The SNCB Board of Directors reconfirmed its decision of 6 September regarding the train offer for 2025. This reconfirmation follows the previous cancellation decision taken by Minister Gilkinet. The Board of Directors asks the Minister to submit this offer as soon as possible for approval by the Council of Ministers, in accordance with Article 8 of the Public Service Contract.
Planned as part of the 2023-2026 Transport Plan, this new rail service will come into effect on December 15, 2024. It represents an additional 2% growth in the number of train-km, in addition to the 1% extension already implemented in 2024. This increase is supplemented by the return to service of 220 trains that had been temporarily withdrawn from the service since 2022, due to a significant staff shortage following the health crisis.
This increase in supply in 2025 constitutes a step towards the objective of growing rail supply by 10% by 2032, as set out in the Public Service Contract.
At the request of the Board of Directors, the SNCB Management Committee will produce an updated projection of the evolution of the workforce in rolling stock by December 2024, enabling progress to be made in the deployment of the 2023-2026 transport plan and in achieving the ambitions of the Public Service Contract.
SNCB Transport plan for 2025
- Expansion of the S-train
Around Antwerp, the suburban S-train between Puurs, Antwerp and Essen will run twice an hour for the first time on Saturdays. Since the beginning of September, this train has again been running twice an hour on weekdays between Antwerp and Essen.
From June 2025, the S81 between Schaerbeek, Brussels-Schuman, Ottignies and Louvain-la-Neuve will run all day on weekdays and no longer only during peak hours. This will involve a third S train per hour between Ottignies and Brussels. It will also stop in the European quarter. This extension is possible because the section of track between Brussels and Bakenbos will then be extended to four tracks.
The S connection Ghent – Lokeren – Oudenaarde – Ronse will run every hour from December thanks to the addition of three trains.
- The “Dampoortexpress”
From December, the direct train that runs during peak hours during the week between Sint-Niklaas, Lokeren, Ghent-Dampoort and Brussels (also called “Dampoortexpress”) will also return to its original schedule, arriving at Brussels-Midi at 8:30 a.m. In December 2023, this train was brought forward by one hour after Infrabel refused to grant the train path due to a conflict with a Eurostar train.
- Modification of the IC Brussels-Antwerp
Between Antwerp and Brussels, there will be four IC trains per hour instead of five from December – in addition to the two suburban S trains – one of which will serve Brussels Airport. Indeed, an IC connection lost its slots to Eurostar due to capacity limitations on the network and after an arbitration procedure conducted by Infrabel, and this on the basis of the higher infrastructure usage fees that these trains generate.
- More trains to the European Quarter
In June 2025, Infrabel’s work on the Carsoel bridge in Saint-Job will be completed. Two tracks will then be available again on the railway line between Brussels-Luxembourg and Saint-Job station in Uccle. This will allow more S trains to run again between Brussels-Luxembourg and Nivelles on the one hand, and between Brussels-Luxembourg, Halle and Enghien on the other: in total, this represents 33 trains per day.
- Optimizing punctuality
From December onwards, the route of some trains departing from and arriving at the stations of Mons and Dendermonde will be modified. Around Mons, this concerns several L trains and around Dendermonde, an IC and a suburban S connection. These adaptations will improve the robustness of the railway system and therefore the punctuality of trains in the region.
- Changes to existing offering due to infrastructure
Following a feasibility study carried out by Infrabel to ensure the national and international train service and the transport of goods by the various network operators, the route of certain IC and S trains has been modified.
One consequence is that the IC trains between Liège-Guillemins, Ans, Waremme and Brussels will follow a different route and will also stop at Brussels Airport. These stations will thus have a direct rail connection to Zaventem airport. The journey time between Waremme and Brussels with the IC train will increase by 13 minutes. This is offset by the creation of a new additional possibility to travel to Brussels, thanks to the extension of an S connection between Waremme and Landen. In addition, the P trains will continue to run during peak hours, allowing a journey in less than an hour, as is already the case today.
A second train per hour will now stop at Sint-Truiden and Alken throughout the day. From Aalst, the journey time to Leuven will be reduced by 14 minutes.
From December, a P train will again run in the evening between Ghent-Saint-Pierre and Kortrijk.
A morning P train between Kortrijk and Ghent will not be able to run due to the saturation of the infrastructure capacity in Ghent: this train will however be preceded and followed by IC trains with sufficient remaining capacity.
- Trains (re)put into service
This increase in the supply of trains over three years is in addition to the reinjection in 2025 of 220 trains per week (mainly to strengthen the suburban supply), the number of which had been revised downwards in 2022 due to significant staffing problems after the covid crisis.
This includes, for example, a second S train per hour during peak hours between Antwerp and Herentals and several P trains around Ghent, Grammont and Kortrijk.
The realization of important partnerships with neighboring countries
The 2025 offer also provides for a strengthening of SNCB’s international offering, in collaboration with its international partners, to make the train a sustainable and comfortable solution, including when travelling across Europe.
Concretely, two new relationships will be formalized from next December:
- Faster route between Brussels and Amsterdam
In collaboration with the Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), SNCB will deploy a new international high-speed rail link between the stations of Brussels-South and Amsterdam-Zuid from December 2024, 16 times a day (round trip). The link will be put into service with new ICNG trains belonging to NS.
The new connection will be added to the classic IC trains (also 16 daily return trips) that connect the stations of Brussels-South and Rotterdam-Centraal, via Brussels Airport, with stops at Brussels-Central, Brussels-North, Brussels Airport, Mechelen, Antwerp-Berchem, Antwerp-Central, Noorderkempen, Breda and Rotterdam. This will therefore double the number of trains to and from the Netherlands. The classic IC train can be used for domestic journeys as is currently the case. This is not the case for the international connection between Brussels and Amsterdam.
- Classic rail link to Paris
A new rail link between Brussels and Paris will also be set up from December 2024. This is a classic train that will connect the two capitals, via Mons.
Share on:
