National Railway Company of Belgium

Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox company

The National Railway Company of Belgium (Template:Langx, NMBS;Template:Efn Template:Langx, SNCB;Template:Efn Template:Langx)Template:Efn is the national railway company of Belgium. The company formally styles itself using the Dutch and French abbreviations NMBS/SNCB. The corporate logo designed in 1936 by Henry van de Velde consists of the linguistically neutral letter B in a horizontal oval.

History

NMBS/SNCB is an autonomous government company, formed in 1926 as successor to the Belgian State Railways. From 1942 to 1944, amid Nazi Germany's occupation of Belgium, the company was paid 51 million Belgian francs by the Nazi Germany to send 28 trains carrying 25,843 Jews and Roma people to Auschwitz where only 1,195 survived.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> The company also sent 16,000 political prisoners to concentration camps.<ref name=":0" />

In 2005, the company was split up into three parts: Infrabel, which manages the railway infrastructure, network operations, and network access, the public railway operator NMBS/SNCB itself to manage the freight (B-Cargo) and passenger services, and NMBS/SNCB-Holding, which owns both public companies and supervises the collaboration between them. Essentially, this was a move to facilitate future liberalisation of railway freight and passenger services in agreement with European regulations. Several freight operators have since received access permissions for the Belgian network.Template:Cn In February 2011, NMBS/SNCB Logistics began operating as a separate business.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Faced with rising losses, in June 2012, the Belgian transport minister announced further reform: NMBS/SNCB Holding would be split up, so NMBS/SNCB (the train operator) would be separate from Infrabel (the infrastructure owner). Unions oppose the reform.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

NMBS/SNCB-Holding was merged into NMBS/SNCB in 2014 in order to simplify the structure of the Belgian railways.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

NMBS/SNCB holds a Royal Warrant from the Court of Belgium.Template:CN

Operations

In 2008 NMBS/SNCB carried 207 million passengers<ref>Template:In lang Jobs B-Rail Template:Webarchive. Jobs.b-rail.be.</ref> a total of 8,676 million passenger-kilometres over a network of Template:Convert (of which Template:Cvt are electrified, mainly at Template:3,000 V DC and Template:Cvt at Template:25 kV 50 Hz). In 2024, that number rose to 245 million passengers carried.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The rail network has expanded to Template:Cvt of which Template:Cvt are electrified.<ref name="infrabel">Template:Cite web</ref>

The network currently includes four high speed lines suitable for Template:Convert traffic: HSL 1 runs from just south of Brussels to the French border, where it continues to a triangular junction with LGV Nord for Template:Stnlnk and Template:Stnlnk (and London beyond that), HSL 2 runs from Template:Stnlnk to Template:Stnlnk and onward to Template:Stnlnk, HSL 3 runs from Liège to the German border near Aachen and HSL 4 connects with HSL-Zuid in the Netherlands to allow services to run from Template:Stnlnk to Template:Stnlnk.Template:CN Template:Clear left

National enforcement body

If passengers are not satisfied with the answer of railway companies or do not receive any answer in one month,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> they can seek the assistance of the Federal Public Service Mobility and Transport.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>