Market
With 3,513 km of railways Belgium has a very dense railway network. The entire railway network is managed by the public enterprise Infrabel
Access to the Belgian railway network
The network statement is published every year by Infrabel and consists of a description of the network and the access conditions of this network.
Every enterprise seeking access to the Belgian railway network must meet the following conditions:
- Being recognised as a railway undertaking (RU); for that the undertaking must have a licence. Such a licence is valid in the entire European Union. In Belgium this licence is delivered by the minister of Mobility (in practice this licence is issued by the Directorate Rail of the Directorate-General Transport by Land)
- Holding a safety certificate issued by the national safety body. The general part (part A) is valid in the entire European Union. The particular part (part B) is valid in only one member state. In Belgium safety certificates are issued by the DRSI – Department of Railway Safety and Interoperability
- Holding railway infrastructure capacity (paths), accorded by Infrabel – Directorate Access to the Network In order to actually use the railway network, a railway undertaking must make a contract of use (CU) with Infrabel - Directorate Access to the Network.
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RAILWAY UNDERTAKINGS ACCEPTED ON THE BELGIAN RAILWAY NETWORK (situation on 15 March 2010) |
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SO |
Licence |
Safety certificate (part A) |
Safety certificate (part B) |
Validity |
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NMBS Crossrail Benelux SNCF Fret Veolia Cargo NL Trainsport ERS CFL Cargo Rail Feeding ACTS DB Schenker Rail NL Euro Cargo Rail SNCF Fret Benelux CMI-Traction Railtraxx bvba |
BE (L001-2) BE (L002-4) FR NL BE (L005) NL LU NL NL NL FR BE (L006) BE (L004) BE (L007) |
30/06/2008 20/10/2008 FR NL 30/09/2008 NL
NL
NL FR 14/08/2009
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13/05/2009 08/01/2009 08/04/2008 09/03/2009 16/01/2009 02/03/2010 22/05/2008 (*) 20/03/2009 23/01/2008 (*) 27/04/2009
04/12/2009
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Entire network Entire network Entire network Entire network Entire network Entire network Limited Limited Limited Limited
Entire network
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(*) safety certificate issued according to the old procedure (i.e. without part A+B)
Transport performances (2008)
- Number of passengers
- National transport: 200.9 million
- International transport: 15.8 million
- Number of trains/day (1st semester 2009)
- Passenger trains: 4146
- Freight trains: 938
- Number of passengers kilometre: 10.4 million pkm
- Number of net ton kilometre: 7.9 billion tonkm
Freight transport market shares (2009)
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