Legislation allowing the construction of rural tramways was passed in 1875, followed by a new law in 1885. The result was the creation of the nationwide operator named "National Company of Light Railways", known as
Nationale Maatschappij van Buurtspoorwegen (NMVB) in
Dutch and
Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Vicinaux (SNCV) in
French. At this time, the electric tramway network was already in length. In 1939, the NMVB/SNCV operated 161 regular bus lines amounting to . After World War II lorries, buses, and cars deprived the trams of much of their business. The electric network reached a peak of in 1950. The whole network (electric and non-electric) was still approximately in length (the peak of was in 1945), but by 1960 had been reduced to only . On several rural lines, passenger tramways were replaced by buses but SNCV/NMVB kept running freight trams until it wasn't profitable anymore. In 1977, the buses of the Belgian railways (
SNCB/NMBS) were transferred to SNCV/NMVB. The tramways from
Brussels to
Wemmel, and
Grimbergen closed in 1978. Political federalism within Belgium from 1980 onwards saw the splitting of many national institutions into separate bodies for
Flanders,
Wallonia, and the
Brussels-Capital Region. SNCV/NMVB was broken up in 1991 into
De Lijn (for Flanders) and
TEC (for Wallonia), both companies were now primarily operating buses. De Lijn inherited the tram systems in
Ghent and
Antwerp (including the
Pre-metro), operated previously by local companies MIVG and MIVA respectively, and the coastal tramway. TEC operates the
Charleroi light rail system, which includes sections of Vicinal track.
STIB/MIVB operates the
Brussels Metro,
tram, and
bus network. ==Gallery==