New TGV station inaugurated in great pomp in Liège

[Maciamo]

Tonight was the opening ceremony of the new, super-modern Liège-Guillemins railway station, linking Brussels to Cologne.

Designed by Spanish visionary architect Santiago Calatrava, the station took 10 years to complete and cost 400 million euro. Quite a budget for a city of half a million inhabitants. Liège-Guillemins now ranks among the world's most modern and impressive railway stations.

For the circumstance a sumptuous spectacle was held, worthy of an Olympic Games opening ceremony. The 75-minute show was created by Franco Dragone, known for his work with Cirque du Soleil, and gathered a crowd of 50,000 spectators. A succession of ballet, opera, and acrobatics was performed over a state-of-the-art light system punctuated by holographic displays, and culminated with a magnificent fireworks as finale.

Tomorrow, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège will hold a concert at the station for the second part of the inauguration.

[Maciamo]

On Sunday, another major inauguration will take place in Belgium, but this time in Brussels. Square is the new Congress Centre that will hold international conferences, European summits, business conventions, corporate seminars, or even Gala dinners and Fashions shows. Brussels is already in the top 5 of European cities for congresses. Square should further increase the European capital's popularity as a meeting venue.

[Maciamo]

There are videos of the inauguration of the new Liège-Guillemins station on YouTube.

[Maciamo]

After Liège, it was Antwerp's turn to inaugurate its new railway station today. Nothing as grandiose in Antwerp. The original Neo-Gothic building from 1905 remains unchanged, and that is as well, as Newsweek ranked it 4th most beautiful railway station in the world, after London's Saint-Pancras, New-York's Grand Central Terminal and Bombay's Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.

The works consisted in digging a 4 km tunnel under the city to speed up the access to the central station. Passengers now arrive in a modern underground platforms, and the station now has four levels instead of one.