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Back On Track Belgium sees recognition for night trains in new Government Agreement but questions practicalities

Posted by Timothy on

Sleeper train travel advocacy group Back On Track Belgium has mixed feelings regarding the new Government Agreement in Belgium. The Kingdom has now a government after some eight months since the June 2024 elections. Such a long formation period is nowadays not unusual in Belgium and in Europe. 

On 31 January 2025, five political parties agreed on forming a federal government. On Monday 3 February, new prime minister Bart De Wever (N-VA), took the oath from Philippe I, King of the Belgians. The new minister for Climate, Mobility and Ecologic Transition is Jean-Luc Crucke, from the Christian democratic party Les Engagés. 

The Government Agreement

“We encourage European cooperation in the field of rail traffic to obtain more and better European train connections, both for freight transport and passenger transport. We therefore advocate a real European strategy that ensures that the train becomes an alternative to the plane. In that light, it is crucial that the national airport is better connected by international train connections. We therefore connect Zaventem airport with direct high-speed train connections between the HST nodes in all our neighbouring countries. We also focus on night trains by private companies. The government undertakes to remove all possible technical and regulatory obstacles to the development of night trains, as well as to the development of competition or new lines on high-speed connections. We take into account the impact on domestic rail traffic”, Back On Track Belgium finds in the text. 

Also: “Brussels is recognised as an international hub and a connection between different railway lines. The government will investigate how investments can be planned to increase transit capacity through the capital.”

Vague or even contradictory agreement

“Firstly, we are pleased that the government recognises the usefulness of night trains by also mentioning them in the coalition agreement, but for the rest the agreement remains vague or even contradictory”, Back On Track Belgium reacts. 

“The positive point in our view is mainly the intention to work at European level to make it easier to introduce night trains. There is certainly still work to be done there. It is still difficult to find equipment (sleeping and couchette cars) that can run everywhere in Europe.” 

“The core of the problem is that night trains are rarely or never profitable, which means that operators, whose aim is to make a profit, have no reason to run night trains or build this type of equipment. Even heavily used night trains are still being cancelled, such as in the past the Thello between Paris and Venice (very busy direction) or recently the night trains from Gothenburg by SJ.”

Night train must be developed by private party(ies)

The coalition agreement explicitly states that they are focusing on private night trains, which is strange since the government cannot impose on a private company to run night trains to our country.” 

“Or is the De Wever government going to draw up an OSP contract for this? And thus actually take/initiate and direct the initiative themselves. If they do not do this, the initiative lies with the operators, not with the government.”

An OSP contract stands for ‘Obligation service publique‘: a contract in which the characteristics of a public service are listed and the compensation that the government pays to the operating company.

High-speed train to/from Brussels Airport pointless

“The part about the airport is not about night trains because night trains are never a good combination with an airplane, only a replacement for a short or medium-length flight. Nobody is going to fly to São Paulo and first take the night train to Bordeaux to save some flight kilometers. No, that is too crazy for words.”

“So that part is about high-speed trains, but is this a good idea? A Thalys /  Eurostar or ICE currently takes between 1:50′ and 2:05′ between Brussels-South (Midi) and Cologne, a distance of 200 kilometers. An extra stop at the airport would cost an extra twenty minutes, which means that an expensive HST would hardly or not at all save time compared to a regular train or car journey. Are we going to penalize all train passengers by diverting them for twenty minutes to pick up airplane passengers?”

Brussels Airlines and Brussels Airport would very much like high-speed trains stopping at the airport. 

“Moreover, the same problem applies here as with the night trains: HSTs in Belgium are all commercial trains that are put in place on the initiative of an operator with the aim of making a profit”, Back On Track Belgium continues.

“They are not a public service. The European Union does not allow this without an OSP contract, and a government may not ask for a service without drawing up such a contract and paying a fair fee for it. How is the government going to force these commercial enterprises to stop under the airport? Is Eurostar and ICEs going to be recognised and subsidised as a public service? We are curious how they are going to solve this. We think that this is not going to happen and that it is also not desirable without building a completely new HST network.”

Brussels recognised as an international hub

Finally: Brussels is recognised as an international hub of various railway lines. What does such recognition by the government offer to the traveler?

“We think that this recognition would be granted automatically, by the public! And not by the government. The most important condition is that we can also take trains in all directions in Brussels again.” 

“Remember: until 2000 we could still travel directly to Italy, Austria, Scandinavia, the Spanish border, almost all cantons of Switzerland, to Poland and Russia, Slovenia… several times a day all year round.” 

“If we were still able to do that, we would have been recognised as a hub anyway. Now, apart from a few HSTs to mainly nearby metropolises and six night trains per week to the east, we no longer have any long-distance trains. We do not read anywhere how the next government will specifically solve this problem. That is the first condition for becoming a hub again.”

Increased transit capacity is essential

“Finally, we very enthusiastically welcome the increase in transit capacity through Brussels. This is a very good point and absolutely necessary, just like the increase in capacity at other bottlenecks on the network. This also benefits, with respect for the national traveller, the night train that now often ends up at the back of the queue during (overrun) rush hour – queuing for (often) delays abroad.”

More on night trains and transcontinental train travel