| Antwerp-Central Railway Station |
|
|---|---|
| Station statistics | |
| Address | Koningin Astridplein, Antwerp |
| Lines | 4, 12, 25, 52, 59 |
| Levels | 4 |
| Platforms | 24 |
| Other information | |
| Opened | 1905-08-11 |
| Code | ANTC |
| Owned by | National Railway Company of Belgium |
Antwerpen-Centraal (Antwerp Central) is the name of the main railway station in the Belgian city of Antwerp. The station is operated by the national railway company NMBS.
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The original station building was constructed between 1895 and 1905 as a replacement for the original terminus of the Brussels-Mechelen-Antwerp Railway. The stone clad terminus buildings, with a vast dome above the waiting room hall were designed by Louis Delacenserie and the vast (185 metres long and 44 metres high) iron and glass trainshed by Clement van Bogaert. The viaduct into the station is also a notable structure designed by local architect Jan Van Asperen.
The station is now widely regarded as the finest example of railway architecture in Belgium, although the extraordinary eclecticism of the influences on Delacenserie's design had led to a difficulty in assigning it to a particular architectural style. In W. G. Sebald's novel Austerlitz an ability to appreciate the full range of the styles that might have influenced Delacensiere is used to demonstrate the brilliance of the fictional architectural historian who is the novel's protagonist.
In 2009 the American magazine Newsweek judged Antwerpen-Centraal the world's fourth greatest train station.[1]
In 1998 large-scale reconstruction work began to convert the station from a terminus to a through station. A new tunnel has been excavated between Berchem station in the south of the city and Antwerpen-Dam station in the north, passing under Central station, with platforms on two underground levels. This will allow Thalys, HSL 4 and HSL-Zuid high-speed trains to travel through Antwerp Central without the need to turn around (the previous layout obliged Amsterdam-Brussels trains to call only at Berchem or reverse at Central).
The major elements of the construction project are now complete, and the first through trains ran on 25 March 2007.
This complete project has cost approximately €1.6 billion.
The station has four levels and 14 tracks arranged as follows:
| Preceding station | NMBS/SNCB | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
toward Paris-Nord
|
Thalys |
toward Amsterdam Centraal
|
||
|
toward Amsterdam Centraal
|
Thalys (winter) |
toward Bourg-Saint-Maurice
|
||
|
Mechelen
toward Brussels-South
|
Intercity 9200 |
toward Amsterdam Centraal
|
||
|
Antwerpen-Oost
toward Roosendaal
|
NMBS Stoptrein 2700 | Terminus |
A staged "flash mob"-like event at the station in early 2009 became a viral video, and featured the song Do-Re-Mi from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. It was performed by 200 dancers of various ages, along with several dozen waiting passengers who just jumped in and joined the dance themselves. The video was produced to publicize Op zoek naar Maria, the Belgian TV version of the BBC talent competition program How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, about the search for an actress to play the lead role in a stage revival of The Sound of Music.[2]
The station is used in Agatha Christie's Poirot episode "The Chocolate Box" to represent a station in Brussels.
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Antwerp_Central_Station Antwerp Central Station] at Wikimedia Commons