No more horsing around! E-carriages replace nags in city tours

Brussels is the first city in Europe to use electric carriages instead of horse-drawn carts for city tours, a change which went effect in June.

Operator Thibault Danthine told CGTN he had been thinking about making the change for some years. Last year he took the decision to stop using horses for his tours which begin in the decorative Grand Place central square.

Danthine cited three reasons: the growing difficulties of managing stables, finding people with experience of animal husbandry, and the growing ethical question marks over using horses to pull carriages.‌

According to Danthine, it is easier to maintain the new electric carriages, but also much more expensive.

"I can say that it costs a lot – it is an investment of hundreds of thousands of Euros," he explained.

So far Danthine is using two e-carriages for his city tours, with authorization from the city for a third.

The horse-powered carriages used to attract 15,000 people a year on average for city tours. The local council was keen to see a viable alternative, and liked the idea of electric carriages, as it embraces the concept of sustainable tourism.

City of Brussels Deputy Mayor Fabian Maingain posted on X: "The carriages are back, with an exclusive addition!" he said "Respect for tradition and 100% electric."

There is a global movement against horse-drawn carriages, which can be strenuous and cruel to the animals, some of whom have dropped dead during tours.

Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, has prohibited the use of horses in two tour sites, while Palma in Spain is replacing all horse-drawn carriages this year. The U.S. city of Chicago has banned them, as has Montreal in Canada.

In Belgium, Ghent got rid of horse-drawn carriages in 2021, and Brussels banned them in January of this year.

Danthine would like to sell electric carriages to other cities, but said it can be difficult to get them registered with a license plate.

He told CGTN: "This is something that I would like to do. The biggest problem in other countries is matriculation. You need to have it. In Belgium, there is a special law that allows for a special plate."

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