Seventeen public transport stops to be named after notable women

You may have noticed a few metro stations sporting new names this week: Simonis has become Simone Veil, for instance, and Schuman is now Clara Schumann. The former was a French health minister and advocator of women’s reproductive rights, while the latter was a German composer.

Ten metro stops in Brussels have been given temporary new names in honour of International Women’s Day, which was yesterday. While this is a symbolic gesture, 17 Stib stops will be permanently named after notable women in future.

Seven of them will make their debut this year. One is a new bus stop in front of Erasme Hospital in Anderlecht, the final stop on the new line 74, which will run between the hospital and the Stalle station in Uccle. It will be called Clémence Everard after the first women to earn a surgical degree from a Belgian university.

That stop will be unveiled on 19 April, the same day as the former Park bus stop, currently named "Kris Lauwers" after a (male) Stib director, will be officially renamed Rosa Parks. She was the American civil rights activist who famously refused to give up her seat to a white passenger in 1950s Alabama.

On 1 September, meanwhile, five more stops will get names of famous women, including actor Audrey Hepburn (who was born in Brussels), French author Marguerite Duras and Belgian nurse Marie Depage, known for organising medical units during the First World War.

Five more stops will be named after women in 2022 and again in 2023. By the end of 2023, women’s names will be featured on a total of 17 new or existing stops.

Photo courtesy Stib