http://www.flandersnews.be/cm/flandersnews.be/News/071226_rail
"Punctuality off the rails"
Wed 26/12/07 - There are growing concerns that for the third year in a
row the punctuality of Belgian trains has deteriorated.
Rail expert and journalist Herman Welter (Corelio publishing group)
today published his latest findings.
(Belga)
Using the rail company's own criteria Mr Welter says that only 89.3%
of NMBS train services arrived on time last year.
The figure is 1.5% lower than the previous year.
Last year's performance was the worst since 1998 when a major overhaul
of rail timetables resulted in chaos on the railways, while
dissatisfaction among the travelling public reached an all time high.
The 89.3% figure does not take account of services that arrived at
their final destination with a delay of less than 5 minutes.
Only 47% of NMBS services ran exactly according to the timetable.
Mr Welter blames the splitting up of the rail company into three
autonomous businesses for the problems.
He says that there has been a fragmentation of the decision-making
process and that there is a lack of co-ordination at various levels.
(Belga)
No figures...
The public rail company NMBS has so far refused to release punctuality
figures for 2007.
A spokesman for the company confirmed that there had been a
deterioration of the service.
The company says essential engineering work that in the long term will
improve the service is partly to blame for delays.
The NMBS is investing 100 million euros in overhead cables in the
Brussels area and is expanding its mobile intervention teams.
The rail company denies that the new structure of the Belgian rail
landscape is to blame.
It says there was a spate of separate incidents that caused the
problems.
The NMBS also points to a number of thefts of copper overhead lines
that led to delays. |