The Brussels public transport company MIVB is to receive extra funding from the regional authorities in the capital to keep homeless people and drug users out of the city’s metro stations. Extra staff will be recruited whose job it will be to patrol the metro day and night. They will put rough sleepers and those that use drugs in touch with the relevant agencies that can offer them help.
The number of homeless people and drug users in the Brussels metro has been increasing for years. This causes passengers and MIVB staff to feel unsafe. Complaints concerning (perceived) issues with safety in metro stations have doubled during the past two years.
In a statement released on Tuesday the public transport company said that “The issue is detrimental to the attractiveness of public transport” Furthermore, the trains passing though the tunnels and the fact that 900 volts passes through the “third rail” that powers them pose a real danger to anyone that might decide to sleep rough in a metro tunnel. The metro is also part of the capital’s public transport network’s “critical infrastructure”.
MIVB also says that “The metro network is not a place where vagrants and addicts can be accommodated in an appropriate and humane fashion”.
Patrols around the clock
MIVB is following the example of the Paris public transport company RATP. The job of those patrolling the metro stations will be not only to deter rough sleepers and drug users, but also to put them in touch with agencies that can help them.
