Study of turning the idea into firewood for the Flemish Railway

Division of the Belgian railways. That, in a nutshell, is the proposal made recently by former railroad chief Mark DeSchemaker (N-VA) in an interview with the morning On the table to address the narrow on the rail. NMBS and De Lijn will then be merged into one company on the Flemish side. “This is much more efficient to coordinate buses, trams and trains,” he said. Flemish nationalists had been demanding a regional railway division for ten years.

What would a Flemish train look like? Will the traveler be better off now? This has been debated for years, if only because Belgian railways – which will soon celebrate their bicentenary – are so interconnected. Star-shaped railway lines lie around Brussels and cross language borders 31 times. In addition, they cross borders into our neighboring countries 16 times. Everything is connected to everything.

Hoping to settle the debate, Gilkent—himself an outspoken supporter of federal railroads—commissioned his services to study the division. This shows that approximately 1,200 trains cross the regional border between Flanders and Wallonia every day. Approximately 1,500 trains pass through the Brussels region daily. In total, approximately half of train passengers cross regional borders.

The latter will have to move more often than now, and this between different railway companies. New stations will also have to be added, which will entail additional costs. Costs that may be included in the prices. In addition, supplying the ports of Antwerp, Ghent and Zeebrugge would become more expensive in this scenario. A number of important supply lines from abroad pass through Wallonia. Gilkinite rule? “The N-VA plans are bad science fiction.”

According to Mark Deschemaeker, it is positive that Gilkent is willing to think about interventions that go beyond existing political doctrines. “Though his analysis seems more like a few arguments quickly put together to avoid substantive debate,” he chided. Deschmaeker emphasizes that Flemish Railways can grow into a high-performance operator. “A split is entirely possible.”

When asked whether the size of Flanders would be too small for its railway system, Deschmaeker said no. “Countries like Denmark, Norway and Luxembourg have smaller operators than us.”