Just like Covid-reportings, every country/train company has different ways to count punctuality. A different margin(NMBS probably doesn’t count fewer than 5 mins late, or if it arrives on time at end station, but many delays inbetween), nor do they count cancelled trains.
No… Despite what many Belgians think and like to complain about, our trains are some of the most punctual and affordable in Europe.
Its a joke
Depends who’s counting and what they decide is valid for counting.
When I count, my train is delayed pretty much 93% of the time.
What exactly counts as ‘long distance’?
They leave the cancelled trains out
Long distance only, so this ignores nearly all passenger trains
Freight trains and those passing by our railroad to join The Netherlands with France or Germany are surprisingly punctual granted they don’t necessarily use the same rails nor do they need to stop by any station
So, joke? No, accurate? Yes, representative of anything? No
Well, NMBS only counts delays if they are longer than 6 minutes and trains that got cancelled dont show up in the delay statistics at all. But it is true that if you compare with a lot of other countries rail travel in Belgium isnt so bad. Mind you, there is still a lot of room for improvement!
Long distance trains*
It helps that a few years ago the NMBS changed the definition of “being on time”.
In Belgium we like to complain, but in my experience this is accurate. I travel a lot by train in a lot of countries, and while we might have a large amount of minor delays, you’ll rarely be more than 15min later at your destination than scheduled. This is fine, this is a margin I’d also take when traveling by car.
In Germany, however, I’ll always take an hour of extra margin. Despite the reputation, DB is the absolute king of delays and cancelled trains. And if you don’t have the Deutschland Ticket subscription they’re ridiculously expensive too.
So yeah, we’re doing pretty okay.
Define ‘punctual’ , NMBS / SNCB has a pretty special defenition for it. And the percentage is impossible even with their definition.
You people don’t know your luck.
Needs Japan and UK for scale.
I guess we complain too much
But what do they mean with “long distance trains” is it only the main ic lines like Antwerp Charleroi, Eupen Oostende, Genk Blankenberge. Does it include the high speed trains? There aren’t really many other long distance trains in Belgium in my opinion
Belgians when the train is 5 minutes late: “what an outrage!”
Belgians when they get stuck in traffic for an hour: “this is fine.”
18 comments
Just like Covid-reportings, every country/train company has different ways to count punctuality. A different margin(NMBS probably doesn’t count fewer than 5 mins late, or if it arrives on time at end station, but many delays inbetween), nor do they count cancelled trains.
No… Despite what many Belgians think and like to complain about, our trains are some of the most punctual and affordable in Europe.
Its a joke
Depends who’s counting and what they decide is valid for counting.
When I count, my train is delayed pretty much 93% of the time.
What exactly counts as ‘long distance’?
They leave the cancelled trains out
Long distance only, so this ignores nearly all passenger trains
Freight trains and those passing by our railroad to join The Netherlands with France or Germany are surprisingly punctual granted they don’t necessarily use the same rails nor do they need to stop by any station
So, joke? No, accurate? Yes, representative of anything? No
Well, NMBS only counts delays if they are longer than 6 minutes and trains that got cancelled dont show up in the delay statistics at all. But it is true that if you compare with a lot of other countries rail travel in Belgium isnt so bad. Mind you, there is still a lot of room for improvement!
Long distance trains*
It helps that a few years ago the NMBS changed the definition of “being on time”.
In Belgium we like to complain, but in my experience this is accurate. I travel a lot by train in a lot of countries, and while we might have a large amount of minor delays, you’ll rarely be more than 15min later at your destination than scheduled. This is fine, this is a margin I’d also take when traveling by car.
In Germany, however, I’ll always take an hour of extra margin. Despite the reputation, DB is the absolute king of delays and cancelled trains. And if you don’t have the Deutschland Ticket subscription they’re ridiculously expensive too.
So yeah, we’re doing pretty okay.
Define ‘punctual’ , NMBS / SNCB has a pretty special defenition for it. And the percentage is impossible even with their definition.
You people don’t know your luck.
Needs Japan and UK for scale.
I guess we complain too much
But what do they mean with “long distance trains” is it only the main ic lines like Antwerp Charleroi, Eupen Oostende, Genk Blankenberge. Does it include the high speed trains? There aren’t really many other long distance trains in Belgium in my opinion
Belgians when the train is 5 minutes late: “what an outrage!”
Belgians when they get stuck in traffic for an hour: “this is fine.”
Less or no trains equals more punctuality