Belgium wants to help the development of night trains
France, where the SNCF joined forces two years ago with the ÖBB, the DB and the CFF to relaunch night trains across Europe, is not the only country to put on the return of these relations which make it possible to travel a thousand kilometers “in masked time”. Belgium is also affected by this revival, and has been for a little longer, since it was in January 2020 that the ÖBB launched a dependent Nightjet Brussels and Liège to Vienna and Innsbruck. Belgium is also affected by the reopening projects announced two years ago by the French, German, Swiss and Austrian incumbent operators, among those which include a Brussels – Berlin night train, announced for December 2023.
But other night train projects to Belgium are encountering difficulties, whether financial or technical-administrative, in coming to fruition: on the side of new entrants in free accessRegioJet and European Sleeper cannot connect yet Prague, Dresden and Berlin to Amsterdam and Brussels and on the contractual relations side, no operator has volunteered for the Malmo – Brussels which would have been subsidized by the Swedish government.
For the moment in limbo, these two projects, as well as seasonal services to the Mediterranean in summer or the Alps in winter, were cited Georges Gilkinet, Belgian Minister for Mobility, to present the draft bill of the belgian federal government “supporting passenger transport by night train”which was forwarded to the Council of State for an opinion. “I want to give them the signal that they are welcome in Belgium. And if this European first is conclusive, we can hope that other States will follow us”said the minister.
According to the Belgian federal government, “The support scheme included in this preliminary draft supports and encourages the use of night trains by using the charge for the use of the rail infrastructure and the energy costs for the operators. This is how it encourages them to develop their activity from and to our country, as well as to offer more attractive fares to their passengers.. What constant “the international offer is still developing too slowly for the moment”Georges Gilkinet judges that he is “It is essential to offer this concrete support to all current and future European operators, to encourage them to develop the night train offer and provide a solid alternative to air transport”.
With this law, which would be a European first, the Belgian federal government also wants its country “plays a driving role in the European desire to develop more and faster international rail links between the major cities of Europe, with the particular ambition of making Brussels a real international rail hub”, adds the Minister. In a sense, the latter follows in the footsteps of another Belgian, Georges Nagelmackers, who developed the first network of night trains in Europe exactly 150 years ago!
PL