Why Belgium’s STRANGEST Looking Train Is Actually a Brilliant Design

Today, we take a trip on the Belgian AM96 train. With its strange rubber front design, it certainly stands out, but despite its unusual appearance, this design is actually very clever. So, join me on this journey from Antwerp Central to find out why this is an amazing design.
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Train type: AM96
Route: Antwerpen Centraal - Kortrijk - (Poperinge / Lille-Flanders)
Train: IC 713
Distance: 106km
Journey time: 1h25m
Average speed: 75km/h
Price: 7.5 € Youth / 18.60€ Full Fare

[@liamtahaney713]

Definitely the most comfortable trainset on NMBS but can get way overcrowded. The reason gent looks run down is because its undergoing massive construction. 4th busiest station in belgium cant just shut down, so they work from platform to playform

[@bjornroesbeke]

And they lack the funds to finish it.

[@geertvanhaute4157]

​@@bjornroesbeke construction is still continuing

[@Jeanlabinski]

Construction started in 2007.

[@mattiesmusic]

@@Jeanlabinski maybe it will just always be under construction, at this point it feels that by the time it will be finished, it will already be old

[@Dylan_Lanckman]

@@bjornroesbeke they're massively over budget too. But it seems like recently work is starting to advance faster tho.

[@NQR-9000]

I'm a train driver, and I can tell you the AM 96 is also great to drive. The ergonomics of the driver's cab is almost perfect and its comfort is very good, they are reliable and accelerate and brake well. They are now all equiped with ETCS, so they are very safe too. They just have three "faults" : - The first class takes too much space, and it makes the second class too often crowded (usually, the first class doesn't take more than a quarter of the space, but in an AM 96, it's a third) -There is no really dedicated space for bikes -They uncomfortably "bump" in the low speed switches because the stop of their lateral damper is quickly reached.

[@Bchan]

Another train driver here. I can confirm this!

[@ToMiKoN]

@@Bchan These trains are on of the best on the Belgian net. Maybe they need to rethink the the 1ste class and put some bike/multifunctional 2nd class there. Power outlets and a new information system with tv's are very welcome updates too!

[@TournavisTheBlind]

Blind guy here, i recognize the voice of the conductor at 4:55. Really chill guy!

[@NCG337]

Kinda surreal to see "Belgium’s STRANGEST Looking Train" in the title followed by a thumbnail of a train I've pretty much been taking daily for years! Never stopped to think how a design I've come to view as ubiquitous is really not all that standard in the grand scheme of things. Great video as well!

[@paulthiel5145]

Yes, Antwerpen Centraal is also one of my favorite European railway stations together with St. Pancras and Milano Centrale. It's just stunning and also an engineering marvel.

[@RealConstructor]

The inside is magnificent, but the outside not as much. I like the outside of Amsterdam Central Station more.

[@NicoDeclerckBelgium]

The original station was designed by the city architect of Bruges, and yes, it IS stunning.

[@Hepsewind]

Fun fact, the Gent station started rebuilding in 2007 and they are now nearly done with half the platforms. Well not as fun for us locals.

[@Charlemagne1367]

It would have been much smarter and considerate to first renovate the station and put customers first instead of building that stupid diamond office building next to the station.

[@istoppedcaring6209]

worse, just look up at the light fixtures in the new portion, they aren't even cut out correctly, you can see it's a hatchetjob the new floors are fine but it doesn't make up for the many many mistakes, (like benches that are inches from the ground, concrete that looks like it was poured by 6 different corporations who didn't know of eachother, constant changes but never with any realy evidence of improvement

[@shirshenduroy]

It has been 17 years already and so many more years to go. :/

[@priscilabee583]

17 years to do half, OMG

[@verttijineu2776]

rebuilding in 2007 and they are now nearly done with half the platforms 😳😂😂😂😂😂

[@JelMain]

Prior to 2007, Antwerp was a true terminus, so trains from the south headed further north reversed direction and circled through the eastern suburbs.

