Antwerp has an excellent public transport system with a long tradition. The first trams, horse drawn, started operating on 25th May 1873 from Berchem to Meir, which was and still is a largely pedestrianised wide shopping street. Different companies operated their own lines until 1902 when it was decided to electrify at 600V dc overhead, and all operations were changed to metre gauge. Electric trams started running on 2nd September 1902. The tramway has continued to flourish. Today it is part of De Lijn. This is a state owned company for the Flemish (Dutch speaking) part of Belgium, roughly 60% of the country. The services are operated by a mixture of PCC cars, coupled in pairs, and variations of Flexity 2 cars from 2002.
The fleet today
There are no more service trams in either Antwerp or Ghent as all breakdown and repair work is carried out using Mercedes Unimogs.
- 12 of the oldest PCC trams are still in service, (7007, 7008, 7022, 7045, 7054, 7056) and six which have even been adapted with the newest signal system
