Belgian railway to give smaller stations a facelift

Belgian railway company NMBS/SNCB will until 2032 invest between €30 and €40 million a year in a facelift for its smaller stations. The investments will be used amongst others to improve the accessibility and signalling, as well as for an expansion of bicycle and car parking facilities.

The 455 smaller stations, where fewer than 10,000 passengers take the train every week, should get uniform platform facilities. The NMBS/SNCB will provide new shelters, benches, trash cans, signage, station clocks and illuminated information boards. The crushed stone still present at certain platforms will be replaced by cast asphalt. The train stations will also get totems, which should make them stand out in the streetscape. Lighting will be replaced by LED lighting.

The accessibility of the train stations will be improved. The aim is to increase the number of bicycle parking spaces by 30 per cent and the number of car spaces by seven per cent across the country by 2032.

The number of train stations that are autonomously accessible, so with facilities for the blind, visually impaired and people in wheelchairs, should double by 2032. The focus here is on larger stations, but the number of smaller stations that are autonomously accessible should also increase by half by 2032.

The investments are part of the public service contract that the NMBS/SNCB concluded with the federal government in 2023.

_{Railway tracks and platform of the Heizijde station at the Belgian countryside © BELGA PHOTO BELGIAN_FREELANCE}