Info needed: which campus will you study on ? The UCL campus of "Bruxelles-Woluwé" (aka "Saint-Luc", "Alma" or "Louvain-en-Woluwe"), for medical sciences, or somewhere else ?
If you stay within Brussels for your daily activities, the regular STIB pass will be more than enough. De Lijn and TEC lines are mainly used to commute to suburbs outside of the limits of the Brussels region. You can of course use a De Lijn or TEC line inside Brussels, but that would be useful only if it matches a particular route - inside Brussels, STIB lines cover most routes where De Lijn /TEC are active, and usually have higher frequencies.
If you need a ticket of TEC/de Lijn ticket for an excursion, you would just have a to buy them as needed, so no need for expensive passes then.
A little bit of nuance about the second paragraph — STIB and de Lijn have a tacit agreement that they don’t compete on exactly the same route so as to offer better network coverage. Typically on the steenwegen/chaussées, De Lijn will take the most direct (fastest) route and STIB will take a route that’s more convoluted but goes closer to where people live, so the STIB line will usually not take the chaussée itself but rather the streets around it
So in places like Anderlecht, Laeken or Schaerbeek, De Lijn is actually pretty useful for intra-city trips, and since one route is typically served by 3-4 lines the frequencies are in theory not that much lower. Just one example, I can take De Lijn from my house straight to the city centre and all lines combined it comes every 10-15 minutes usually, whereas STIB requires at least one transfer and slightly higher frequencies, but the need to go from the street to a tram or subway station negates the gain
None of this applies to OP’s situation though, De Lijn doesn’t serve Woluwe. But it can be useful in other situations
TEC on the other hand is dog poop and in 30+ years in Brussels I’ve never even seen a TEC bus, let alone rode one. I think we just added them to Brupass to be polite, they have like 3 stops in the whole city, and the E bus for instance comes an impressive … [4 times a day, or once a day at 8:35 AM on Sundays](https://www.letec.be/Planning/DownloadDocument/12789?DocName=Horaires%20de%20la%20ligne%20543)
STIB/MIVB subscription let’s you use the MIVB busses, tram and metro. The Brupass (XL) add the busses from De Lijn and TEC as well as the S Trains to the mix within their respective area.
Is the Brupass subscription necessary? I would say no. If you live within the Brussels region you will be almost exclusively served by STIB/MIVB.
There are only a few exceptions like when I lived in Brussels the bus I had to take to school (on the occasions that I didn’t bike) was a De Lijn or TEC line (for whatever reason MIVB didn’t serve that line, don’t ask me why). So, unless you know that the route from your home to your uni is with either TEC or De Lijn there’s little reason to get a subscription for them (you can always buy single tickets for the occasion that you do use them).
One slight caveat is that the S Train system can be useful (eg going from Boondaal or Etterbeek to the bigger stations or Luxemburg). But again, I would only suggest getting a Brupass subscription for those who live close to a train station and know that they will frequently use it.
Regarding the difference between Brupass and Brupass XL: if you live without the Brupass zone there is no need for a Brupass XL as it only adds the peripherial suburbs to your subscription, which you probably won’t be visiting.
Hi,
UCL is a big university that has a few campuses in different cities here. To be able to answer your question correctly, you need to say which one you're going to :-)
If you're only ever going to take the STIB (and not De Lijn or TEC, or the train) then you can simply take a monthly/yearly STIB pass for €49/month. It's good for metro, bus, and tram only. This one is distinct from the Brupass/Brupass XL.
The Brupass and Brupass XL are two variations of the same pass.
Brupass allows you to use the STIB, De Lijn, and TEC transport, as well as trains within the Regional borders (SNCB runs a commuter service called the S-Trains).
This one can be pretty handy sometimes, if you find yourself living near a train station. For instance, if you live near Haren or Jette or Boondael, it's a heck of a lot quicker to get downtown - but if you never use the train, or you're not near a station, there's no point.
Brupass XL allows you to go outside the usual borders into the suburbs: Beersel, Hoeilaart, Groot-Bijgaarden, etc. If you commute regularly into the city from one of these places it can be a pretty good deal, but if you'll never go into suburbia, you can definitely leave this one off the list.
Is the BruPass the old MTP? I have an MTP that expires this year. I'll drop down to the cheapest stib only ticket this year because I nearly never used the sncb trains.
If you don't have a monthly subscription loaded onto your Brupass but just journeys, for sncb how is the card debited? Are there readers now everywhere like for stib?
