NMBS/SNCB: Board of Directors approves downsized train offer

NMBS/SNCB’s Board of Directors unanimously approved the train offer for 2025 on Friday. This offer is less ambitious than anticipated, partly due to a staff shortage.

Overall, the train offer increases by almost 2% (in a million train kilometers) compared to 2024. In addition, 220 trains that had been scaled down in 2022 due to staff shortages caused by the COVID-19 health crisis will be reinstated, mainly to strengthen the suburban network.

But the promised late-night trains on Friday and Saturday nights around Brussels and Antwerp or additional weekend trains will be delayed, much to the dismay of travelers’ association TreinTramBus.

Reintroduction of Dampoort express

The new train offer will be effective on December 15th and will be visible in the NMBS/SNCB travel planner within a few weeks. It includes reintroducing the Dampoort Express from Sint-Niklaas to Brussels via Lokeren and Ghent, according to its original timetable.

There will also be a suburban S train between Puurs, Antwerp, and Essen, and more S trains will be sent to the European quarter in Brussels, especially from Brussels-Luxembourg, Nivelles, Halle, and Enghien.

The Brussels-Bergen-Paris connection, launched during the Olympics, will also become permanent. Starting in December, the connection between Brussels and Amsterdam will be faster: 16 times a day, a new and fast connection will be made with the new ICNG trainsets of the Dutch Railways. This will double the offer to and from the Netherlands.

Furthermore, the IC trains between Liège-Guillemins, Ans, Borgworm, and Brussels will follow a different route and, from now on, will also have a direct connection to Brussels Airport.

The NMBS/SNCB also confirmed that from December, there will be four instead of five IC trains between Antwerp and Brussels, including one to Brussels Airport – the connection lost a lane to Eurostar.

‘Very little meat left on the bone’

However, as previously indicated, the promised expansion of the existing train offer for 2025 will not come. It will largely be postponed, much to the dissatisfaction of traveler’s association TreinTramBus. “There is very little meat left on the bone,” says TreinTramBus president Peter Meukens. “Everything we feared is coming true. Too bad.”

TreinTramBus calls the fact that four instead of five trains per hour will run between Antwerp and Brussels as of December “unacceptable.” The organization also points out that the new fast train between Brussels and Amsterdam will majorly impact train traffic in Limburg and West Flanders.

According to NMBS/SNCB, its 2023-2026 transport plan provides for growth in train supply of 5% instead of 7%. “This realistic adjustment considers the available personnel, on the one hand, and the limited infrastructure capacity in certain parts of the network, on the other (…) The projects that cannot go ahead now will be integrated into the future transport plans from December 2025,” says NMBS/SNCB. In addition, the final goal – 10% growth by 2032 – remains confirmed.

‘Impossible to achieve the ambitions’

The socialist union points out that the train offer for 2025 meets the commitments made in the social agreement with the unions. “The new transport plan provided for an increase in supply between now and 2026 of 2,000 trains per week, or 8,000 trains per month,” says Günther Blauwens, president of Flemish ACOD Spoor. “This objective is unachievable today.”

According to Blauwens, this was predictable. “The current situation at the railroad is partly the result of cuts imposed by the Swedish government under Michel. The investments by the Vivaldi government were catching up but insufficient to get a head start.”

The union notes that average train punctuality is now at an all-time low of 89%. Moreover, the number of trains that have been abolished remains constant between 3,000 and 3,500 per month. “Abolished trains represent more than 3% of the public service that is not performed each month. It is, therefore, impossible to achieve the ambitions of a 7.4% increase in service as envisaged in the 2026 transportation plan.”

Blauwens also points out that the need for train drivers has been set at 625 recruitments by 2024, but only 300 have been recruited to date. “The first thing that needs to be worked on is operational stability, not yet another reorganization and ambitious transportation plan. To put such a plan first without sufficient personnel, reliable equipment, and infrastructure is unrealistic. To promise a service that you cannot deliver is poor service.”