vault, was transformed into a tunnel with three openings separated by walls provided with fire doors at regular intervals (an operation carried out by walling the openings between the pillars). The ends of the platforms of Brussels-Central station were also affected. Stations The stations on the North–South connection, from north to south, are: Brussels-North (French: Bruxelles-Nord (STIB: Gare du Nord), Dutch: Brussel-Noord (MIVB: Noordstation)) Brussels-Congress (French: , Dutch: ) Brussels-Central (French: (STIB: ), Dutch: (MIVB: )) Brussels-Chapel (French: , Dutch: ) Brussels-South (French: (STIB: ), Dutch: (MIVB: )) (the Eurostar, Thalys, TGV and ICE international terminal) The stations Brussels-North and Brussels-South are also linked by the North–South Axis of the premetro (underground tram) system, which runs through the city centre to the west of the railway line. Operations All regular national (inter-city and local) trains that use the line stop at North, Central and South stations. The international high-speed Thalys, Eurostar and TGV services stop only at the international terminal of Brussels-South. ICEs have an additional stop at Brussels North. International trains, other than high-speed trains, terminating in Brussels-South, are the thrice-weekly NightJet sleepers to and from Austria (stopping at South and North stations) and the hourly Benelux trains to and from The Hague or Amsterdam (stopping at South, Central and North stations). Congress and Chapel stations are served twice an hour in each direction, on weekdays only, by a commuters' train on the Antwerp–Nivelles line. The line is not used by freight trains; the only non-passenger trains allowed on this line are the rare trains performing infrastructure maintenance on the North–South connection itself. To avoid further congestion, all freight traffic crossing between the north and south of Brussels is routed instead along either line 26, to the east (Halle to Vilvoorde, via Merode), or along line 28, to the west (Brussels-South to Bockstael via Brussels-West and Simonis). Commemoration The Brunfaut family was closely involved in the construction of the North–South connection. In 1947, Fernand Brunfaut became president of the National Bureau of the North–South connection. The same year, the construction of Brussels Central Station was entrusted to his son, Maxime Brunfaut, following the death of the architect Victor Horta. Two memorial plaques in the Central Station's main hall commemorate the station's opening. On the left-hand side of the second plaque is a medallion bearing Fernand Brunfaut's image. The North–South connection was also selected as the main motif of a