Nearly €50 million in European funds for Belgian railroads

Belgium will receive 47.9 million euros in European funding to modernize its railroad infrastructure between Brussels and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and to equip rolling stock with the ETCS safety system. This was announced by Federal Minister of Mobility Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo).

The funds will come from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) fund, a program for developing and improving the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).

Shorter travel time

The project submitted by infrastructure manager Infrabel for maintenance and infrastructure modernization works between Louvan-la-Neuve, and the Luxembourg border is expected to receive funding of 20.12 million euros. That section is part of the EuroCap-Rail project, which aims to connect Brussels, Luxembourg, and Strasbourg better.

The goals are to increase the speed on that line to 160 km/hour and shorten the travel time between Brussels and Luxembourg between 22 and 37 minutes, depending on the number of intermediate stops.

These works will last until 2028 and will be carried out on lines L161 and L162. “Eventually, the goal is to reduce the travel time between Brussels and Luxembourg to two hours,” Gilkinet said. “Every day, about 45,000 Belgians commute between the two countries, and the gain of time is a new argument in favor of these commuters, encouraging them to take the train.”

506 extra trains equipped with ECTS

The Murosi project proposed by NMBS/SNCB, accounting for support of 27.8 million euros, involves equipping 506 trains, or 42% of the current fleet, with the ECTS system, the European railroad safety and signaling system.

This seeks to replace European countries’ various systems with a single, standardized, and safer system. By December 2025, NMBS/SNCB aims to have 100% of its fleet equipped with ETCS.

134 projects selected

The budget for CEF Transport from 2014 until 2027 is almost 50 billion euros. The program contributes to improving European rail infrastructure by constructing or upgrading more than 5,700 km of rail lines and removing more than 400 level crossings.

It also aims to improve the railway connection for around 60 ports, 25 railroad terminals, and 20 airports to the rail network and improve the quality of EU citizens living in the vicinity of railway lines by supporting the retrofit of around 180,000 freight wagons with low noise, composite brake blocks.

For the CEF 2024-2027, 134 projects were selected from 408 applications submitted. The selected projects—you can find them on this site with an interactive link—included the section of the new Lyon-Turin line (€700 million) and other cross-border rail connections, such as those between the Baltic member states (Rail Baltica, €442 million) and between Denmark and Germany (Fehmarnbelt tunnel, €589 million), or more specifically, between Copenhagen and Hamburg.