Goodbye tram 90.

[franceslievens]

In October I'll celebrate a decade in Brussels. I came to this city in October 1997, having turned 18 that Summer, to study ethical philosophy at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. I stayed on campus that first year and together with metro-line 1a, tram 90 was my lifeline. It was the route to my sister's place. Where it would lead me in the other direction, I hadn't the faintest idea. I knew it eventualy ended up at Gare Midi, via a great big roundabout through the suburbs. There were always people getting on it at Gare du Nord and then realising it actualy went in the opposite direction and wouldn't take them straight to Gare Midi, which all the other trams (conveniently not called Gare Midi) did, when gotten on at the other platform.
Later tram 90 became the shortest way home, the link between my friends J. in one direction (living in Ghent now) and A. in the other (whose current place is three different means of public transport away), the place to spot monsters (as Amélie Nothomb mildly put it – she too lived in the vicinity of the long trajectory of tram 90). It's been there for me for almost 10 years: the double doors that have nearly crashed me more than once when I tried to climb in, the shaking seats, the sand that generates clouds of billowing smoke in the Summer. Oh, the sweaty bodies piled upon each other in the hotness that is the tram!
Tram 90 is no longer. As of yesterday they've changed its number, its path and its trams. Where once double doors and stairs prevented fat people from getting in, the low floors and wide doors of today's trams eradicate the climbing. A giant leap forward for public transport! But a sign of my time spent in this city that I can be nostalgic about it.

Comments

[lijability.livejournal.com]

Reading that took me back to my youth. I didn't have the intimate feeling you have for a transport route; but dad would take me down to see the trains with their old coal-fired engines stop at our town's depot (gare). Then when I was 6 passenger train service was to be curtailed on our road. Dad wanted me to have the experience of a train ride so he had mom take me on one of the last trains out of Vincennes. We only travelled as far north as Sullivan and part of that time we watched as dad drove along the highway in his pickup to Sullivan to pick us up. But I remember....

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

I never had such special memories about public transport until I came to live in Brussels and use for everything. Since the school pays for it, I use it. :-) And also when I was at uni I didn't have a car, so public transport was the way to go. The trams have always been very interesting for me. I had never seen one up close or been in one before my sister moved to Brussels. It was something very intriguing for me! And most of the tramlines do very long routes. You can see very different parts of the city by simply taking the tram from one place to the next.

But what a lovely memory you have! Parents do silly stuff for their children sometimes. It's usualt the stuff to remember. Thanks for sharing your memory. :-)

[lijability.livejournal.com]

Your most welcome - meeste welkom.... ;~)

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

Psst "graag gedaan" would be a better translation. ;-)

[lijability.livejournal.com]

Graag gedaan - it is then!

;~)