Belgium’s Railways Explained: One of Europe’s Most Efficient Systems

[@MrAlexs888]

as a belgian im obligated to complain

[@vinny7265]

Feel free to complain my boy

[@no_name4796]

i feel you. As an italian, I often hear praised about how high speed trains. I also strongly feel the need to complain

[@kdebaerdemaeker]

You can also migrate to another country ...

[@Hans-gb4mv]

We often complain, and yes, there's a lot of things that could be improved about our railroads. But when you look at them objectively, they aren't all that bad.

[@Ceelbc]

In Belgium it is bad. However, elsewere it is even worse.

[@ij9438]

I think we Belgians often focus on the negative but overall we can be very proud of our railway system. Let's hope our future governments realise the opportunities that the railway system provides.

[@MigjolVanMjol]

Amen to that.

[@jorgen8630]

The future government wants to defund railways so it will only get worse. They would rather have us sit in traffic for hours every day in out shitty little company cars on our broken down roads instead of having us either stay at home to work or take public transport for free.

[@krootchev]

0:59 this is Bruxelles-Central, not Midi

[@TransportRoutine]

Was about to note that too...

[@pascalquivy5786]

Came here for that comment.

[@e.9628]

hahah yes just because midi sounds like its in the middle, but midi is south in french

[@misterthedarthvader]

Also, at 3:31 , the yellow line follows the A12 motorway and not the actual railway path between Antwerp and Brussels (which passes by Mechelen)

[@imaginox9]

Nice one, to add to that: SNCB is also reintroducing Eurocity international trains to both Paris and Rotterdam in December, they conducted a test during the Paris olympics to see if a Eurocity train between Brussels and Paris would be viable and it met their expectations, as it broke the monopoly of Eurostar and their extrement expensive fares on this corridor that has a LOT of passenger demand

[@Hans-gb4mv]

Well, not all is what it seems. Today we have a service that runs from Brussels to Amsterdam. It is that service that will be replaced by the Eurocity to Rotterdam while another service, Eurocity Direct, will run from Brussels to Amsterdam, no longer stop in Mechelen or Berchem and not be available to passengers going from Brussels to Antwerp on a regular ticket even though people in the Netherlands going from Rotterdam to Amsterdam on a standard ticket can take that train.

[@BertMeuwis]

SNCB doesn’t do freight anymore. Their former freight division is now privatized as Lineas.

[@KayoMichiels]

But the state still holds 10% of the shares via FPIM

[@stoff21p]

Damn, I’ve been living in Leuven for more than a decade and never noticed I was writing the name wrong 😅 /s

[@leveroll]

And now you live in Lueven

[@houseplant1016]

Godverdomme, de stereotype dat Leuvenaars en Antwerpenaren een dikke nek hebben heb jij weer eens mooi bewezen lol

[@ПавелДружинин-ш3м]

hi from Leuven too)))

[@Axel77430]

😂😂😂😂

[@Chrisivisi]

He is back! Welcome back

[@zakaridebreyne1362]

He's back

[@20thReality]

As an Italian living in Belgium I always have to rush to the station and have lost a train numerous times, they're always on time and cannot ever rely on my Italian experience of trains always a few minutes late. Once I wasn't allowed to get on the train despite the fact that it was still on the platform because the train manager had already closed the doors one minute before the actual departure 😭

[@larsmarell4868]

Where in Belgium do you live? My trains are always 5 to 10 minutes late sadly enough..

[@Hans-gb4mv]

I don't know what the regulations are today, but up until a couple of years ago, when they used the AVG switches on the platform to get the departure process started, the regs said to close the door 30s before departure. It is also expected that passengers be on the platform 5 minutes before departure.

[@andreasvancoillie4232]

Ook weer niet overdrijven he, mijn trein is bijna altijd op tijd​@@larsmarell4868

[@benedictdesilva6677]

Delays are unavoidable, but departing -or denying access- *even a second before scheduled departure* times are an ultimate cardinal sin for any self-respecting rail operator. This tenet is programmed into the DNA of train operating staff at Swiss Railways (and integrated public transport in general), and almost certainly in Japan too...

