut
Belgium
Coordinates 50°27′15″N3°56′30″E / 50.45408°N 3.94176°E / 50.45408; 3.94176
Owned by SNCB/NMBS
Operated by SNCB/NMBS
Line(s) 96, 97, 118
Platforms7
Tracks21
Other information
Station codeFMS
History
Opened19 December 1841;182 years ago (1841-12-19)
Passengers
20098,556 per day
Mons railway station
Location
Belgium location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Mons
Location within Belgium
Europe blank laea location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Mons
Mons (Europe)

Mons railway station (French : Gare de Mons; Dutch : Station Bergen) [lower-alpha 1] is a railway station in Mons, Hainaut, Belgium. The station opened on 19 December 1841 on railway lines 96, 97 and 118. The train services are operated by the National Railway Company of Belgium (SNCB/NMBS). [1]

Contents

The station was served by a daily Thalys high-speed rail service to Paris between 1998 and 31 March 2015. [2]

History

First station (1841–1874)

The first station in Mons was opened on 19 December 1841. The inauguration of the first railway line in Belgium between Brussels and Mechelen dates back to 1835. King Leopold I and the Belgian Government pushed the railways to develop, to cross the Belgian borders. In Hainaut, a huge network of industrial lines was created. The main lines, both state and private, approached Mons. The original building, inaugurated in 1842, was located on the current site of the Place Léopold. The exponential evolution of the railway very quickly rendered the first station insufficient, and 30 years after its construction, it was replaced by a new one.

Second station (1874–1952)

The second Mons railway station (1874), pictured during the 1930s Gare de Mons 1930.JPG
The second Mons railway station (1874), pictured during the 1930s

A new station was built and put into service in 1874, this new and majestic infrastructure built in the neo-Romanesque style was designed by the engineer Van Der Sweep. It had a central body surmounted by a large clock framed by statues representing Commerce and Industry, and on either side, two long wings whose facades were decorated with numerous bays surmounted by sixteen coats of arms symbolising the province and the main towns of the country. A large iron and glass canopy also covered the 8 lines serving Mons at the back of the station. The building and its glass roof were severely damaged at the end of the Second World War during bombing raids by the American army on 10 May 1944. A complete reconstruction was necessary. After a short rehabilitation, it was demolished and replaced, in successive phases, by a more modern building, inaugurated in 1952.

Third station (1952–2013)

Minister Achille Van Acker laid the foundation stone for the new station on 8 December 1947. The station was inaugurated in 1952 and was designed by René Panis, a French architect from Montpellier. The building had a Soignies stone cladding on all four facades, as well as an imposing clock in a typical 1950s style.

The station contained a superb fresco by Jacques D'Hondt in its main hall or salle des pas perdus (literally meaning "room of the lost steps"). [3] Perched about 10 metres (33 ft) above the ground, it offered, on three walls, an overview of the socio-cultural and folkloric life of the Mons-Borinage region. The work was commissioned as part of the festivities for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (Expo 58). It was designed by the local painter and decorator Jacques D'Hondt, who produced it on wooden panels. Damaged by time, the work was replaced in May 2001, for the 75th anniversary of the SNCB, by a new fresco created by the Turkish artist Dogan Cakir, who had notably decorated the Thalys reception hall in Brussels-South railway station. The station also contained magnificent stained glass windows, the work of Zéphyr Busine and Georges Boulmant, as well as reliefs sculpted in Soignies stone by Raoul Godfroid. The 1952 station was definitively closed on 24 March 2013, after 61 years of existence, and was demolished at the end of June 2013 to make way for a new project signed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

New station

The new station under construction in October 2022. The photo was taken from the temporary footbridge. GareMonsOctobre22.jpg
The new station under construction in October 2022. The photo was taken from the temporary footbridge.

In 2004, the SNCB decided to undertake a major modernisation of the site by refocusing the station on passenger transport. It entrusted Euro Liège TGV (which became Eurogare in 2010) with the tasks of studying and monitoring the resulting works. The preliminary project studies, on the rail infrastructure and passenger reception aspects, highlighted a series of objectives in terms of rail transport; these include to reduce the number of sidings and goods depots in order to enhance the commercial and passenger reception potential; to free up space in order to allow the site to be crossed and the double accessibility of the station to be achieved; to standardise the length of the platforms (350 m) and their width (8.50 m) and to adapt the route of line 118 (Walloon backbone) in order to increase the speed of entry to the station. [4]

In terms of passenger reception, the aim is to improve the quality of the reception infrastructure and meet current standards for people with reduced mobility; to facilitate access to the platforms from the square and the car parks; to optimise accessibility to the station and intermodality; to link the historic centre of Mons and the Grands Prés site; to develop a car park with a minimum capacity of 800 spaces and to make the most of the land freed up in connection with the station (Charles-Quint and Gendebien boulevards).

