In the message ...
"Michael Bell" wrote:

In article , Alan (in Brussels)
wrote:
Press clipping forwarded FYI, by Alan (in Brussels) :

The Subterranean Railway
by Christian Wolmar
351pp, Atlantic, £17.99
Saturday January 8, 2005
http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/...385492,00.html
[snip]
Wolmar's book will tell you, too, why the
Underground, like black cabs, barely ventures south of the river.

Do tell us. We have been wondering!

You'll have to buy the book (it's not explained in the review). BTW it seems
a pity that presumably the book wasn't available before the recent
present-giving deadline...

I wish I had seen the Brussels tram-subway while it still was that. A
wholly
different approach to underground transport, and probably much cheaper.

It's not too late - line 3 (partly down the tunnel formerly occupied by the
river Senne beneath the central boulevards) is still tram-only (now with
platforms on both sides of each track at the busiest stations, as part of
the upgrade for wheel-chair access) and will remain so even when the next
batch of trams are delivered. See the STIB's web site for the current
network plan etc. (www.stib.be ). IIRC you could take a Eurostar day-trip
and visit Transpole ( www.transpole.fr ) en route too...

SNIP

Regards,

- Alan (in Brussels)