The Belgian public railway company NMBS/SNCB reportedly orders trains to skip stops an average of five times a day to make up for delays. In six months, more than 900 stops were skipped.
It was already known that NMBS/SNCB was applying this practice. For example, the ombudsperson service already mentioned it in its annual report published in March. However, the issue is now being taken up again by, among others, the newspaper De Standaard after the ombudsperson service also presented the annual report to the Chamber yesterday.
Not only are small stations skipped.
According to the railway ombudsmen, Jean-Marc Jeanfils and Cynthia Van der Linden, when a train is delayed, the NMBS/SNCB instructs drivers to skip one or more stops to make up for the delay. According to the ombudsperson service, it is not only small stations that are missed.
Jeanfils claims that last year, a station was skipped 904 times. That means it happened about five times a day on average.
According to the annual report of the ombudsperson service, since 2023, NMBS/SNCB has regularly skipped stops to make up for delays, but the railway company no longer does so during rush hour.
“Acceleration measure,” dixit NMBS/SNCB
Minister of Mobility Jean-Luc Crucke (Les Engagés) presented his own figures to the Chamber. According to him, an average of three stations is skipped every day to make up for delays. “The impact on the punctuality of 3,800 trains per day is therefore negligible,” said Crucke. The NMBS/SNCB itself calls it an “acceleration measure.”
The ombudsperson service has asked rail network operator Infrabel, which monitors punctuality on the railways, to keep more accurate records of this data in the future.
Criteria have been established.
Last week, the political party Groen, the passenger organization TreinTramBus, and the railway unions stated in Gazet van Antwerpen that there was “foul play” involved in achieving better punctuality rates. They made these statements in response to a press release from NMBS/SNCB, which claimed that 93,9% of their trains ran on time in August.
“For many travelers, this way of working is a disaster: they count on the train stopping there but are forced to travel on to the next stop. Sometimes this is announced in advance, sometimes not,” said Groen MP and mobility specialist Staf Aerts in the newspaper.
The OVS trade union, which represents many train drivers, also confirmed this practice to GvA. “Train drivers are suddenly instructed by their superiors not to stop at a certain station to make up for delays along the way. By not stopping, you can quickly gain a few minutes. Whereas this used to happen rarely, it is now much more common. A few months ago, criteria were even drawn up by management and communicated to us.”
Refund
The NMBS/SNCB ombudsperson service was contacted 4,154 times last year, an increase of 7,6% compared to the previous year.
NMBS/SNCB considers trains that skip stops as canceled, entitling passengers to a refund. However, the ombudsperson service noted in its annual report that the railway company does not take sufficient account of the inconvenience this causes, thereby undermining the interests of passengers, who are entitled to reliable public transport.
