Earlier this week, the Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir published an article stating that the Transport Minister Georges Gilkinet had overturned a decision made by the board of the state-owned rail operator Belgian Railways (‘NMBS/SNCB’).

Despite the Minister’s clear disagreement, the NMBS/SNCB board unilaterally decided to cancel the promised increase in train frequency, especially during evenings and weekends. This reduction jeopardises NMBS/SNCB’s commitment to increase ridership by 30 % by 2032.

After all, just two years ago in 2022 NMBS/SNCB had committed to those objectives in its renewed directly awarded taxpayer-subsidised Public Service Obligation (PSO) contract.

NMBS/SNCB justifies its about-face by citing a shortage of drivers and trains. Yet, these two issues have already been well-known for a long time.

It now appears that NMBS/SNCB very likely made such a committment just in order to please the Belgian government – in exchange for keeping the rail market closed to market opening for 10 more years, until the end of 2032.

Had the Belgian goverment opened the rail market – even partially – to competition in 2022 (which does not contradict maintaining PSOs), then it would now be in a much stronger position to ensure operators respect their commitments and to avoid having such a “State Within A State”.

ALLRAIL’s Katharina Dekeyser says: “We congratulate Minister Gilkinet and his team for their firm decision, and we urge them to maintain their position – and not to be intimidated“.