[@TomPuttemans]

@@benedictdesilva6677 Indeed. I've tried to argue about this with people who work for SNCB/NMBS. They seem to be so focused on their internal planning that they don't seem to understand that the physical departure time of a train means nothing to passengers, compared to the time the doors close. So I don't expect this to change any time soon, sadly enough.

[@rejkar]

A bit of a shame that European Sleeper to Berlin was completely ignored, especially since it began before Nightjet.

[@treinspotter.belgie]

To berlin? It goes to Prague 😊

[@wenho770]

Yes but through Berlin as well.​@@treinspotter.belgie

[@rejkar]

@@treinspotter.belgie Now it does, but it only reached Berlin when it began.

[@noabaillot7862]

The Nightjet to Vienna via Liège began before the European Sleeper to Berlin via Amsterdam

[@TreinspotterDDL]

They’re introducing another european sleeper train soon!

[@wyqtor]

OMG original voice is BACK 😍! Brate, we missed you so much!

[@Maxime_K-G]

Good video dude. Even as someone who has been taking the train in Belgium everyday for all my life, I learned some new things!

[@zachhaase9863]

So glad you are back! We missed you!!

[@deepinthewoods8078]

As a Belgian veteran commuter since 1998, i have great trouble to convince my colleagues that the NMBS/SNCB is actually a pretty good company and the finely mazed rail network is quite sensational!!

[@dirkvandierdonck5831]

We have a lot to be proud off in Belgium. We just forget too often ...

[@houghi3826]

The station you called Midi, was central as the images. Yes. It is confusing. Almost as confusing as showing the West as North on the maps.

[@Robbedem]

Yep, Brussel Zuid, is the same station as Bruxelles Midi. Even though Zuid is an entire different word than Midi.

[@machinistje]

@@Robbedemmidi is zuid is also sud. Also used in France, midi Pyrenees. It’s a more exotic version 😉.

[@Robbedem]

@@machinistje really? It looks and sounds like midden, which means the middle. I never even thought it could be a dialect/exotic form of South.

[@mmb2004]

@@Robbedem Back in the day the train stations were named to their destination. for example the train station Brussel-Luxemburg was named that way because the trains departing from there were going to luxembourg. Thats why Bruxelles-Midi was named that way. Because the trains went to the what people called the midi Region in France (i think this region was a popular holiday destination). Later when Brussels was made bilingual again the Dutch speaking community named the train station Brussel-Zuid (south) but the original French name was kept that way.

[@Robbedem]

@@mmb2004 Wow, you learn something new everyday. :)

[@Baddroneflying]

Our narrating hero is back. RE is back to its full greatness

[@mdhazeldine]

Despite the mistakes, this is a good overview video and it's good to have your voiceover back. Much more authentic than the crappy AI one. I do think it would be worth mentioning some of the notable stations and station projects however. Antwerp Central is consistently ranked one of the most beautiful stations in the world, plus you have Liege designed by Santiago Calatrava and they are close to finishing building his 2nd Belgian station, Mons.

[@johnmcqueen4883]

Welcome back - we missed you! Now I’ll look through the comments and see how many others have already said that.😊

[@RailwayNetworks]

Welcome back 🤗

[@BT_watch87]

Yaaaaayyyyyy he's back!!!!!!

[@ED_T]

I go to work by train in Belgium every day, punctuality is an issue sometimes but compared to Germany for example it's quite good

[@numericbin9983]

Aside from indulging in our national sport (complaining), it's fair to say that the often not loved train has helped us during our studies, drunken parties, festivals etc etc. Too many memories associated to that. It feels like being part of our identity, along with the bus and/or the bike. The basic student starter pack :D

[@MigjolVanMjol]

As a Belgian and frequent user of the railway services for more then ten years, I have a passionate love-hate relationship with 'den NMBS'. All delays I've experienced make me want to go on a rant, but recently I've taken to appreciate the incredible work that is delivered daily by the organisation. It's easy to take a day of uninterrupted service for granted when you don't consider the numbers involved. It really is impressive that things don't go to shit more often when you do.

