Wires Crossed in Belgium

[TheSeeker]

Hello from a long time lurker.

I hope a short introduction is ok.

I live in Belgium and commute by train from Braine l’Alleud south of Brussels up to Antwerp. I find the SNCB system fascinating, usually reliable but sometimes quite frustrating when we have strikes and other issues. Plenty of international workings and loco hauled passenger services make it an interesting place.

Even my own station of Braine l’Alleud is busy for a modestly sized town. Four platforms and a good mix of local and express services. One sad thing is lack of progress on the Brussels RER which should have come down to us by now. All the earth works are done, new bridges, new OLE in some places and even two new stations nearby but no sign of the tracks being laid.

Two strange things happened to us in our old house in Molenbeek, Brussels.

Firstly we would regularly get phone calls from people in Belgium trying to get through to Aachen DB station lost property office. It was obvious that they had forgotten to add the country code for Germany and were dialing our number in Belgium rather than the international number for Germany. Once an American teacher phoned from a hotel in Brussels saying that a student of hers had left a bag on a train and what could she do as they were flying home the following day. Some people used to get quite angry once I’d pointed out their mistake but some were grateful for the help.

The second strange thing were calls from a driver phoning a signal box asking for permission to proceed. This went on for a long time, at all hours of the day until we finally moved house and took the chance to change our fixed line phone number. My thoery was that the GSM-R set in the cab had been configured with the wrong number. Is that possible? Do they have speed dial presets?

Cheers all, I really like reading the international section.

Ben

 

[duncanp]

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.....I find the SNCB system fascinating, usually reliable but sometimes quite frustrating when we have strikes and other issues........

Ben

Just like the railways in the UK then

Having travelled quite a bit on the SNCB/NMS system, it agree it is usually reliable. The clockface timetable on many routes, where trains to a destination leave at the same minutes past each hour throughout the day, often at weekends as well as during the week, is appreciated.

As an English speaker, you get to learn the various announcements and listen out for words such as "retard/vertraging", "afgeschaft/supprimee", or "changement de voie/spoorverandering".

The language used for announcements reflects the part of Belgium you are in.

Even on the short journey from Lille to Kortrijk, the announcements are in French only whilst the train is still in France, in French first and Dutch second when the train arrives at Mouscron, and in Dutch first and French second when the train arrives at Kortrijk.

Fares on the Belgian system are quite reasonable as well, by UK standards at least. The premium for first class not nearly as much as in the UK, which makes it worthwile on busy routes (eg Brussels - Oostende) at busy times.

Will be visiting again in the summer, staying just over the border in Lille, which is served by some SNCB/NMBS services.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I'm a great fan of the Seniors ticket in Belgium (anyone over 65).
This is €6.20 for a return trip between any 2 stations, after 0900, just walk up and buy.
There's a €3.40 cross-border supplement for Roosendaal, Maastricht and Aachen, but not for Luxembourg or France.
There's nothing like it in adjacent countries, certainly not for casual visitors like me.
And welcome to the forum by the way!

 

[MarkyT]

Hello from a long time lurker.

The second strange thing were calls from a driver phoning a signal box asking for permission to proceed. This went on for a long time, at all hours of the day until we finally moved house and took the chance to change our fixed line phone number. My thoery was that the GSM-R set in the cab had been configured with the wrong number. Is that possible? Do they have speed dial presets?

When I worked in the British Rail signalling design office at Reading back in the 1980s, I occasionally got similar operational calls to my desk landline, on the internal phone system though rather than the public network. Before the modern emphasis on accurate communications protocol, the messages consisted of a brief statement such as "awright for the yard mate?" or similar. Often there would be months without a call, then I'd get another one out of the blue. For regular shunt movements there were and still are direct line voice comms from a signal or ground frame telephone to signaller or shunter's cabin so I assume crews were using the general purpose dial phone network, or possibly cab NRN (national radio network) facilities, with a wrong number in event of failure of the primary method, hence the rarity and intermittent timing of the calls. NRN was an early but unsophisticated internal cellular mobile system allowing drivers to manually dial any 'internal' railway extension number and vice versa.

 

[gysev]

Even my own station of Braine l’Alleud is busy for a modestly sized town. Four platforms and a good mix of local and express services. One sad thing is lack of progress on the Brussels RER which should have come down to us by now. All the earth works are done, new bridges, new OLE in some places and even two new stations nearby but no sign of the tracks being laid.

Since two years, budget cuts have halted much of the work. All resources are now used on the Brussels - Denderleeuw line and the replacement of the signalling system on the busy Noth-South line in Brussels.

 

[MarcVD]

Aha, un compatriote !

I don't know how old you are but I personally find SNCB much less fascinating than it used to be in the past. Much more variety in rolling stock, many different liveries, 3 signalling systems... Today it gets à bit dull, the same everywhere. It becomes more and more difficult to recognize where a picture has been taken. I've not completely lost interest but I admit being much more fascinated by what happens far away than within my own country.

Envoyé de mon GT-I9505 en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[dutchflyer]

Since two years, budget cuts have halted much of the work. All resources are now used on the Brussels - Denderleeuw line and the replacement of the signalling system on the busy North-South line in Brussels.

Thats why the complete N-S tunnel will close for all trains on the long weekend 29+30/4+1/5 (and hope they dont go on strike on labour day-which would necessitate more days to work on it).
To be fair-they have spent millions on quadrupling Brussel-Leuven and are still busy with Brussel-Namen.
A specific feature of the NMBS is also the supply of delay-notifications that workers can pass on to employe to explain why they are late.
There are also similar cheap fares for juniors (Go pass), and for anyone who can manage 10 single trips in 1 year (Railpass-76 eur for 10 trips of any length).

 

[CdBrux]

Having recently moved away from Brussels after 7 very enjoyable years living there (and hardly ever taking the train) I got the impression a lot of the RER delays are down to politics, especially between the various regions.

 

[MarcVD]

Indeed but not only. Cost inflation is a serious issue too. And finally the fact that all those works won't allow much more trains because capacity will still be limited by the six tracks section between Midi and North.

Envoyé de mon GT-I9505 en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[317666]

I find the Belgian network very interesting, admittedly not quite as much with the large influx of new stock (both locos and units) over the last few years. I'd agree that the fares are very reasonable, especially the weekend ticket - a half-price (I think) return with the return portion valid for the rest of the weekend! I've generally found reliability to be good, the odd minor delay here and there but very little in the way of major issues. If there is large-scale disruption, it's such a dense network that I've found there's usually an alternative route!