[@stijnjanssens571]

this is (a part of) the comute i take to college every week, the trains are some of my favorites the belgian rail has to offer, very confratable and usually quite clean. but at 11:00 you do say "less busy services" but especially on sunday evening between Antwerp and Gent the 12 cars are needed and usually quite packed with college and university students making their commute. also also, there are a couple more power outlets to the left and right of the doors to the passenger compartments (on the side of the seats) hidden on the wall above the luggage racks. nice video btw! :D

[@nk-i-sumpan]

Another fantastic video on the channel! Somehow, you manage to take these ubiquitous, less spectacular, train routes, and make great content out of them. Flot film, Simon!

[@touwenwaterman1229]

They are really nice trains for a cross-country journey in a weekend or on a cloudy holiday at 1pm. The moment when one minute earlier or later doesn't really matter and travellers volumes are modest. They are really not made for huge commuter volumes at rush hour. Only two small doors at the end of each carriage. Boarding and unboarding can take quite long... (oh and the electro-engines make a quite enjoyable sound when picking up speed 🙂)

[@sorane8910]

I took that kind of train A LOT of time back then, and soon, I will drive it in a simulator. And when I'm ready, I will drive one for real. Amazing video, I also love Antwerpen Centraal.

[@ilannghost6306]

That's my dream. To be a train driver. Seems so much fun. And of course trains 🤩🤩

[@yunusyilmaz144]

Best of luck for the phase 0 in training

[@sorane8910]

@@yunusyilmaz144 Thank's ! I already pass all the selection so... I can't wait to start the actual training.

[@pommeNM]

I’m Belgian and the AM 96 actually inspired a ghostly entity in my sci-fi story. It’s just really uncanny when it passes by in the morning mist or evening at full speed, when you just see its yellow eyes and its round shaped head, getting closer and screaming like a damned soul

[@MentalParadox]

Living here, this just looks like a train. Never imagined it would look "strange" to foreigners

[@neoderidder7734]

They're making new carriages nowadays that have outlets in the middle of every seat but most train are still the old ones. Im lucky to have the new one.

[@Devkumar43072]

That train is a one eyed minion of the minion class of train haha

[@LReBe7]

The Gent-Sint-Pieters station has been under renovation since 2002, the contractor that was doing the work went bankrupt and they had to redo the whole tender procedure to hire a new contractor. The reason that the two last platforms are different, is because they had to redraw the plans after the whole debacle, because there wasn't enough money to finish the initial design.

[@deepinthewoods8078]

Back in the 1990s this train was pretty sensational as it brought new colors and a fresh new style to the Belgian railways (and air conditioning!), but nowadays it's showing its age a bit. There are some minor inconveniences which have been sorted out in the more recent trains in Belgium, like the inner doors closing unexpectedly when the train is standing at a station, the seats reclining slightly too much, etc... But all in all it's still a good train and even now i'm using this model at least once a week...

[@herrmeistermann2426]

6:18 and a fine view of a Eurostar Thalys.

[@LunaMoonview2003]

This is my first time seeing Antwerpen-Centraal and while the train was cool, that train station was amazing to see.

[@BoyFromBelgium99]

*Greetings from Bissegem!*

[@daviano_R.T.]

I think the reason why the door is lock is because to make sure passenger didn't get on the wrong train, knowing both unit is going different way😅

[@haikodekoster5129]

Gent is keeping the first part of the station original, to keep it as heritage. that being sayd, i think they could do with fixing it up to its original state, instead of just a quick paintjob now and then

[@Drago1995]

i adore these trains they are so comfortable in both second and first class so is the I11 coachs from 1995 which these are based on but the AM96's are much bigger, and Ghent Sint pieters has been under construction since 2007-08 i been to high school and now working and it's still under construction, welcome to Belgium lol.

