NMBS/SNCB to lure 30% new customers with suburban S network

Belgian public railroad company NMBS/SNCB aims to increase the number of passengers by 30% by 2032 compared to 2022. Back then, 227 million passengers were transported, so the number of passengers should reach 300 million by 2032.

According to the newspaper Le Soir, NMBS/SNCB has launched an investigation into the suburban S-nets of Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi, and Liège because precisely in that suburban network is the greatest potential for attracting new customers.

Fewer travelers, except for Liege

More than 100 million passengers use the S offer, which aims to develop urban and peri-urban rail connections, every year. However, the number of users is still not at the level it was before the Covid-19 crisis, partly because the number of people who regularly work from home and thus no longer commute to work every day has increased.

Brussels and Antwerp are the two largest S-zones, with 144 and 52 stations, respectively, and a supply of 700 and 248 daily trains. SNCB is struggling with a 6% drop compared to before the coronavirus crisis for those regions.

Charleroi and Ghent, with 52 and 43 stations and 203 and 130 trains per day, respectively, are back to 2019 levels, and Liège, accounting for 59 stations and 158 trains, saw its visitor numbers increase by 15%.

Still a lot of potential

The S-network is not in question in NMBS/SNCB’s strategic plan. On the contrary, it is and will remain one of the important areas for acquiring new users. With good reason, too: if you compare the evolution of the use of the ‘S’ offers between 2015 and 2019, you will see that this suburban network recorded an average increase of 16% before the pandemic compared to 12% for the entire network.

So, together with a study on the CityPass’s lack of success, which allows unlimited travel on the NMBS/SNCB, TEC, or De Lijn networks, the NMBS/SNCB is now going to conduct a study on the S offer in general. The conclusions of this study are expected by the end of 2025.