[@springythebunnygirl8031]

as a belgian i love learning about the history of our train railways and this vid sticks with it aswell

[@jaydenbernabela8927]

In the station part you used the Amsterdam metro and an concept of a station that is not getting built yet…

[@nicov1837]

Which one is a 'concept of a station that is not getting built yet'?

[@lpt2606]

yipie my home country. nice vid, but it really drives me nuts that the map is not positioned to the north.

[@FBAV]

Adding something very special to this, which isn't mentioned at all is that in 1843 (!) Belgium built a railway to cross the German border in order to transport goods from the harbour in Antwerpen to the highly industrialed "Ruhrgebiet" in Germany. This track was the first international railway worldwide and it's still in use.

[@federicoactite678]

Try to take the train from Brussels to Luxembourg to see how efficient it is, much slower than the car, older trains and often broken and delayed, it is a nightmare and in the '50s it was faster than today.

[@blackmercury956]

Belgium national railways is borderline communisme. They refuse to upgrade their rolling stock and wait untill there is a hole under the buggy or wait untill a disaster like the FYRA fiasco happens before they take action. 2024 and not a single domestic train have wifi on board. To make matter worse there only the brand new double deckers or the M6 models that are refurbished have power plug on each seast. All the other trains even the desiro have only 4 power plugs for each buggy, which is diabolical.

[@TheBastardo007]

Its a beautifull line but indeed so damn slow, every little town the train stops. That there is no HS train between the two capitals i truly do not understand.

[@Frederick-765]

the trains stop every station it is so slow, you would think they would already introduce skip-stop services :(

[@Bchan]

1:45 Hey that's my depot station! I feel honoured :)

[@elouan.onirio]

I worked for sncb and I must say this is an excellent very accurate video. There's only one smaller confusion : when the voice over is talking about Bruxelles Midi / Brussel Zuid / Brussels South station the video shows images of Brussels Central station, witch is closeby (about 5-7 minutes by train I'd say). But my compliments anyway for this really excellent video. ❤

[@tjoeker680]

Sorry to say, but this video is filled with graphical, statistical, historical and factual mistakes...

[@quintiax]

elaborate which ones

[@Hans-gb4mv]

Please list them and correct them.

[@HeavyRayne]

...are you going to say what they are?

[@MigjolVanMjol]

Besides the information with regard to freight the information seems accurate.

[@brentywenty]

​​@@quintiaxBelgium is currently a trilingual state and not a bilingual one. German is also an official language. I also found it weird that they first called the most important station of Brussels Brussels-Midi, with the Midi being the french word they also use in the french version. But a tad later, he translates the name of that station from the dutch name: Brussels south. They're both correct names, but it's not very consistent. Viewers might not know they're talking about the same station. This just makes me think that this video has been made by just reading a bunch of articles out loud instead of properly researching and putting all their new knowledge into their own words. Edit: midi apparently also means "south", so it could've been a translation from the french version as well. Still, my points stand.

[@theexcaliburone5933]

Eyyyy he’s back I hope your kid’s doing well

[@MrSvenovitch]

From a Belgian train driver: That was not Brux Midi but Brussels Central. Where a boy was stabbed to death by 2 Polish gypsies trying to steal his MP3 player. Rip Joe Van Holsbeeck. Not Lueven but LEUVEN. Images and time frames through this video do NOT correspond at all! ERTMS implementation only sped up after horrific accidents in 2001 (pécrot) and 2010 (buizingen).

[@jansvatek5029]

why was the gypsy part necessary? you are reinforcing the stereotype of Belgians being racist - as a Czech living in Belgium, I can confirm that most Belgians are not racist, but some treat the eastern europeans like uncivilized barbarians.

[@tonguepiercing]

Indeed, as I said in another answer to this video : there are quite some mistakes, mainly in the first half of the video. Thanks for listing some of them !