[@SVCars11]

Thanks for making this video. I live in Antwerp, the station is even better in real life.😁

[@NicoDeclerckBelgium]

Nice video, but there is a similar ticket for 26+ as there is for 26-, it's just slightly more expensive at 10.2 euros per fare.

[@gentuxable]

If the door was open and you happen to be on the wrong side while the train leaves Kortrijk you will end up in France. That would be terrifying lol.

[@1.loveArt]

That's why in some trains there's a panel saying at which halt it will stop. Also if your going for france the conductor will always say that if your wanna go to [place] or [other place] it's in the other wagons.

[@shirshenduroy]

Happened to me once. The announcements are not consistent. Its Flemish always plus sometimes in French and English. There's always chaos. Plus sometimes, the connecting train to Lille is not attached and people have to change platforms. This adds to the confusion.

[@Charlemagne1367]

Not gonna happen. There is a safety feature preventing the train from moving with an open door.

[@1.loveArt]

@@shirshenduroy yeah I understand that. I almost got in the wrong train once when I heard the announcer it was going for poperinge and ieper.

[@scara1701]

These are so much better than those Desiro trains.

[@petrovski1114]

next time you take on of these trains, let me know. I do the maintance on those trains. I could elaborate on the technical side. they are maintained in Kortrijk.

[@cgheeraert]

This week 3 broke down, monday in harelbeke, thursday in kortrijk west, i forgot the third, sadly its getting wors

[@Compasscard]

Wow, a reasonably modern train without 20 minutes delay, that would be awesome for my daily commute to brussels. It's all not that rosy as it appears here.

[@nikwijns720]

best 2de clas seats of the whole nmbs

[@RUNETHERABB1T]

Gives me IC3 vibes...

[@Mrwaffles-gr3so]

Train station looks straight out of Harry Potter 😮

[@nathandunnn]

These sort of do look like a worse looking IC3 even though they're still pretty cool

[@ViktorFromDK]

They are also a Flexliner train like the IC3, IR4 and Øresundståg

[@drdewott9154]

Yeah but the journeys these go on are generally also much shorter, as the IC3 is often used on 3-4 hour journeys, whereas the AM96's work seems to be largely trips below 2 hours in length.

[@tim_peaky]

There are also power connections at the first and last seats of the cabin.

[@Not-Only-Reaper-Tutorials]

I'm in Antwerp several times per week. Yes it's a very nice station.

[@resender329]

So I know this line very well as it was the line I had to take for my higher education and I live near the line in Gent. Small fact about Antwerpen Centraal it hall was used to represent the main station of Brussels in the Aghata Christie Poirot television series staring David Suchet as Hercule Poirot

[@valentinlemaire9699]

It's my favorite train. Yet it doesn't exist in any miniature scale/gauge...

[@jappedut9009]

"Rubbernose " was the first I thought of😂😂😂

[@ohnezuckerohnefett]

It's a brilliant DANISH design!

[@delijnspotter]

Litterly the best train the NMBS has. It will only go down once they will go out of service

[@emptybucket1988]

I live in Antwerp Yes! our train station is world famous too think i walk true this station everyday

[@Gowron50267]

Not sure which statistics you are using but Gent is the 3rd lagest city in Belgium, not the 4th.

[@tjoeker680]

Gent is the fifth largest city in Belgium. It's just that Liège and Charleroi have their city and thus statistics cut up like Brussels. Which means the population numbers you find online are only talking about the city center, not their suburbs. Liège and Charleroi are only a tad bit smaller than Antwerp.

[@holygooff]

@@tjoeker680 No Liège is rather large, but definitely smaller than Antwerp. Charleroi and Ghent are more similar; although Gent is a bit more urban in the core, while Charleroi is a typical more suburban style industrial city.

[@jandron94]

By population or area ?

[@bartg6681]

Next time I dare you to take any line outbound Turnhout . It will be a total different experience, I can assure you 😂.

