Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – In 2024, NMBS used taxis 2,021 times, costing €251,662 due to train delays. MP Dorien Cuylaerts criticised reliance on taxis, highlighting systemic service issues in major Belgian stations.
As Newsblad reported, Last year, Belgium’s national railway company, NMBS, had to use taxis 2,021 times to help passengers affected by train delays and cancellations. 783 trips were for individual passengers, while 1,238 trips were shared with multiple travellers. The total cost of these taxi services was €251,662. The information was provided by Minister of Mobility Jean-Luc Crucke (Les Engagés) after a request from MP Dorien Cuylaerts (N-VA).
What led NMBS to deploy taxis 2,021 times last year amid train delays?
Most taxi trips started from Belgium’s main railway stations. Brussels-South recorded 211 departures, Ghent-Sint-Pieters had 172, Liège-Guillemins reached 293, and Kortrijk had 131. Other stations, including Antwerp-Central, Bruges, Charleroi-Central, and Namur, also recorded dozens of trips.
MP Dorien Cuylaerts (N-VA) says the problem of passengers being stranded is not limited to small towns or rural areas. She points out that the figures show even Belgium’s largest cities cannot always guarantee that travellers can get home by train.
“These numbers show that delays and cancellations are not rare events. They are a recurring problem that affects confidence in the railways,” Cuylaerts said. She describes the issue as systemic and warns that it undermines trust in public transport.
Cuylaerts also criticises the growing dependence on taxis to cover train disruptions. She says it is not sustainable for NMBS to treat taxis as a regular expense in the railway budget. “If we want more people to use trains, evening services must be reliable,” she said.
In 2024, NMBS, Belgium’s national railway company, had operational problems and increased train cancellation rates that were both notable. In a given month, they cancelled an average of 4,070 trains, a situation that has been associated with the condition of the rolling stock and systemic challenges within the broader network. While punctuality improved, rising from 87.5% in 2023 to 89.7% in 2024, the use of taxi fares as an alternative has been scrutinised by politicians such as MP Dorien Cuylaerts.