[@haeffound]

Also the domestic and international number are inverted between the talk and the graphic.

[@MatisseRAdar]

Etcs implementatiom is currently 71%

[@sneezydanger]

Many errors in this video: - Showing Brussels Central video, talking about Brussels South/Midi - Lueven instead of Leuven - Talking about a rail link to the UK in 1958 - Trajectories of the HSL lines This unfortunately does not make the video trustworthy and gets me wondering which other statements are incorrect...

[@sanderrobenek]

As a Belgian train conductor following mistakes: - Talking about Brussels Midi-qspurh station > Showing Brussels Central video -Its not city of Lueven but Leuven (Catholic University City) -The country is trilingual now instad of bilingual. Dutch, French & German are our official languages (German part/language gifted after World war). -Some Data & stats are not correct

[@seppemeert4175]

Me Reading most efficiënt system of Europe. Meanwhile I have to sit on a train for 2:40 hours and have to switch 2 times to travel 64 km

[@AdityaPillai009]

Between which stations do you travel?

[@DS.J]

Just started to watch this video. THANK YOU for bringing the familiar voice back! :)

[@MattijsVandebroek]

The full nationalization was completed in 1958. In 1926 was SNCB/NMBS founded, just because the Belgian government didn't have any money so they could sell shares of their new railway company. Also, did you know that Lueven doesn't exist? It's actually Leuven. By the way, the railways were already connected before 1958 to other countries. In 1843, the railway lines to Aachen (DE) and Valenciennes (FR) were opened. 3 years later, a line to Paris was established.

[@seb_rae]

Good video ! You should do a video about the saturation of North-South connection in Brussels

[@ElrosTar-Minyatur]

Thank god the old voice! ❤

[@Trainviking]

The network is great indeed, however the frequency can be higher, for many trains first class doesn’t add extra value, the rolling stock is very interesting (not always in a good way). Also passenger service information, language topic is an issue in the trains, I’m mainly mentioning this for international connections.

[@The-Flat-Capped-Gamer]

Belgian railways were actually connected to UK's in 1994, not 1958, because the Channel Tunnel opened in 1994

[@noelvanelsen704]

From 1841 onwards, the Belgian government organised a maritime connection between Ostend and Dover, which connected to the railway lines Ostend - Brussels and Dover - London. The connection was a great success, but with the construction of the Channel Tunnel and the arrival of high-speed trains, it lost its significance. In 1997 the connection was definitively discontinued.

[@thierrypauwels]

I do not know when it started, but there was a train connection between Brussels and London much earlier than 1994. They just put the train on a boat in Dunkerque. I think it was a night train. Could have been as early as 1958.

[@stenl4862]

small correction at 8:00 : The line to Frankfurt doesn't go trough the Netherlands, but trough Liege.

[@thomasm010]

3:55 maybe I’m wrong but the picture in the bottom left seems to be the Amsterdam metro right?

[@leveroll]

Indeed, that's Amsterdam's metro line 52 station

[@rico65960]

Yes this is Europaplein in Amsterdam of the metro from gvb

[@kaanerdem2822]

From Ghent to Genk around 150km took me 3h27min while it was direct line it stopped in brussel (midi) and we had to change train to go further. With no information in hand or a human to speak to i had to run from line/perron to line/perron to ask which train i should take to Genk. It was frustrating and ridiculous.

[@wzwzwz]

Finally, the voiceover isn't AI anymore. The previous guy you hired scammed you

[@tonguepiercing]

It is a good thing to underline some of the qualities of the Belgian train system. But there are quite some small mistakes in this video, and also in the maps shown, mainly in the first half of the video. Other reactions point this out too: maybe post a corrected version ?

[@Troglobitten]

Jesus christ why would you rotate maps like that, keep north north.

[@krootchev]

08:05 This map is misleading, because all TGV Bruxelles-France pass by Eastern Paris Bypass

[@jensboomgaard]

Nice video. The drawing of the HSL-Zuid at 7:10 is off though. It does not go past the city of Gouda

[@wouterpaap9343]

Back again, great!!

[@thierrypauwels]

This video looks like a list of figures and facts from a text book, without taking into account the real experience of those who really use the trains.

[@petercortens6019]

choking in my coffee of laughing. I'm sure you never had the privilege to arrive over an hour late in a station, because the train stopped a few times between two settlements without getting any info, to hear your connection will wait one more minute ; so you rush through the sea of people as you don't want to lose another hour, hoping to arrive on the correct platform, no time to check, heart banging in your throat, to be scolded by an angrily conductor that they don't have all day and get the f*ck in the train.

[@pimmemaster6173]

You do realise that most country's share this problem in some way right?

[@allen_likes_roblox]

i think its beacuase of the problem with the budget of belgium, they are giving less money to them thats why the railways are bad

[@tonguepiercing]

I fully believe this has happened to you, but for me 9 out of 10 Belgian train journeys are ‘decent’. The very low frequency and reliability on smaller French lines, the very big delays on German intercity lines, the very high prices for cramped UK trains … if compared, the Belgian railways have their own problems, but they still merit a reasonable score.

[@touwenwaterman1229]

I think you're one of those folks who should admit it's or working in Brussels or living somewhere at the edge of the country, not both?

[@Atlantjan]

As someone who takes an equal amount of trains in Belgium, Germany, and Denmark, Belgium is the least bad of all 3 🤡 yes, sometimes things happen but Denmark makes me sad and Germany lets me question all life decisions while in Belgium I just feel like time-travelling but nothing more beyond that

[@randomgamer2542]

Ronse has the oldest train station on the mainland of europe origianly it was located in brugge but they moved it brick by brick to ronse some say it was build vice versa

[@Optidorf]

Thing is that a lot of train traffic is passing the axis Brussels South - Brussels North where an artificial congestion is created. That's why train punctuality during peak hours is pretty horrible, although it improved a bit in 2024. If some politicians take five minutes of political courage and have a vision to relieve this axis it will make life of a lot of passengers a lot easier.

[@Koeki2332]

It's Leuven not Lueven

[@GreatLeviathen]

Was about to comment that as well, LUeven xD

[@alexandermathar7780]

If you are over 60 , you can use the whole Belgian railway network the whole day long for only 10 €.

[@flitsertheo]

That will be just one more thing to remind me I'm getting old.

[@Kea-nt4vj]

Most efficient... probably. As long as you don't travel in the south-eastern part of the country, where you will have fewer trains, fewer lines, dodgy connections, no staff in small and medium railway stations, frequent delays...

[@abelsuisse9671]

5:08 also behind Switzerland, where all the network has ERTMS

[@Eurobazz]

Thank God you're back!!!

[@berberbro]

7:53 the graphic plots the Brussels - Dusseldorf connection not over the high speed line but over the mainly disused cargo "Iron line" through the Netherlands 😅

[@ovfan_zuid]

u forgot to mention that Arriva now operates the Liege-Aachen route via Maastricht and Heerlen with Stadler flirt 3c (between Liege and maastricht operated by SNCB drivers/conductors) (between Maastricht and Heerlen operated by Arriva Drivers) (between Heerlen and Aachen Operated by both Arriva and DB drivers)

[@Hans-gb4mv]

To improve punctuality, many years ago they made a small change that at first seems strange. They changed from no more than 5 minutes to less than 6 minutes. And if we measured time in integer minutes, that would indeed not be a change, but this essentially gave them a whole additional minute to mark a train as being "on time".

[@ye6207]

8:10 The service between Brussels and Strasbourg shown here is the old conventional line. The current TGV service uses a different route.

[@f205v]

welcome back!

[@GamersAhoy]

I live in Belgium, trains are always late, but i think you never heard of Japan, muuchhhh better and we are trilingual, not duolingual. Flemish, French and German.

