Brussels-South railway station

Geschiedenis

Brussels-South is the biggest railway station in Brussels, capital of Belgium. As Brussels is a bilingual entity, both the French and Dutch names are official. This often leads to the usage of combined shorthands outside Belgium: for example in the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable, Brussels-South is designated as \"Brussels Midi/Zuid\"; Dutch Railways announce the station as \"Brussel Zuid/Midi\". 1,000 trains pass every day between Brussels-South and Brussels-North railway stations. The station is connected to the Gare du Midi/Zuidstation station of the Brussels Metro system.
The French name \"Midi\" derives from mi and di in Old French; compare Mezzogiorno, the south of Italy. The time of midday was synonymous with the direction of south because in France, as the sun is in the south at noon everywhere north of the Tropic of Cancer. The polysemy existed in Middle French as well, where meridien can refer to both midday and south.