The National Railway Company of Belgium (, NMBS; , SNCB; ) is the national

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

company of

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. 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. The company also sent 16,000 political prisoners to concentration camps. 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 Liberalization or liberalisation (British English) is a broad term that refers to the practice of making laws, systems, or opinions less severe, usually in the sense of eliminating certain government regulations or restrictions. The term is used ...

of railway freight and passenger services in agreement with European regulations. Several freight operators have since received access permissions for the Belgian network. In February 2011, NMBS/SNCB Logistics began operating as a separate business. 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. NMBS/SNCB-Holding was merged into NMBS/SNCB in 2014 in order to simplify the structure of the Belgian railways. NMBS/SNCB holds a Royal Warrant from the Court of Belgium.

Operations

In 2008 NMBS/SNCB carried 207 million passengers a total of 8,676 million passenger-kilometres over a network of (of which are electrified, mainly at and at ). In 2024, that number rose to 245 million passengers carried. The rail network has expanded to of which are electrified. The network currently includes four high speed lines suitable for traffic: HSL 1 runs from just south of

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

to the French border, where it continues to a triangular junction with LGV Nord for and (and London beyond that), HSL 2 runs from to and onward to , HSL 3 runs from Liège to the German border near

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

and HSL 4 connects with

HSL-Zuid The HSL-Zuid (, ), is a 125 kilometre-long (78 mile) High-speed rail in the Netherlands, Dutch high-speed rail line running between the Amsterdam metropolitan area and the Belgium–Netherlands border, Belgian border, with a branch to Breda, ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

to allow services to run from to .

National enforcement body

Sometimes passengers are not satisfied with the answer of railway companies or passengers do not receive any answer in one month, in which case they can seek the assistance of the Federal Public Service Mobility and Transport.

Gallery

File:NMBS MS08 08004, Antwerpen Centraal.JPG, NMBS/SNCB MS08/AM08 Desiro train in Antwerp-Central station File:M7 Trein.jpg, NMBS/SNCB M7 double-decker train File:M6 Rail Car R01 (cropped).jpg, NMBS/SNCB M6 double-decker train File:Luik Guillemins 2016 2.jpg, Liège-Guillemins station File:Station Brussel-Centraal Loketten.jpg, Brussels-Central station's main hall File:Leuven station AM08 2014.jpg, NMBS/SNCB MS08/AM08 Desiro train in Leuven station File:Station Wezemaal 2020.jpg,

Wezemaal Rotselaar () is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality located in the Belgium, Belgian province of Flemish Brabant, Flemish-Brabant, near the convergence of the Demer and the Dijle. Since 1 January 1977 the municipality comprises the towns of ...

station in 2020 before renovation, with old station sign File:NMBS totempaal in station Kiewit 2020.jpg, Kiewit station pylon with B logo File:Station Kiewit met trein 2020.jpg, NMBS/SNCB MS08/AM08 Desiro train in Kiewit File:Station Begijnendijk 2020.jpg, Begijnendijk station in 2020 File:Station Bouwel 2020.jpg, Bouwel station with B logo with level crossing signs File:NMBS SNCB logo 3.jpg, B logo in Brussels-North station

Footnotes

References

External links

Bueker.net – Map of the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg rail networksSNCB website
*List of stations: Liste des gares SNCB - Lijst van NMBS-stations
Collection of Google Earth locations of SNCB stations
(require
Google Earth software
from the Google Earth Community forum. * {{DEFAULTSORT:National Railway Company of Belgium Railway companies of Belgium Eurostar Railteam Belgian companies established in 1926 Railway companies established in 1926 Belgian brands Government-owned companies of Belgium Government agencies established in 1926 Government-owned railway companies Companies involved in the Holocaust