[@Hans-gb4mv]

89% of trains run on time in Belgium. No, trains are not always late. And everyone that knows Japanese railroads, and has used them, also knows that delays do happen in Japan as well. People often mistake the punctuality of the Shinkansen for the overall performance of Japanese railroads. Ever used a Japanese train on a third sector railroad? All of a sudden you want to go back to those Belgian trains, that much is certain.

[@Revos_]

@@Hans-gb4mv Late in this situation means no more than 3 minutes iirc, which by definition is still a delay. Imagine having 5 mins of time to catch a connection. Take 3 minutes off, and you only have 1-2 minutes, which is not a lot, yet it's not classified as a delay. Not to mention, iirc as long as a train arrives on time at it's final destination, the delay isn't counted, which means it's not added to the stats. If you have 4 stations for example, station A, B, C and D, and the train runs late between stations B and C but catches up by the time it arrives in D, it's like nothing ever happened, yet travelers between B and C have experienced a delay Locals do tend to act like the situation is much worse than it actually is tho

[@ПавелДружинин-ш3м]

English as well

[@Revos_]

@@ПавелДружинин-ш3м No, the three official languages in Belgium are Dutch (kinda), French and German

[@headslash55]

​@@Revos_that has been increased to 6 minutes

[@SDFerke]

A quite informatieve video even for a Belgian. Offcourse i've got some notes, The ticketprices are actually quite high in my opinion, for example if you want a 1-year subscription you pay a whole mothly salary wich is insane in my opnion. If we talk about the delays.... oh boy, every commuter knows that you must be lucky to only get 5 delays per month if you would travel each weekday with the train, the times your train gets delayed and how frequently highly depends on the route. Like told in the video for a little country as Belgium is, it has way to many station which are causing the delays because of it. They even plan to increase the amount of numbers of trains on the tracks which wont be helping the delays at all. Something which wasn't told in the video is that the average Belgian hates to wait at a railway crossings and results to extra delays because of that.

[@Hans-gb4mv]

Ticket prices are not high compared to other, surrounding countries. If you are a student, you get a hefty discount, if you are a senior, you get a hefty discount, if you travel long distance a lot, there are ways to travel cheaper. If you travel to work every day, your employer is required to pick up at least 65% of the cost, ... . Yes, going on a daytrip with the family by train is expensive. The daily commute? Not so much. We love to complain about delays but forget that a 5 minute delay will not kill us and is usually not critical for our day. It's not as if the alternatives are so much better. And if it happens often enough? You can request compensation. The stations are not the cause of the delays. And many people hate the fact that we lost so many. If anything, we need more stops and stations to make it easier to get around. You know what causes delays? Passengers. Or better, the way we behave as passengers. Have a look at a platform in rush hour. The train comes in and what do we all do? We rush to go stand in front of the door, so that people on the train have problems getting of the train, and then we get in each other's way when boarding, because we all want that empty seat next to the door instead of the first people getting on moving to the middle of the compartment to keep the flow going.

[@RealConstructor]

@@Hans-gb4mvEspecially compared to Dutch train ticket prices, those are insane.

[@jaro551]

How much do you pay then? You are lying or barely earn any money... your employer will pay 71,8%.

[@kauemoura]

Well, it's an unlimited yearly subscription, and it will surely sound expensive if you get that one, but the most expensive second class one will be 3.9 k, which will mean visiting anywhere in the country by 10.7 euros a day. Which means 5.34 euros per trip if you do a round trip. But most people in this country won't travel more than 50 km, like Ghent or Antwerp to Brussels, and that will boil down to 4.21 per trip if you only count work days (250), and that will be in many cases subsidized by the employer. I honestly don't think that any other mean of transportation will be cheaper and more reliable. Driving will have the cost of the car, fuel, taxes, parking, and maintenance, and I honestly doubt it'll be cheaper than 4.2 pert trip.

[@MigjolVanMjol]

@@Hans-gb4mv Well said, especially about passenger behavior. Also, since when did we stop closing the doors between carriages behind us? Why do people insist on letting in the cold during winter and heat during summer? I get they are automated in certain models and non-existent in others but still.

