Talk:Maelbeek metro station

Bilingual name of the station
For some unknown reason, this station and Arts-Loi/Kunst-Wet station are the only ones of the Brussels metro where the Dutch names are written before the French ones. As a reminder, Maelbeek metro station is now (unfortunately!) famous because of Brussels terrorist attacks, and Arts-Loi is the most frequented station of the network: those two stations are therefore the most "famous" stations of the Brussels metro network.

Surprisingly, the changes in the names happened a few days ago, both made by one user. The same user edited the 2016 Brussels bombings article to make sure only the Dutch name "Maalbeek" appears in the article.

Is there any discussion somewhere about the name convention for the Brussels metro station names? As for all the other station the "French name/Dutch name" convention is used, shouldn't we standardize it that way? MisterQ (talk) 17:55, 26 March 2016 (UTC)

This is a serious matter -- even more serious in the case of the cited 2016 Brussels Bombings article. I had noticed it also, first there, then here. I consider it an act of vandalism, and because committed during the week of the 2016 Brussels bombings, an especially disgraceful one; but those are opinions. More objectively speaking, the editing of text to reflect only Dutch-language names violates the principal of Neutral Point of View. In Belgian contexts, favoring either Dutch or French names (when both names are officially valid, as here) is always most likely to be a political act. By consulting the Brussels transit map on the STIB/MIVB (Brussels transit authority) website one finds -- officially? -- "Maalbeek/Maelbeek and "Arts-Loi/Kunst-Wet". Apparently there is a long-standing policy of alternating the French/Dutch order of station names on the metro system maps (and, I think, on signage).  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.19.137.218 (talk) 16:27, 27 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Indeed, STIB-MIVB has an official order. Also: both names are Dutch. The French use the pre-1949 Dutch spelling, nothing French about it. The name of the stream is also called Maalbeek BTW. So that's the common spelling on Wikipedia. As for Arts-Loi/Kunst-Wet: I tried to change it from 'Arts-Loi' to 'Arts-Loi/Kunst-Wet' (official MIVB order) but that page was blocked, that's why the reversed combination is used for that page.--Wester (talk) 21:31, 31 March 2016 (UTC)

Requested move 21 April 2023

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) SkyWarrior  22:03, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

Maalbeek/Maelbeek metro station → Maelbeek metro station – I am starting a move request to retitle this article to its French name, and as such bring it in line with all the other stations of the Brussels Metro, as per the Brussels naming convention established back in 2007 on WP:BELG (see Talk:Brussels-Capital Region/NamingArchive3). In short, the consensus back then in Brussels articles was to use only a single name without any separators (e.g. "/") for clarity, choosing either the French or Dutch alternative (or an English form when existant) depending on the most common usage. Although I am a big defender of Brussels' bilingual status, as far as English Wikipedia is concerned, this role nearly always falls on the French form (that language being by far the most commonly spoken one in the region). I have already manually changed the other stations' names (when required) to meet the above-mentioned criteria. However, this particular article and Kunst-Wet/Arts-Loi metro station are blocked from further moves, leading to both articles' bilingual names remaining as somewhat of an anomaly. I also started a move request on that other article's talk page. Jason Lagos (talk) 17:43, 21 April 2023 (UTC)


 * Support per WP:TITLECON RectoVersus (talk) 18:42, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.