>No less than 22 percent of the switches on the Belgian track are approaching the end of their lifespan or have already passed that end. 23 percent of the level crossings also need to be renewed, just like 12 percent of the tracks. The figures from rail network operator Infrabel show that the rail network urgently needs a facelift.
>
>One of the major projects is the renewal of the overhead wires. 20 percent of all overhead wires, good for about 800 kilometers, are more than 60 years old. These need to be replaced urgently. Another 1,300 kilometers of overhead wires are halfway through their service life and need thorough maintenance.
1) Defund railways
2) Service deteriorates
3) People start hating on the railways
4) Politicians can defund it even more because people are hating
5) Service deteriorates even more
6) People get even more angry, claim public transit will never work
7) Privatisation of the entire system
We are at #6 right now. Not sure when we’ll reach #7.
I really wonder how they spend those 3,5 billion every year.
Well, we are just moving to be closer to a rail station, as the Belgian transport is still better than British (not by much tho), but miles behind German or Dutch public transit.
The latter is interesting as Dutch public transit is semi-privatized (with the state having a veto/majority share).
If they keep slashing the budgets, this is what happens.
Suprisingly, they upped the budget slightly this year. So maybe next year they’ll go: “See, we raised the budget and it did nothing!”
So every year we spend more and more on the railway to get less service? Nice , unions have utterly destroyed this company.
3000+ cancelled trains per month and more than 15% of the ones that do drive arrive late. ‘Confidence is completely gone’ ? no shit
And this article demonstrates why the population will never tolerate less funding of company cars. There simply is no decent alternative.
Probably under-invested to further privatise the sector.
The NMBS and Infrabel are perfect example of corporate sprawl.
The government should invest more budget in railways, that’s for sure.
But the railway company should become a hell of a lot better at using the budget too.
They should scrap any project that does not contribute to running better and safer trains in the short run. Why spend millions on in-train wifi projects if the trains don’t even run on time? Why does the NMBS needs their own mutual health insurance fund? Why is the NMBS/Infrabel spending billions on stations that are architectural and budgetary monstrosities whilst basic rail services are falling apart?
The government should make sure the railway companies got their priorities and incentives right and right-size the companies’ size for that before adding additional budget.
I wonder the role of the unions that plays in all this?
It’s a shame really, in the future we are going to need more public transportation, way more.
But the NMBS needs to be purged seriously before we can build on it.
It’s just full of inefficiencies. (and I’m not referring to small stations or rural lines but to management and organization)
And saving money on maintenance of trains and tracks is just criminal mismanagement. It’s always more expensive when breakdowns or accidents happen, not to mention the human cost.
As someone who lived in other places than Belgium…
Belgium trains are great man. Large network, fast, cheap to use for common people.
For daily commute you do have some delays sometimes, but you have that with cars as well.
Biking infrastructure needs a lot of improvement though.
Allow private companies to transport people, some healthy competition might encourage trains to be on time.
The biggest problem with Infrabel is that when you work at one track, adjacent tracks must be closed too. So, maintenance is absurdly difficult, expensive and disruptive to train traffic and peoples lives. If you have to close the whole train route, pay for dozens of buses and destroy days of passengers lives just to fix one switch, you decide to not do it unless its too urgent and very expensive. In all other countries you can work under traffic.
Just like IT industry, hire from India. Indian Railways has extensive experience in running trains and has a huge talent base. It will be a win win for both countries.
Disclaimer: I’m an Indian IT consultant working here in Belgium
A lot of discourse here. Here’s my opinion, as said by others: it seems like the public is encouraged to dislike the NMBS, either by the company itself or by legislation.
Europe is definitely building towards a more continental trainway system. It would be a shame if the Belgian piece of that puzzle is privatised.
Haven’t taken a single train as of two months ago that isn’t delayed.
Oh good, the cutting of funds over the past decades is finally showing. Now nobody trusts them anymore we van argue this needs to be privatised.
Keep quit about this being the playback that has been used in several countries, nobody needs to know
I call this “sabotage from above”, or as Chomsky once put it:
“That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital”
IMHO the smartest thing (i.e. the worst thing for the public) the saboteurs ever did was to privatize most railway transport of commercial goods in Belgium.
Now if the unions actually want to strike against the ridiculousness, all they can really do is pester other members of the general public, who cannot take a train that day, and the newspapers will be eager to convince people the strikes are just some kind of insidious profiteering. De Morgen is hardly better than the other papers in this regard.
Just fyi: Infrabel just received millions but it’s clearly not enough to renew all the infrastructure. A lot of projects are on hold or never started. They are working with competent companies but they just don’t have the funds to tackle the needs. They need +3 billion for the coming years. So that 250 million is hardly enough
From Scotland here, your trains are much better than ours. My partner is working over there now replacing those overheads 😅
22 comments
These baffling details explain a lot:
>No less than 22 percent of the switches on the Belgian track are approaching the end of their lifespan or have already passed that end. 23 percent of the level crossings also need to be renewed, just like 12 percent of the tracks. The figures from rail network operator Infrabel show that the rail network urgently needs a facelift.