[@RealConstructor]

It is a long time ago since I traveled per train in Belgium, but I always hated the depressing stations and platforms, with maybe an exception for Antwerp CS and Luik/Liege/Lüttich. As well as the lack of any kind of roof or shelter on more stations than I liked. Hope it is changed to the better nowadays.

[@Rokas12345678910]

Hate to disappoint, but it has not. Still run down, weeds growing on the platforms.

[@ПавелДружинин-ш3м]

my friend's backpack was stolen at Leuven station. Brussels is swarming with pickpockets

[@GianUbertoLauri]

If you mean that in 1926 no private railway company was left in the country, I agree. But a state railway system was there in Italy from 1905, even if with some private operators, SV and FNM being probably the largest ones.

[@sorane8910]

"One of the oldest of continental Europe" no no... THE oldest, we were the fist one on the continent

[@jonastheunissen6285]

You forgot the EMU 66-73 series. SNCB's finest EMU's going out of service at the end of this year.

[@nielske145]

What are other European railways like if Belgium is an example? The dense network and safety measures are truth, but a couple of horrible accidents had to happen for that to happen. The two main issues in Belgium are the aging trains and that most smaller train stations are in a horrible state of disrepair. All the money went to the stations of Liège and Antwerp

[@mmb2004]

don't forget Mechelen Central train station

[@tonguepiercing]

The oldest trains are now rapidly being phased out, with the arrival of the M7 double deck trains. It took a bot long, indeed. On the other hand, some of the older trains were remarquably comfortable as compared to some newer ones. The larger train stations are now all modernised, worh some exceptions. The very slow progress of the works in Gent and Mechelen are a bad point, but other stations are making good progress. Your most important point are the smaller ‘stops’ rather than stations. Whereas in other countries these look like ‘simple’ stations, in Belgium they are not worth the name ‘station’. They have lousy signposting, very low platforms, and there are bad herbs growing everywhere. There is no staff, no frquent maintenance, no decent waiting room, often no electronic indication and so on. I have seen recently a number of upgraded ‘stops’ that look a bit better, but at the present speed of renovation we will need another 20 years before they all get to a minimum standard. In the past one could blame the SNCB/NMBS for making wrong decisions concerning some of the bigger stations (build in a too ambitious and expensive style), but the story is complicated, with a partially NMBS company ‘eurostation’ and oberambitious politicians having played a role in this. Meanwhile NMBS is well aware of these errors of the past, but they could not stop the building of Gent, Mechelen and Mons stations ‘half way’, so they will in some form have to be finished. Meanwhile they have a better approach, but they can only go as far as the political will to provide financing.

[@NassimKoceir]

Do not forget Mons train station. And Brussels-south was not even finished :P

[@MigjolVanMjol]

@@tonguepiercing It does seem the current CEO has got a very good head on her shoulders so I'm hopeful about the organisation's future.

[@yourfriendlyneighborhoodlizard]

Yes Finally im so happy ive waited for this thx

[@jaro551]

I have a subscription for the first railway line on continental Europe! I didn't know, very cool. I see a lot of people complaining, but I barely have any. I have taken this train route for 3 years many times per week!

[@multitijlie]

tbf although there are a lot of big issues like late trains , pretty high costs and most importanly terrible accesibility for dissabled people we have a great trainrail system

[@StefanWithTrains]

Uhhh, the route of HSL-Zuid you show (from Rotterdam to Hoofdorp) isn't correct AT ALL. You show the 2nd alternative route that high speed trains take when the HSL is out of service for maintenance. The line you showed is the alt. Via Gouda. The HSL Zuid is a pretty straight line to Amsterdam.

[@jermainetrainallen6416]

Thanks for the vid. Sounds like Belgium's railway system is very efficient

[@stephanekolijn4211]

Well you should come and try it out for yourself. Please make a video of your face at the end. It will be hilarious 😂

[@doughunt9621]

0:21. Not a Belgian train, a British Standard locomotive

[@Del-bm]

Thanks for the video

[@kauemoura]

Beste reizigers, votre attention SVP, it's time I watch this video about my employer.

