Брюссель-Юг: Крупнейший железнодорожный и метроузел Бельгии

Railway and metro station in Brussels, Belgium

Brussels South railway station (; Station Brussel Zuid) is a major railway station in Brussels, Belgium. Geographically, it is located in Saint Gilles/Sint Gillis on the border with the adjacent municipality of Anderlecht and just south of the City of Brussels. Brussels South is one of over a dozen railway stations in Brussels, and one of the three principal rail stations in the heart of the city, the two others being Brussels Central and Brussels North. The station, which was a terminus when it was inaugurated in 1869, became a transit station with the opening of the North–South connection in 1952. Nowadays, it is the busiest station in Belgium, and is the only Brussels stop for international high speed rail services Eurostar (including the former Thalys) and ICE. Underneath Brussels South is the rapid transit Gare du Midi/Zuidstation station on lines 2, 3, 4 and 6 of the Brussels Metro and premetro (underground tram) systems, which serves as an important node of the Brussels Intercommunal Transport Company (STIB/MIVB).

The station was named after Le Midi, the French name of the region of Southern France, as trains departing from this station in the 19th century had that region as their final destination. The term Midi derives from mi ('middle') and di ('day') in Old French, comparable to the term [[Southern Italy to indicate Southern Italy or Miazăzi which is a synonym for South in Romanian. The name Brussel Zuid, as the Dutch "translation" of Bruxelles Midi, was only introduced after the equality law of 1898. The Brussels Capital Region is bilingual; hence, both the French and Dutch names of the station—Bruxelles Midi and Brussel Zuid—are official. Outside Belgium, this often leads to the use of combined shorthands; for example in the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable, Brussels South is designated as Brussels Midi/Zuid; NS (Dutch Railways) announce the station as Brussel Zuid/Midi.

A first station known as Bogards' railway station (, Bogaardenstation) had existed, since 1839, near the Place Rouppe/Rouppeplein in the southern part of the City of Brussels, so called for the former cloister of the Bogards' convent whose site it was built on, and to which the Rue des Bogards/Bogaardenstraat is now the only reference. This station, which quickly took the name "South Station" (, Zuidstation), served as the six track terminus of the South Line, a southbound railway line linking Brussels to the industrial towns of Mons, Charleroi and La Louvière, at the heart of the Sillon industriel in Hainaut, Belgium, before crossing the French border (near Quiévrain), where a connecting line could reach Valenciennes, in northern France. The former presence of a station at this location also explains the unusual width of the current Avenue de Stalingrad/Stalingradlaan, which goes from the Place Rouppe to the Small Ring (Brussels' inner ring road), a reminder of the train tracks that used to run in its middle.

The Belgian railway network grew rapidly during the second half of the 19th century, becoming the densest in continental Europe. By then, Brussels North and Brussels South had become the primary railway stations in Brussels (Brussels North slowly supplanted the original Allée Verte/Groendreef railway station near the same site). However, they were joined only by an inadequate single track running along what is today the Small Ring. Many proposals were put forward to link the two stations more substantially. A law was finally passed in 1909 mandating a direct connection; however, the final project would not be completed until nearly half a century later. Around 1860, the South Station had reached saturation point and its location too close to the city centre began to cause problems, so the authorities decided to demolish it. A new monumental station, designed by the architect Auguste Payen in neoclassical style, opened in 1869, a short distance south from the original site, on the territory of the municipality of Saint Gilles/Sint Gillis.

Payen's terminal station was itself demolished in 1949, as part of the North–South connection project, and replaced by a transit station on its present site along the Avenue Fonsny/Fonsnylaan. Most of the current buildings were erected between 1939 and 1954, in post war functionalist style, from plans by architects Adrien and Yvan Blomme and Fernand Petit. Work on the connection also led to the station's immediate surroundings to be reorganised. The railway tracks were raised and extended unto a viaduct towards the city centre, with shops under it and a covered street; the Rue Couverte/Bedektestraat (formerly the Rue de l'Argonne/Argonnestraat), along which trams run. Eurostar passengers travelling to the UK clear exit checks from the Schengen Area (carried out by the Belgian Federal Police) as well as UK entry checks (conducted by the UK Border Force) in the station before boarding their train. On the other hand, Eurostar passengers travelling to Lille Europe or Calais Fréthun remain within the Schengen Area and are therefore not subject to border checks. Accordingly, they go through a different departure area in the station (bypassing the juxtaposed controls for passengers heading to the UK) and travel in a separate designated coach (available in standard class only) controlled by security guards, who ensure that all of these passengers disembark at Lille/Calais before the train continues to the UK.

The metro station, called Gare du Midi/Zuidstation, opened on 2 October 1988 as (at that time) the terminus of metro line 2 from Simonis. Line 2 has since been extended beyond Brussels South to Clemenceau in 1993, Delacroix in 2006, and Gare de l'Ouest/Weststation in 2009. Since 1993, the station also accommodates premetro (underground tram) services at separate platforms, with cross platform interchange between metro and premetro in both directions.

A shuttle service to Brussels South Charleroi Airport leaves from a stop located on the Rue de France/Frankrijkstraat.

The South Tower, the tallest building in Belgium, stands in front of the station's main exit (the crossroad of the Avenue Fonsny/Fonsnylaan and the Rue Couverte/Bedektestraat) and houses the Belgian Federal Pensions Service (FPS).