Three-quarters of Brussels residents favour an expansion of the capital's metro network through the building of a new line, according to a recent poll.
Out of 1,200 Brussels residents polled, 75% of them said they wanted the capital's metro offering to be beefed up and said they were looking forward to the inauguration of metro line 3.
Support for the new line, which has been in the works since August, jumped to over 80% among residents in areas with little or no metro service.
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The capital's third metro line will link together the municipality of Evere, in the northernmost tip of Brussels, to the south, cutting through central areas like Rogier, Bourse or the lively Parvis de Saint-Gilles, before ending in Albert station, in the municipality of Forest.
The survey, carried out by Leuven-based consultancy Indiville for federal building agency Beliris, was welcomed by mobility and public transport officials, who said the results showed residents supported plans for expansion.
"If some people still had doubts, this survey clearly shows that the extension of the metro is necessary and is especially useful for a majority of Brussels residents," Brieuc de Meeûs, CEO of public transport company STIB told Bruzz. "So the future metro line 3 makes sense."
In October, mobility authorities announced that works on the new line were six months late on schedule, a delay partly pinned on the coronavirus crisis.
The survey also showed that while private cars remain the most popular form of transport among Brussels residents, a quarter of those who said they did not use the metro said it was because they didn't have a station nearby.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
