The Greater Ring in Brussels, Belgium (French: Grande Ceinture, Dutch: Grote Ring) is a set of roads in the shape of a ring, intermediate between the small ring and the main Brussels ring. This set of roads is numbered R21 and is long of about 30 km, for 8 km to the small ring and 80 to the main ring.
It crosses two highways (A12 and E40-east) and offers a connection to the E40-west at Basilique/Basiliek via Avenue Charles Quint/Keizer Karellaan, to the E19-north and A201 at Leopold III via Avenue Leopold III/Leopold III Laan, to the E411 at Arsenal via Boulevard du Triomphe/Triumflaan and to the E19-south at Paepsem via Boulevard Industriel/Industrielaan.
This road passes through tunnels (the Boileau tunnel, Montgomery tunnel, Georges Henri tunnel), on bridges and viaducts (e.g. Diamant viaduct, Teichmann bridge and Van Praet bridge) and under bridges and viaducts (e.g. Luttre bridge). Among those bridges, 7 are used to cross railroads and 2 are used to cross the Brussels-Scheldt Maritime Canal. Tunnels and the Diamant viaduct are used to avoid crossroads. The greater ring runs along many parks: the Royal Domain, the Josaphat park, the Forest park, the Astrid park, the Scheutbos park, the Elisabeth park, the Jeugdpark and the Laeken park. It also crosses the Bois de la Cambre.
The road goes through 14 municipalities out of the 19 which form the Brussels Capital Region: City of Brussels, Schaerbeek, Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Etterbeek, Ixelles, Uccle, Forest, Saint-Gilles (only when riding counterclockwise), Anderlecht, Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Koekelberg, Ganshoren (only when riding counterclockwise) and Jette.
The greater ring counts 15 main crossroads with other main roads in Brussels. Starting from the north and going clockwise, those crossroads are:
The roads that form the greater ring are the following, starting from the Gros Tilleul/Dikke Linde crossroad and going clockwise:
At this point the greater ring is discontinued but can be joined via Boulevard Briand Aristide/Briand Aristidelaan, Avenue Eugène Ysaÿe/Eugène Ysayelaan and Avenue Théo Verbeeck/Théo Verbeecklaan. Then the greater ring resumes:
The greater ring is extensively used by public transport. Between Boileau and Diamant, 4 underground tram stations (Boileau, Montgomery, Georges Henry and Diamant) are connected by a tunnel for trams, which lies under the greater ring. This tunnel is used by tram routes 7 and 25. Albert underground tram station is also located under the greater ring at the Albert crossroad, where the tram routes 3 and 4 join the greater ring, route 3 stopping 3 stops later at Churchill whereas route 4 leave the ring two stops later at Vanderkindere.
Tram route 7 (previously 23/24) actually starts at stop Vanderkindere and follows the greater ring up to Gros Tilleul, only to leave the greater ring after having crossed the Royal Domain to end at Heysel. This makes it the route which drives the most along the ring. Old route 24 also started at Vanderkindere and ran up to Princesse Elisabeth stop only to terminate at the next stop at Schaerbeek railway station. Route 25 joins the ring at Buyl stop coming from Boondael railway station, follows it up to Meiser stop and terminates at Rogier metro station.
Bus route 49 follows the ring on two occasions, first as it joins the Rue du Pont de Luttre at stop Wiels, coming from Brussels South railway station. It then leaves the ring at stop Veeweyde metro station, to come back at stop Peterbos up to stop Leopold I.
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