Hi!

I will be traveling to your country pretty soon and was looking up public transport to be prepared.

However i was really confused by the rules and true information seems very hard to find. So i was hoping you guys could help me out a bit 🙂

I found this article that says Brussels announced that public transport will be free in 2021 for people under 25 ( [Brussels announces free public transport for under-25s from next year – Cities Today (cities-today.com)](https://cities-today.com/brussels-announces-free-public-transport-for-under-25s-from-next-year/#:~:text=Brussels’%20public%20transport%20operator%2C%20The,under%20the%20age%20of%2025.) ). Is this true? If it is, does it apply to non-Belgian citizens as well? Is it only free in Brussels or in other cities as well?

Also, i saw that a train ticket can be a fixed price of 7.10 per single trip. If i only go for one stop for a transfer, can i buy one stop ticket and then for the rest of the trip get the discounted? Is it even worth the hassle or should i just order a block of tickets from a website like trainline?

Thank you in advance for your help and time!

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by singlok45

3 comments

  1. Nope it’s not free anywhere

    It’s pretty simple, you pay, you get in, you get out

    You just specify a start and a destination in your train ticket and any transfers in between are part of the same ticket

  2. Things that are “for people under 25” are usually offered regardless of nationality. I know there are special, cheap subscriptions that have been offered here and there, I do not know if the offers still stand.

    Getting a MOBIB card and (re)loading it at an automat is quite easy. I’d do that in some shop and ask if there’s any special subscription going on. If not, well, multi-trips offers are usually better than single-trips.

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    Trains work differently, they do not use the MOBIB card. They also have their automatic ticket machines, or the SNCB/NMBS app, or the website. Most tickets are based on distance, some tickets (eg Week-end or Youth) are a fixed price. So for short distances, standard ticket might come cheaper. Again, a multi-pass is usually the cheapest, if you use it fully of course.

  3. This decision to have free transport for people under 25 has never been enforced. Instead, on the STIB network (STIb is the operator for public transport inside Brussels), there is a one-year pass for students below 24, and it costs 12 €. Anyone under 18 can have it, and if you are between 18 and 24, you are also entitled to that if you are a student enrolled in another EU country – but then you have to give a form filled in by your university or school or whatever, and as I guess you don’t have a Mobib card (that is, a transport card that you can top up with tickets from various operators), you will need to go to a STIB shop when you are in Brussels. That is a bit off a hassle for a short term stay…

    See here: [https://www.stib-mivb.be/article.html?l=en&_guid=003e3783-1d83-3410-eab3-ce6aa344e8e2](https://www.stib-mivb.be/article.html?l=en&_guid=003e3783-1d83-3410-eab3-ce6aa344e8e2)

    If you don’t take this student 1-year pass, you will have to buy regualr tickets.

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