Gent-Sint-Pieters railway station (Dutch: Station Gent-Sint-Pieters, French: Gare de Gand-Saint-Pierre)[a] is the main railway station in Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium, and the fourth-busiest in Belgium and busiest in Flanders, with 17.65 million passengers a year.[1] The station is operated by the National Railway Company of Belgium (NMBS/SNCB).[2]
Railway Station | |
General information | |
Location | Koningin Maria Hendrikaplein, 9000 Ghent Belgium |
Coordinates | 51°02′07″N 3°42′35″E / 51.03528°N 3.70972°E |
Owned by | NMBS/SNCB |
Operated by | NMBS/SNCB |
Line(s) | 50, 50A, 58, 59, 75 |
Platforms | 12 |
Tracks | 12 |
Construction | |
Bicycle facilities | 17,000 (under construction) |
Other information | |
Station code | GSTP |
History | |
Opened | 1912 |
Rebuilt | 2010–present |
Passengers | |
2018 | 16.7 million |
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The origins of the railway station is a small station on the Ghent–Ostend line in 1881. At that time, the main railway station of Ghent was the South railway station, built in 1837. At the occasion of the 1913 International Exposition in Ghent, a new Sint-Pieters railway station was built. It was designed by the architect Louis Cloquet and finished in 1912 just before the World's Fair.
The station was built in an eclectic style with a long corridor dividing the building in its length which provides access to diverse facilities. A tunnel (designed by ir. P. Grondy) starting from the entrance hall provides access to the twelve platforms. This gives the station its cross-form design. The original waiting rooms for second and third-class passengers now serve as a buffet and restaurant.
The station was classified in 1995. In 1996, the station was renovated, with the renovation of the interior of the western wing completed in 1998. The station was served by a daily Thalys high-speed rail service to Paris between 1998 and 31 March 2015.[3]
In 2004, the Project Gent-Sint-Pieters was announced as part of a bigger plan to renovate line 50A between Ghent and Bruges. The reconstructions were planned between 2007 and 2022 and included:
The work is necessary to make the station more accessible and to increase capacity as the number of passengers grows every year. This eventually will lead to the removal of several period features that are not part of the classified main building, like the platform canopies, waiting rooms, and the tunnel by P. Grondy.
Because of the restriction of Ghent's car traffic circulation in 2017, the amount of commuters using a bicycle grew. The plans were adjusted accordingly to build 17,000 bicycle parking spots in total.[5]
The station is served by the following services:
Preceding station | NMBS/SNCB | Following station | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Brugge towards Oostende
|
IC 01 | Bruxelles-Midi / Brussel-Zuid towards Eupen
| ||
IC 02 | Gent-Dampoort towards Antwerpen-Centraal
| |||
Aalter towards Blankenberge or Knokke
|
IC 03 | Bruxelles-Midi / Brussel-Zuid towards Genk
| ||
Waregem towards Lille-Flandres or Poperinge
|
IC 04 | Gent-Dampoort towards Antwerpen-Centraal
| ||
De Pinte towards Kortrijk
|
IC 12 weekdays, except holidays
|
Bruxelles-Midi / Brussel-Zuid towards Welkenraedt
| ||
IC 12 weekends
|
Terminus | |||
Terminus | IC 20 weekdays, except holidays
|
Merelbeke towards Tongeren
| ||
IC 20 weekends
|
Merelbeke towards Lokeren
| |||
Aalter towards Brugge
|
IC 23A | Bruxelles-Midi / Brussel-Zuid towards Brussels National Airport
| ||
Terminus | IC 28 | Gent-Dampoort towards Antwerpen-Centraal
| ||
Drongen towards Zeebrugge-Dorp
|
L 02 weekdays, except holidays
|
Merelbeke towards Mechelen
| ||
Drongen towards Zeebrugge-Strand
|
L 02 weekends
|
Terminus | ||
Gentbrugge towards Eeklo
|
L 05 weekdays, except holidays
|
De Pinte towards Ronse or Kortrijk
| ||
L 05 weekends
|
De Pinte towards Ronse
| |||
Terminus | L 25 | Merelbeke towards Geraardsbergen
| ||
L 28 weekends
|
Kwatrecht towards Mechelen
|