>
>One of the major projects is the renewal of the overhead wires. 20 percent of all overhead wires, good for about 800 kilometers, are more than 60 years old. These need to be replaced urgently. Another 1,300 kilometers of overhead wires are halfway through their service life and need thorough maintenance.
1) Defund railways
2) Service deteriorates
3) People start hating on the railways
4) Politicians can defund it even more because people are hating
5) Service deteriorates even more
6) People get even more angry, claim public transit will never work
7) Privatisation of the entire system
We are at #6 right now. Not sure when we’ll reach #7.
I really wonder how they spend those 3,5 billion every year.
Well, we are just moving to be closer to a rail station, as the Belgian transport is still better than British (not by much tho), but miles behind German or Dutch public transit.
The latter is interesting as Dutch public transit is semi-privatized (with the state having a veto/majority share).
If they keep slashing the budgets, this is what happens.
Suprisingly, they upped the budget slightly this year. So maybe next year they’ll go: “See, we raised the budget and it did nothing!”
So every year we spend more and more on the railway to get less service? Nice , unions have utterly destroyed this company.
3000+ cancelled trains per month and more than 15% of the ones that do drive arrive late. ‘Confidence is completely gone’ ? no shit
And this article demonstrates why the population will never tolerate less funding of company cars. There simply is no decent alternative.
Probably under-invested to further privatise the sector.
The NMBS and Infrabel are perfect example of corporate sprawl.
The government should invest more budget in railways, that’s for sure.
But the railway company should become a hell of a lot better at using the budget too.
They should scrap any project that does not contribute to running better and safer trains in the short run. Why spend millions on in-train wifi projects if the trains don’t even run on time? Why does the NMBS needs their own mutual health insurance fund? Why is the NMBS/Infrabel spending billions on stations that are architectural and budgetary monstrosities whilst basic rail services are falling apart?
The government should make sure the railway companies got their priorities and incentives right and right-size the companies’ size for that before adding additional budget.
I wonder the role of the unions that plays in all this?
It’s a shame really, in the future we are going to need more public transportation, way more.
But the NMBS needs to be purged seriously before we can build on it.
It’s just full of inefficiencies. (and I’m not referring to small stations or rural lines but to management and organization)
And saving money on maintenance of trains and tracks is just criminal mismanagement. It’s always more expensive when breakdowns or accidents happen, not to mention the human cost.
As someone who lived in other places than Belgium…
Belgium trains are great man. Large network, fast, cheap to use for common people.
For daily commute you do have some delays sometimes, but you have that with cars as well.
Biking infrastructure needs a lot of improvement though.
Allow private companies to transport people, some healthy competition might encourage trains to be on time.
The biggest problem with Infrabel is that when you work at one track, adjacent tracks must be closed too. So, maintenance is absurdly difficult, expensive and disruptive to train traffic and peoples lives. If you have to close the whole train route, pay for dozens of buses and destroy days of passengers lives just to fix one switch, you decide to not do it unless its too urgent and very expensive. In all other countries you can work under traffic.
Just like IT industry, hire from India. Indian Railways has extensive experience in running trains and has a huge talent base. It will be a win win for both countries.
Disclaimer: I’m an Indian IT consultant working here in Belgium
A lot of discourse here. Here’s my opinion, as said by others: it seems like the public is encouraged to dislike the NMBS, either by the company itself or by legislation.
Europe is definitely building towards a more continental trainway system. It would be a shame if the Belgian piece of that puzzle is privatised.
Haven’t taken a single train as of two months ago that isn’t delayed.
Oh good, the cutting of funds over the past decades is finally showing. Now nobody trusts them anymore we van argue this needs to be privatised.
Keep quit about this being the playback that has been used in several countries, nobody needs to know
I call this “sabotage from above”, or as Chomsky once put it:
“That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital”
IMHO the smartest thing (i.e. the worst thing for the public) the saboteurs ever did was to privatize most railway transport of commercial goods in Belgium.
Now if the unions actually want to strike against the ridiculousness, all they can really do is pester other members of the general public, who cannot take a train that day, and the newspapers will be eager to convince people the strikes are just some kind of insidious profiteering. De Morgen is hardly better than the other papers in this regard.
Just fyi: Infrabel just received millions but it’s clearly not enough to renew all the infrastructure. A lot of projects are on hold or never started. They are working with competent companies but they just don’t have the funds to tackle the needs. They need +3 billion for the coming years. So that 250 million is hardly enough
From Scotland here, your trains are much better than ours. My partner is working over there now replacing those overheads 😅