[@Charlemagne1367]

Binche...🤣

[@annyb.2110]

Especially if the train is one of those (hopefully) refurbished 'pig-nosed' trains from the sixties! 😂

[@WOLF36554]

I could see my house in this video, as well as my old elementary school. Also, how did you like Kortrijk station?

[@realg00mbavr]

Looks also close to x31k öresundståg wonder how the cab looks

[@Pengu-q4i]

very blue

[@TeamasTwiffleton]

It’s øresundståg, not öresundståg

[@ViktorFromDK]

Both (as well as the IC3/MF and the IR4/ER) are part of the Flexliner family

[@TeamasTwiffleton]

@@Pengu-q4iyes

[@Newbyte]

@@TeamasTwiffleton The "Öresundståg"-spelling is used officially too.

[@jvav]

at the door in the seating is on one side either left or right side a poweroutlet

[@Optidorf]

Those seats are in fact quite uncomfortable. Especially the head rest is a bit bent to make really sure your head is in the most uncomfortable way possible.

[@trs4u]

That rubber front has to be hollow / inflatable, right?

[@cgheeraert]

There are two kinds, 400 series can run on two different voltages, 500series only on one(3000V)

[@Peterigepan]

You also missed the coat hangers

[@KiwamiJoryu]

Wait until you get those days where you have 45min of delay. Even had a day where all trains were cancelled and was stuck in at the station, late at night, 50km from home, no taxis or anything. Fast forward, got my driving's license and now get to work 30 min faster. Screw the NMBS

[@Charlemagne1367]

Typical belgian whiner, probably flemish as well, who doesn't understand the railway structure or any of it's workings. Nmbs is a third party user and is dependant and has no control over what Infrabel does. Nmbs is not the only infrastructure (Infrabel) user. There are many goods trains companies too, and they also have to run their trains and break down in front of other trains. A major problem is the number of trains we have running belgian tracks. People always like to compare with Japan for example, In Japan they daily have 800 trains for 27000km, in Belgium it's 3600 trains for 3200km of tracks. That's over 40 times the volume of Japan's railway. If you want the same amount of punctuality as Japan, you will have to content with 100 trains per day in Belgium instead of 3600 per day. Belgians tracks are oversaturated, but politicians always want more trains, idiots. More than half the delays are caused by travelers themselves, for example there is more than 1 door on a train for boarding or people running the tracks which is out of Nmbs control, agressions against the train managers, etc. Faulty stops signs or track switches in an Infrabel problem, not Nmbs. Agreed, Nmbs can always improve and take more efforts with getting newer material so less breakdowns can occur, and maybe start treating their employees better. There is a world of difference in that regards compared to Ns for example. Also being a political oriented company doesn't help either, many at the burocratic level have no inkling of how to run trains. And with your car, start your gps and you will very often be later than announced or stuck in traffic on a daily.

[@TheSpikeX]

Kortrijk!! Woot woot!!

[@johnalder6028]

At one time a tavern car was common on commuter trains.

[@adema1978]

The AM-96 is also known as a Danish nose. But you missed the most interesting of Antwerpen Centraal. It is close to the zoo and smack in the middle of the jewish quarter. A pity you did not go all the way to Ieper as it's a very interesting historical town.

[@RaiseDennis]

cool channel

[@emptybucket1988]

I think the train station was renovated

[@belgian-trains]

10:38:what do you mean showing it´s age. Those trains are some of the best in belguim

[@raakone]

ARe these a relative of the IC3?

[@johnalder6028]

Very nice. Any food service on that train?

[@foreheads766]

sadly not really a thing on Belgian trains. But almost every station tends to have a panos or something to buy sandwiches, snacks or coffee's.

[@Charlemagne1367]

Why ? For journeys that take an hour ? Max. is about 3h30.

[@collectioneur]

Based on the Danish IC3...

