130,000 people used Brussels public transport on New Year’s Eve
The Brussels public transport company MIVB says that around 130,000 people used its bus, tram and metro services during the evening and night of New Year’s Eve. The company’s spokeswoman Cindy Arents told journalists on Wednesday that according to preliminary figures the number of passengers that used MIVB services on New Year’s Eve 2019 was up by more than 13% of passenger numbers on New Year’s Eve 2018 when 115,000 people used the company’s metros, trams and busses.
The evening was not without incident though. A 21-year-old man that is in Belgium illegally was stabbed in the leg in a fight in front of the Beekkant metro station in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek at around 2:10am. He sought sanctuary in the station. The station was cordoned off while police carried out an investigation and search of the area where the stabbing took place.
MIVB also reports that one of its trams had its windows smashed in the city centres, two metro carriages were daubed with graffiti at the Erasmus Metro Station in Anderlecht and a bus shelter was trashed in the centre of Ukkel.