The trains of the Belgian public railway company NMBS/SNCB ran more punctually in July compared to a year ago. In July, 93,4% of trains arrived on time or with a maximum delay of 6 minutes in Brussels or at their destination. This means that punctuality was higher than in July last year, when it was 91,4%.

However, if you add in all the canceled trains, which numbered no fewer than 3,341 in July, the figure drops to 90,8%.

40% of delays attributed to NMBS/SCNB

Since the beginning of this year, the punctuality of NMBS/SNCB trains has averaged 91,5%, compared to 89,5% in the same period last year.

In July, 17% of delays were due to the lack of robustness of the railway system, that is, delays caused by the imbalance between train services, network capacity, and the resources available for operations.

Furthermore, 40% of delays can be attributed to NMBS/SNCB, 16% to rail network operator Infrabel, and 24,5% to third parties, such as trespassers or cable theft. The remaining 2,5% can be attributed to other causes.

3,341 canceled trains in July

With those 40% NMBS/SNCB delays, the railway company is undoubtedly referring to the string of canceled trains. According to the newspaper Le Soir, for example, 3,341 trains were canceled in July. The number of canceled trains is not considered in the punctuality figures. If you do, you arrive at a punctuality figure for July of 90,8% instead of 93,4%.

Since the beginning of 2025, a total of 27,754 trains have been canceled. That is an average of 3,965 per month, 132 per day, and 4,1% of the total number of trains.

According to the unions, one in three train cancellations is due to a lack of staff. In a response to the newspaper, NMBS/SNCB states that the number of trains canceled in real time has been stable since 2023, although this is no excuse for the many passengers who were waiting for their train.