Why did Belgium remove a fast train between Brussels and Antwerp?

A fourth fast domestic train disappeared with the December 2024 timetable reorganisation. The issue was examined in the federal Chamber’s Mobility Committee in 2025. Mobility Minister Jean-Luc Crucke told MPs that SNCB/NMBS had not obtained the requested train paths for the IC22 service after infrastructure manager Infrabel’s capacity-allocation procedure. He said competing demands on the heavily used line, including international services, made a workable return path impossible with the available rolling stock and timetable.

Groen MP Staf Aerts contested the implication that restoration had become impossible. He argued in committee that four fast trains had operated before December 2024 and that SNCB/NMBS had effectively prioritised Eurocity Direct. These are distinct interpretations of the same bottleneck: the operator and minister emphasise network capacity and operational resilience, while passenger representatives and Groen emphasise the choices made when scarce paths were distributed.

TreinTramBus has now sharpened the argument. It says Eurocity Direct runs 16 times per direction each day between Amsterdam-Zuid, Antwerp and Brussels but cannot be used for a purely domestic Antwerp–Brussels trip. The organisation also claims that the train waits in Antwerp and has available seats. SNCB/NMBS previously told the Chamber that opening it to domestic passengers would cover only a small part of domestic demand and that sufficient alternatives existed. Crucke nevertheless requested an evaluation of the international services and their consequences for the domestic timetable.

Not in any simple, one-train-in, debt-out sense. The federal government has asked the rail sector to absorb €675 million in savings over 2025–2029, according to SNCB/NMBS’s 2025 results. But the operator’s own accounts show why slogans about individual trains can mislead. Its economic debt fell from €2.146 billion in 2024 to €1.532 billion in 2025, largely because major spending on new rolling stock, Brussels-South station and digital projects was delayed or deferred. SNCB/NMBS says stronger-than-expected operating results in 2023 and 2024 and controlled interest costs also contributed.

That means cancelling or withholding one service cannot credibly be presented as a direct lever that makes Belgium’s sovereign debt fall. The federal state’s finances and SNCB/NMBS’s economic debt are related through subsidies, investment and public-service obligations, but they are not the same account. The sharper policy question is whether a timetable choice produces savings or reliability gains large enough to justify lost capacity and convenience on one of Belgium’s most important intercity corridors.

The debate also reveals a recurring tension in railway management. A tightly used network can carry more trains, but each additional path may reduce the room available to recover after a delay. Infrabel declared the relevant infrastructure congested and was required to analyse capacity, while the Brussels North–South link and the approaches to Antwerp and Mechelen remain operational constraints. Restoring a train on paper is therefore easier than guaranteeing that it will run punctually every day.

Use the bilingual station names carefully. SNCB is the French name and NMBS the Dutch name for the same national operator; its app and website are available in Dutch, French, German and English. “Brussels” can mean Brussel-Zuid/Bruxelles-Midi, Centraal/Central, Noord/Nord, Schuman or Luxembourg/Luxemburg, while Antwerp includes Centraal, Berchem, Zuid, Luchtbal and Noorderdokken. Choosing the wrong city station can distort both the quoted time and the best connection.

For the quickest city-centre trip, compare the stopping pattern and duration of individual IC trains. An S-train—S-trein in Dutch, train S in French—is a suburban service with more stops and may be useful for places such as Mortsel, Kontich-Lint or Vilvoorde even when it is slower end to end. Recheck the journey shortly before leaving: SNCB/NMBS says its digital planner incorporates works, disruptions and delays, whereas station posters now show an annual reference timetable rather than every temporary variation.

Tickets can be bought through the app, the website, a station machine or a staffed ticket office. No commune or gemeente registration, language certificate or special resident form is required for an ordinary domestic journey. Travellers going to Brussels Airport-Zaventem should select the airport itself, not a Brussels station; the airport supplement applies where required.

The next meaningful steps are an official assessment of Eurocity Direct’s use, decisions for the next transport plan and Infrabel’s longer-term capacity measures. Until SNCB/NMBS publishes those results, it remains unknown whether the fourth fast train will return or whether domestic boarding on Eurocity Direct will be permitted. For passengers, the immediate reality is less abstract: Brussels and Antwerp remain well connected, but the nominal frequency overstates the number of fast, evenly spaced and interchangeable journeys.