While punctuality on Belgian railways was higher in February than a year earlier, it was nevertheless the sixth month in a row that more than 16% of trains were running with at least six minutes delay, or were not running at all.
Taking only delays into account, the punctuality of domestic trains in February was 88.2% (up from 86.2% in February 2023), according to figures on the open data website of rail network operator Infrabel on Friday.
This means that about 12% of trains were delayed by at least six minutes on arrival in Brussels or at the terminus. If the more than 4,200 cancelled trains are taken into account, punctuality drops to 83.8% for February – meaning that 16.2% of trains were late or cancelled.
A year earlier, when more than 6,000 trains had been cancelled, the total punctuality figure was 82.4%. While punctuality figures (including cancellations) were still close to 90% in August 2023, it has consistently dropped below 85% since then.
Over three-quarters of delays and cancellations are due to national railway operator SNCB or 'third parties', such as people walking on the tracks and accidents at level crossings.
For example, people walking on the tracks at Gent-Sint-Pieters station on 20 February led to over 3,800 minutes of delays and 68 cancelled trains, one of the incidents with the biggest impact in February.
