Belgian train punctuality improves after all-time low

The Belgian railroad company NMBS/SNCB’s train punctuality reached 89.7% last year, an improvement of 2.2% compared to 2023 when it had fallen to its lowest level in five years.

This puts punctuality back on the course agreed with the federal government. But at just under 46,000, the number of canceled trains remains high.

9 out of 10 trains arrived on time

Except for January, punctuality was higher every month last year than in the same month in 2023. The year ended with a punctuality rate of 91.8% in December, down from 87.4% a year earlier.

That 89.7% punctuality rate in 2024 means that just nine in ten trains arrived on time at their destination or in Brussels. The improvement in punctuality is mainly during the evening rush hour. This is “thanks to a better capacity to absorb the delays incurred during the morning rush hour,” says the NMBS/SNCB. Important note: delays of less than six minutes are not counted by NMBS/SNCB.

Thanks to the improvement, NMBS/SNCB is within the margins (roughly 89 to 91% punctuality) agreed to for 2024 in its public service contract with the federal government. Just last year, NMBS/SNCB was fined for, among other things, poor punctuality in 2023. According to the public service contract, the target is 90.6% punctuality by 2027 and 91% by 2032.

45,944 canceled trains

The number of canceled trains remains high. In 2024, 45,944 trains were entirely or partially abolished, just a fraction less than the 2023 record (46,086). Including those cancellations, punctuality reached 86.9% in 2024, down from 84.6% the year before.

The main cause of rail delays is so-called third parties, such as track walkers, person collisions, or delays due to cable theft. Last year, 21.9% of delays could be attributed to these. According to NMBS/SNCB, track defects and personal collisions led to nearly 100,000 minutes of delays over the entire year.

Almost a third of the delays (36.7%) were attributable to NMBS/SNCB and 13.7% to rail operator Infrabel. A quarter (24.6%) were due to the lack of systemic robustness; for example, a train is delayed 10 seconds at each stop and then has a 2-minute delay in Brussels, causing it to hinder another train.

The most significant incident impacting punctuality occurred on July 24th. An information technology problem at Infrabel halted train traffic in several places for 20 to 45 minutes, leading to a total of 9,990 minutes of delay. In October, a personal accident at Brussels-central station ranked second with 7,801 minutes of delay, and track walkers at Brussels-Midi/South caused 7,039 minutes of delay in June.