The new Mons station will be put into service on December 18, 183 years after the first. This is what the so-called “Calatrava” station looks like.
The new Mons station will be put into service on Wednesday December 18, 2024, announced SNCB. The new station, called “Calatrava”, will also be officially inaugurated on January 31, 2025, as part of the “Mons en Lumières” festival.
The new infrastructure, which was to be inaugurated in 2015, is the fourth version of the Mons station. The first station, located on the current Place Léopold and which was located on the new “Midi line” between Brussels, the French border via Quiévrain to Paris, was put into service on December 19, 1841. This first building had been replaced by a new one, almost 200 meters long, put into service in 1874. Destroyed by American bombing on May 10, 1944, this second station had been replaced by a new infrastructure inaugurated in 1952. This building was closed to travelers in March 2013: its demolition began three months later, as part of a desire for modernization.
The initial project entrusted to the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava was a footbridge above the quays connecting the historic heart of Mons with the new Grands Prés district. This project evolved into that of a “bridge station”, which required the demolition of the 1950s station.
The initial budget for the work was 37 million euros. The latest estimate announced in November by the director of SNCB stations, Patrick Couchard, in the Chamber’s “Mobility” committee, was 480 million euros. Annual maintenance is estimated at nearly one million euros.
Mons station sncb Calatrava station Santiago Calatrava Mons
Belgium