[@vdlr]

never seen gare du midi under such a good angle!

[@nargileh1]

0:59 The images shown when the narraion is describing 'bruxelles midi' station is actually 'bruxelles central'

[@Kytetiger]

nice video! 01:21 It was between the old North Station (it's a park now) and Mechelen 02:01 *Leuven 04:50 It's the result of the actions taken after the "Buizingen train collision"

[@gerhard6105]

There not two but three languages official in Belgium. German.

[@nikoo2]

good video, i hate how you shift the angle on the maps tho :)

[@sirati9770]

It also doesn't give students a discount ticket who are 27... Even if the campus is divided between two cities

[@TheKadanz]

One word to remember about belgian railway whenever you visit the country "staking". Chances are high you'll be seeing that word a lot; bring a tent.

[@thierrypauwels]

Considering strikes, my experience is that strikes are far less frequent in Belgium than in France.

[@maxbarr3954]

1:21 actually,o think for there where other before. For example on the Le Coteau to St étienne line,some passanger trains start running as early as 1833 (i can be wrong but that should be right) on the already completed part of the line

[@mathivds21]

Living in Belgium, so often my train is cancelled or delayed with more than 10 min. I wouldn’t call that quite efficient tbh 💀

[@axlbosmans493]

as a belgian i am reading the title and be like how most of the time the trains breaksdown or there is atleast a 30 min delay or my train doenst show up and this is between antwerp and ghent a pretty busy connection also the part where he speaks about cheap travel for students i am ike huh ? becasue i student pays around 800 euros a year a subscription for the nmbs

[@ricktrickshots2642]

Welcome back

[@Vandaelepieterjan]

The figure at 4:51 is wrong (and right at the same time). In 2022, there was indeed 3,333km of railway track equiped with ERTMS; but in total there is 6,399km of main railway track, so the coverage was about 52%. The wrong percentage probably from the fact that Belgium has about 3,600km of railway lines, but many of these lines consist of two (or more) tracks, hence the 6,399km of total track. To present the most recent number: currently 4552km/6399km or about 71% is equiped with ERTMS, which is still among the best in Europe.

[@TheOlgaSasha]

Nice and informative video. In Ukraine we have also 25 kV AC and 3 kV DC electrificated lines. As a rule, all new directions were electrificated (and will be electrificated in future) only on 25 kV AC which is much more rational and profitable than 3 kV DC. Nowadays Ukraine has dual system, so the problem of changing locomotives in docking staitions remains. So Ukraine is aiming to build more dual system locomotives and dual system intercity trains and EMU (before all railways will be electrificated/changed on 25 kV AC).

[@geerd1]

Very well explained, thanks man!

[@RailwaysExplained]

Thanks for support ☺️

[@thibaultmol]

You forgot to mention the night train operated by the co-operative European sleeper. I agree with some of the other people in the comments section, I think you should consider having some trusted people that know a lot about the topics to review The video with a giant watermark over it or something, before making a public. Just like how Linus tech tips has the ECC squad to check for errors

[@Z7Sept.]

1:02 on screen is Brussels-Central not midi. But, they are close one of each other

[@eurojamie]

Good work. Are there any new/former railway routes planned/proposed to be built/rebuilt in the future in Belgium?

[@leonpaelinck]

Line 50A is getting quadrupled between Brugge and Gent.

[@AlexanderBraekevelt]

Always sounds good on paper, but is unreliable in practice. Once planned a whole vacation by train which was ruined because the first train got cancelled. I live in Belgium btw.

[@Nautiliam]

As in every video about Belgium, Belgians have been summoned.

[@paulbelfastlimerick]

Yes, the railway system is excellent and I used it a lot when my brother worked there. HOWEVER if a single word was daubed in 1"/2.5 cm high lettering on the outside of an Irish Rail carriage, it would be withdrawn from service immediately and cleaned promptly. NMBS/SNCB do not seem to have the same attitude. The graffiti are appaling!