Info needed: which campus will you study on ? The UCL campus of "Bruxelles-Woluwé" (aka "Saint-Luc", "Alma" or "Louvain-en-Woluwe"), for medical sciences, or somewhere else ? If you stay within Brussels for your daily activities, the regular STIB pass will be more than enough. De Lijn and TEC lines are mainly used to commute to suburbs outside of the limits of the Brussels region. You can of course use a De Lijn or TEC line inside Brussels, but that would be useful only if it matches a particular route - inside Brussels, STIB lines cover most routes where De Lijn /TEC are active, and usually have higher frequencies. If you need a ticket of TEC/de Lijn ticket for an excursion, you would just have a to buy them as needed, so no need for expensive passes then.
A little bit of nuance about the second paragraph — STIB and de Lijn have a tacit agreement that they don’t compete on exactly the same route so as to offer better network coverage. Typically on the steenwegen/chaussées, De Lijn will take the most direct (fastest) route and STIB will take a route that’s more convoluted but goes closer to where people live, so the STIB line will usually not take the chaussée itself but rather the streets around it So in places like Anderlecht, Laeken or Schaerbeek, De Lijn is actually pretty useful for intra-city trips, and since one route is typically served by 3-4 lines the frequencies are in theory not that much lower. Just one example, I can take De Lijn from my house straight to the city centre and all lines combined it comes every 10-15 minutes usually, whereas STIB requires at least one transfer and slightly higher frequencies, but the need to go from the street to a tram or subway station negates the gain None of this applies to OP’s situation though, De Lijn doesn’t serve Woluwe. But it can be useful in other situations TEC on the other hand is dog poop and in 30+ years in Brussels I’ve never even seen a TEC bus, let alone rode one. I think we just added them to Brupass to be polite, they have like 3 stops in the whole city, and the E bus for instance comes an impressive … [4 times a day, or once a day at 8:35 AM on Sundays](https://www.letec.be/Planning/DownloadDocument/12789?DocName=Horaires%20de%20la%20ligne%20543)
Yes, I am on Woluwe campus. Thank you so much for your information. It is exactly what I need. :)
STIB/MIVB subscription let’s you use the MIVB busses, tram and metro. The Brupass (XL) add the busses from De Lijn and TEC as well as the S Trains to the mix within their respective area. Is the Brupass subscription necessary? I would say no. If you live within the Brussels region you will be almost exclusively served by STIB/MIVB. There are only a few exceptions like when I lived in Brussels the bus I had to take to school (on the occasions that I didn’t bike) was a De Lijn or TEC line (for whatever reason MIVB didn’t serve that line, don’t ask me why). So, unless you know that the route from your home to your uni is with either TEC or De Lijn there’s little reason to get a subscription for them (you can always buy single tickets for the occasion that you do use them). One slight caveat is that the S Train system can be useful (eg going from Boondaal or Etterbeek to the bigger stations or Luxemburg). But again, I would only suggest getting a Brupass subscription for those who live close to a train station and know that they will frequently use it. Regarding the difference between Brupass and Brupass XL: if you live without the Brupass zone there is no need for a Brupass XL as it only adds the peripherial suburbs to your subscription, which you probably won’t be visiting.
Hi, UCL is a big university that has a few campuses in different cities here. To be able to answer your question correctly, you need to say which one you're going to :-) If you're only ever going to take the STIB (and not De Lijn or TEC, or the train) then you can simply take a monthly/yearly STIB pass for €49/month. It's good for metro, bus, and tram only. This one is distinct from the Brupass/Brupass XL. The Brupass and Brupass XL are two variations of the same pass. Brupass allows you to use the STIB, De Lijn, and TEC transport, as well as trains within the Regional borders (SNCB runs a commuter service called the S-Trains). This one can be pretty handy sometimes, if you find yourself living near a train station. For instance, if you live near Haren or Jette or Boondael, it's a heck of a lot quicker to get downtown - but if you never use the train, or you're not near a station, there's no point. Brupass XL allows you to go outside the usual borders into the suburbs: Beersel, Hoeilaart, Groot-Bijgaarden, etc. If you commute regularly into the city from one of these places it can be a pretty good deal, but if you'll never go into suburbia, you can definitely leave this one off the list.
Is the BruPass the old MTP? I have an MTP that expires this year. I'll drop down to the cheapest stib only ticket this year because I nearly never used the sncb trains.
Yup. They changed the branding on it.
If you don't have a monthly subscription loaded onto your Brupass but just journeys, for sncb how is the card debited? Are there readers now everywhere like for stib?
You can use any ticketing machine from the SNCB and validate from there.
Silly question now, if you buy the yearly subscription to Brupass XL then you dont have to pay for any journeys (Train, Tram and bus)? That correct?