[@ROESTIG_]

as someone who lives in Antwerp, every time someone visits and compliments the station i can't help but mention that it was built using slave labour money from the colonies in Congo. That usually picks people's jaws back up from the floor pretty quickly

[@ferry602]

Honestly, trains are more than 75 percent too late or canceled, toilets in most trains are out of service or locked 😡

[@ilannghost6306]

Yeah. Those trains don't do that anymore

[@warb635]

Ghent, the 4th largest city in Belgium? Is it not number 3, after Brussels and Antwerp? In population that is. Probably depends on the exact definition of largest city.

[@pawion]

If we go by the "administrative" (municipal) city then Antwerp is first (540k) followed by Ghent (270k), Charleroi (205k), Brussels and Liège (both 195k). Now, nobody would say Brussels is fifth. Going by agglomeration it is: Brussels (1,9M), Antwerp (900k), Liège (500k), Ghent (390k) and Charleroi (290k).

[@warb635]

@@pawion 1st thing I find was number of people in the city itself: Ghent 3d. But you're correct about agglomeration.

[@martiglesias60]

Its Belgian ! Not Belgium's.

[@martijnkosters9024]

No, you are wrong there. 'Belgium's strangest train' or 'the strangest Belgian train'

[@Letsgobyland]

Haha yes funny face😂

[@TeamasTwiffleton]

Im not Dutch but I think Gent is pronounced more like “hent” with like a really hard h sound. Great video though!

[@JelMain]

The Low German G is perhaps the most variably-pronounced consonant I know of. Depending on locality, it can be aspirated through an h sound to virtual silence. I spent 18 years in Belgium, am a quarter Belgian, and somewhere in my childhood picked up sufficient Flemish to speak it functionally without ever having studied it! Flemish and Dutch are about 100 years apart.

[@touwenwaterman1229]

In local dialect and generally in the Western Belgian accent it's indeed more like "Hent". In Standard Dutch it's a soft g, similar to a "ch" but just a bit harder

[@herrmeistermann2426]

Simon is Danish, and in Danish G is pronounced hard, as in Glad or Glass.

[@MrSvenovitch]

Only pronounced like that by West Flemish people. Who in my opinion have a serious speech impediment.

[@JelMain]

@@MrSvenovitch Well, Ghent is in West Flanders, close enough. Notice the spelling difference. My great grandpa was Bourgmeester van Oostende, in passing.

[@Basieboy123]

ghent is third biggest city not fourth

[@SEKRET61]

German

[@NeroVanLint]

i am no TRAIN FREAK/ENTHUSIAST, i am belgian so i was very curioso to know why this train was rubber and flat. I got no answer, but a review of a skanky old NMBS train. thanks. u were nice in the video. but no real answer. 2/5 :c

[@nanderv]

He did explain it during the video, at 4:15 and again at around 7:50. I rate this comment 2/5, complained about something that's explained in the video ;).

[@MrKhushrenada]

The paid toilets have benefits as they are mostly ran by single elderly women who want to make a bit of extra money on top of their pension. And if they do the job right they will clean the toilet immediately after someone has visited it. I as a Belgian gladly pay a few cents to make sure I get a clean toilet. 😉✌

[@holygooff]

True, although they could do it in a different way. In the UK toilets are free and clean. I suppose the toilet ladies are paid in a different way.

[@foreheads766]

I'm not gonna lie I sometimes just walk on trains that don't leave for a long time still and use their toilet if I really gotta go at a station. The stress of it making me end up in Brussels makes me shit faster.

[@yulpiy]

@@foreheads766 I do the same, why pay if it can be free right.

[@caramelldansen2204]

:)

[@Brooo0-x6y]

Who is going to clean the toilets when they are unpaid?

[@MrSvenovitch]

yo mama

[@Brooo0-x6y]

@@MrSvenovitch 🤭 kanker grappig

[@RealConstructor]

I hate the front and back of these Belgium and Denmark carriages, it looks like the head of a tapeworm.

[@Charlemagne1367]

No worries, in Belgium there are very few spares left to replace them.

[@evelineneirynck-fw6kz]

10:50 i’ts for cleaning the train