De Lijn to permanently move buses out of North Station

De Lijn will leave the underground bus station at Brussels North station later this year, after long-running concerns about safety and hygiene.

The Flemish public transport operator temporarily stopped serving North Station twice in recent months, due to the migrants and other homeless people sleeping there.

The Brussels region has now approved the construction of two new bus stops at street level, on the Place du Nord outside the station.

"We have been asking for a solution for a long time," a De Lijn spokesman said. "But the issue with transit migrants has made it all the more urgent."

He added: "The current stops are dark and spread out. If you're there alone, it feels unsafe. Now we are putting all the stops together in one place."

Three months of building work will begin after the summer holidays. De Lijn said all routes serving Brussels North would operate normally during the works.

For more than a year, the bus terminus has been inhabited by transit migrants. De Lijn drivers had complained about human waste, bad smells and unsafe conditions.

De Lijn director Roger Kesteloot told VRT last November: "Our drivers are people, our passengers are people, and the transmigrants and homeless of Brussels are people. To be honest, the situation that is being allowed to continue is not the way you treat people."