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 Henry Clemens van de Velde (; 3 April 1863 – 15 October 1957) was a Belgian painter, architect, interior designer, and art theorist. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar, he is considered one of the founders of Art Nouveau in Belgium ...

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 The Belgian State Railways ( ; ) was the original state-owned railway of Belgium. Established by an organic law of 1 May 1834, it began construction of its first line, between Brussels and Mechelen on 1 June 1834. This line, which was opened on 5 ...

. 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 Infrabel is a Belgian government-owned public limited company. It builds, owns, maintains and upgrades the Belgian railway network, makes its capacity available to railway operator companies, and handles train traffic control. Infrabel was cr ...

, 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-kilometre The units of measurement in transportation describes the unit of measurement used to express various transportation quantities, as used in statistics, planning, and their related applications. Transportation quantity The currently popular units ...

s over a network of (of which are

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. In the context of history of technology and economic development, electrification refe ...

, 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 The HSL 1 (, ) is a high-speed rail line which connects Brussels, Belgium, with the LGV Nord at the Belgium–France border. It is long with of dedicated high-speed tracks and of modernised lines. Service began on 14 December 1997. The line h ...

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 The (), typically shortened to LGV Nord, is a French -long high-speed rail line, opened in 1993, that connects Paris to the Belgium–France border, Belgian border and the Channel Tunnel via Lille. With a maximum speed of , the line appreciably ...

for and (and London beyond that),

HSL 2 The HSL 2 (, ) is a Belgian high-speed rail line between Leuven and Ans (near Liège) and is long, all of it on dedicated high-speed tracks, which began service on 15 December 2002. As part of the Belgian railway network, it is owned, technic ...

runs from to and onward to ,

HSL 3 The HSL 3 (, , ) is a Belgian high-speed rail line. It connects Liège to the German border near Aachen. The high-speed track length is . The line was technically completed in October 2007; however, it did not come into operation until 14 June ...

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 The HSL 4 (, ) is a Belgian high-speed rail line part of the axis which connects Antwerp to the Dutch border. It is ; of it being dedicated high speed tracks. It was scheduled for completion by 2005 and opened in 2009. Together with the HS ...

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 Federal Public Service Mobility and Transport (, , ), is a Federal Public Service of Belgium. Its head office is located at the City Atrium in the Brussels Northern Quarter business district. It was created by Royal Order on 20 November 2001, ...

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