About this journey

Lille-Flandres station in Lille anchors the southern end of this cross-border run. The station opened in 1842 as the Gare de Lille and was renamed in 1993 when Lille-Europe station opened nearby; its current building was constructed for the Chemin de Fer du Nord between 1869 and 1892 by architects Léonce Reynaud and Sydney Dunnett. From here, SNCB intercity services cross into Belgium, with trains reaching the Belgian network via routes such as the Kortrijk–Mouscron–Lille corridor and Belgian railway line 75.

The journey ends at Bruxelles-Midi / Brussel-Zuid station in Brussels, a station with a long history on this southern axis. A first south station near Place Rouppe dated from 1839, serving as terminus of a line toward Mons, Charleroi, and La Louvière in the Sillon industriel. The present station was inaugurated as a terminus in 1869 and became a through station only in 1952, when the North–South connection through Brussels was completed. Most of its current buildings were erected between 1939 and 1954 in post-war functionalist style, designed by Adrien and Yvan Blomme and Fernand Petit. Today Bruxelles-Midi is the busiest station in Belgium and the sole Brussels stop for Eurostar and TGV services, giving it a very different character from the compact, cross-border departure point at Lille-Flandres where this cab ride begins.