Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Belgium’s busiest train stations are Brussels-North (58,300), Brussels-South, and Brussels-Central. Outside Brussels, Ghent-Sint-Pieters (49,000) is the busiest. Hourpes (5) is the least used. NMBS counts passengers yearly but warns of possible errors.
Belgium’s busiest train stations are the Brussels-North, Brussels-South, and Brussels-Central stations, with each one having more than just 58,300 individuals board trains on every weekday. Brussels-North is the busiest on weekdays because many people use it to travel between Brussels and other cities.
Brussels-South is the second busiest on weekdays, but it becomes the busiest on weekends because it’s the main station for international trains, like Thalys, Eurostar, and TGV. Brussels-Central is the third busiest and is near the center of the city, so many people use it to get to work in the city.
How busy are Belgium’s train stations, and which are the least used?
Beyond Brussels, the most congested station is Ghent-Sint-Pieters, with nearly 49,000 individuals boarding trains daily. The second busiest stations are located in Flanders, with Antwerp-Central receiving over 38,000 individuals boarding trains daily, and Leuven receiving over 31,000.
With more than 22,000 and 21,000 passengers boarding trains daily, respectively, Liège-Guillemins and Namur are the busiest stations in Wallonia. Liège-Guillemins is a stop for international high-speed trains, and Namur is the capital of Wallonia and connects Brussels to the Ardennes region.
There are almost 30 train stations in Belgium with less than 50 individuals boarding trains every day. These stations are usually found in rural or remote areas, where trains are not frequent and individuals travel otherwise. The least frequent stations are all located in the Hainaut province, where Hourpes sees only 5 individuals boarding trains daily, Maubray 10, and Beignée 13.
In Flanders, the least frequent station is Aalst-Kerrebroek, with only 15 individuals boarding trains daily. Officials mentioned that even though it’s close to the bigger city of Aalst, not many people use this station because of where it is and because there are other ways to get around nearby.
The Belgian National Railway Company (NMBS) counts how many people use each train station every year in October. They do this by hand, which means it’s the only way to see how many people use the stations over time. But the NMBS says that the numbers might not be completely accurate, especially at stations where not many people use them.
They mentioned that this is because the numbers are only taken for a short time, and things like different seasons, problems with the trains, or events in the area can change how many people use the station.
According to officials, the numbers might not be perfect, but they still help us understand how the train system in Belgium works, showing us which stations are the busiest and which ones are used the least. This helps them decide what to do with the trains and where to spend money to improve the system.
The NMBS says
the result of a short observation over time, which inevitably entails a margin of error, which can be considerable in some cases.
