De Lijn is a company run by the Flemish government in Belgium to provide public transportation, similar to the way in which Belgian railroads or the postal system is run. It runs 1,942 busses and 305 trams. De lijn was founded in 1991 after the public transportation companies of two major Flemish cities (Antwerp and Ghent) fused with the Flemish part of the NMVB (National Maatschappij van Buurtspoorwegen, or the National Company of Neighborhood Railroads).
SocialistpoliticianSteve Stevaert of Hasselt implemented a policy allowing senior citizens (ages 65 and up) to ride anywhere in Flanders for free. Other incentives exist for people under age 25. De Lijn is being viewed as an integral part to reduce heavily congested traffic, together with the NMBS (Belgium's railroad provider.)
In 2003, it transported more than 362 million passengers, for an area with a population of approximately 6.5 million.
The Grand-Place is Brussels' top tourist attraction justified by the Gothic magnificence of the Hôtel de Ville (Town Hall) and the Baroque exuberance of the late seventeenth-century guildhouses surrounding the square.
In a survey conducted by the Universite Catholique de Louvain in Louvain-La-Neuve and published in June 2006, 51% of respondents from Brussels claimed to be bilingual.
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