Last summer, 1.6 million train tickets to international destinations were purchased from the Belgian public railway company NMBS/SNCB, a 6% increase over the previous year. Current ticket sales also confirm this upward trend.
One reason Belgians are increasingly choosing to travel by train is the growing range of destinations available. Currently, you can travel from Brussels to more than 6,000 destinations in 15 European countries. About 1,000 of these can be reached within six hours with no more than one transfer.
Vive la France
France is the most popular destination, with cities such as Paris, Lille, Marne-la-Vallée (Disneyland Paris), Lyon, Avignon, Marseille, Montpellier, and Strasbourg on the itinerary. London is also a popular destination, as are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Cologne, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Zurich, and Basel. More distant destinations, such as the Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, and Spain, are also gaining popularity.
NMBS/SNCB plans to further expand its international network in the coming years, aiming for 8,000 international destinations by 2030. “This constantly growing network confirms the role of Brussels-South Station as a major international hub in Europe, serving nearly 300,000 passengers weekly,” says NMBS/SNCB.
To this end, the railway company is collaborating with the French railway company SNCF, among others, to expand the OUIGO service to France. SNCF and NMBS/SNCB will also partner with the Swiss operator SBB to extend the Brussels-Strasbourg route (TGV INOUI service) to Basel.
Since 2024, NMBS/SNCB has also been collaborating with the Dutch NS to operate the Eurocity Direct service directly from Brussels to Amsterdam-Zuid or Rotterdam, with 16 round-trip connections per day on each route.
Sometimes cheaper than flying, but above all, more environmentally friendly
An annual study by the Dutch savings platform Raisin on the costs of train and air travel for a family of 4 – departing from Amsterdam, to be sure – to ten popular European destinations also shows that the average price of airline tickets rose by more than 13% this year: from €808 in 2025 to €914 in 2026, excluding baggage.
Train tickets, on the other hand, became only 2.5% more expensive, averaging €513. As a result, the price difference between train and plane has risen to an average of €401 per trip.
A Greenpeace study conducted in August 2025 of 142 European routes shows that in Belgium, 60% of routes are more expensive by train than by plane, placing Belgium at the bottom among the worst-performing countries.
But especially on routes where the price difference from flying is minimal, travelers are more likely to choose the train because it is often a more comfortable way to reach cities than by car and because of environmental reasons.
For example, someone traveling by train from Brussels to Paris emits about 7 times less CO2 than when traveling by bus and 33 times less than when traveling by plane. And between Brussels and Amsterdam, that’s 5 times less than by bus and 22 times less than by plane.