In order to develop a quality, innovative project, integrating the functional, architectural, urban planning and environmental dimensions set out in the identification of objectives, Eurogare decided to call on an external architectural firm and launched a competition in January 2006 (contract notice at Belgian and European level). [4] The aim of this competition was to produce an architectural and urban design sketch for the general development of the station site. This development includes a landscaped car park, an overhead link between the Place Léopold, the station and the Grands Prés site, including the service to the platforms via existing and future accesses. At the end of this competition, the design of this complex was entrusted to the engineer and architect Santiago Calatrava, and in October 2006, the sketch model of this first act of the modernisation of the Mons site was made public. Calatrava had to build his station while leaving the 1952 station intact. This was a quality that distinguished him from the other candidates in the 2006 competition. The 1952 station was then destined to disappear, according to the SNCB, the project has "evolved", "matured".

The renovation was initially planned to cost €37 million in 2006 for a general development of the station site that did not include the railway infrastructure and the redevelopment of the passenger building, but which envisaged the construction of a footbridge leading to the Grands Prés - Shopping de Wallonie commercial area. This project became over the years that of a fully modernised "gateway station" requiring much heavier investments amounting to €150 million in 2012, [5] €263 million in 2017, [6] €324 million in 2020 [7] and €332 million in 2022 while the Court of Audit published a report highlighting several irregularities in the evolution of the project. [8] [9]

The new "gateway station" was originally planned to be opened at the beginning of 2015, [10] [11] but due to numerous delays caused by the bankruptcy of various parties, it will probably only be opened in 2023. In the meantime, passengers have to use a temporary station. This is made of assembled containers and can accommodate 100,000 passengers per week. The prefabricated elements are of the same type as those used for the temporary station in Liège-Guillemins. [12]

Since 2015, the provisional station no longer accommodates the TGV to Paris, which used to take 1 hour 20 minutes, because the Thalys company, which manages the line, decided to "sacrifice" the line Namur-Charleroi-Mons-Paris as it was considered too unprofitable. Travellers wishing to go to the French capital are forced to go via Brussels or Lille.

Traveller services

The P2 car park which opened in April 2022 GareMonsP2.jpg
The P2 car park which opened in April 2022

The SNCB station has a temporary passenger building made of assembled containers with ticket offices, open every day. Facilities, equipment and services are available for people with reduced mobility. A footbridge connects the old town with the new commercial and offices area of Les Grands Près. A new underground car park, the P2 opened in April 22 and a similar one, the P1, is expected to open in 2023.

Train services

The station is served by the following services:

Preceding station SNCB logo.svg NMBS/SNCB Following station
Terminus IC 06A Jurbise
Jemappes
towards Quiévrain
IC 14
weekdays
Jurbise
Saint-Ghislain IC 19 La Louvière-Sud
towards Namur
Terminus IC 25
weekdays, except holidays
La Louvière-Sud
towards Herstal
Jemappes
towards Mouscron
IC 25
weekends
La Louvière-Sud
towards Liers
Saint-Ghislain
towards Quiévrain
L 18
weekends
Terminus
Frameries
towards Quévy
L 26
weekdays, except holidays
Nimy
Terminus L 26
weekends
Jemappes
towards Tournai
L 29
weekdays, except holidays
Ghlin
Terminus L 29
weekends
Erbisoeul
Preceding station TER Hauts-de-France Following station
TerminusKrono
K81
Aulnoye-Aymeries
Terminus

See also

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References

Footnotes

  1. Officially Mons (French: Mons; Dutch: Bergen)

Citations

  1. "MONS". www.belgianrail.be. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  2. "Thalys doet laatste keer Oostende en Namen aan". De Standaard.
  3. "Mons: Jacques Dhondt, créateur de la fresque de la gare, est décédé". sudinfo.be (in French). 13 August 2013. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  4. 1 2 "La Gare de Mons, le temps de la réflexion avant les travaux". eurogare.be (in French). Archived from the original on 9 October 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  5. "La future gare de Mons coûtera plus cher que prévu". RTBF (in French). Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  6. U.P (6 November 2023). "Gare de Mons: pourquoi elle sera plutôt ouverte fin 2019 (voire plus tard)". lavenir.net (in French). Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  7. "La gare de Mons à 324 millions: le dessous des chiffres". Le Soir (in French). 23 December 2020. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  8. "Details | Court of Audit". www.ccrek.be. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  9. "Concours truqué, irrégularités dans le marché public, manque de transparence : la gare de Mons dans le viseur de la Cour des comptes". RTBF (in French). Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  10. Belga (6 November 2023). "Gare de Mons : les travaux de démolition du bâtiment principal ont commencé". lavenir.net (in French). Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  11. "Mons: la future gare va grandir de 17 mètres, ce jeudi". sudinfo.be (in French). 24 August 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  12. M.P (6 November 2023). "Découvrez la gare provisoire de Mons". lavenir.net (in French). Retrieved 6 November 2023.