Half of all rail journeys run late

Six out of 10 train commuters travelling at peak morning times arrive late because of delays, according to the passengers’ association TreinTramBus (TTB). In Brussels alone, the figure is closer to two in three. And at other times of the day, half of all trips run late. “Belgium is mediocre compared to other countries,” said spokesman Jan Vanseveren. “The Netherlands and Switzerland are a bit better, but France and Germany score worse.”

The rail network manager Infrabel issues periodic statistics on timekeeping, but they measure the lateness of trains, not passengers. That tends to sway the results if, for example, a passenger misses a connection and has to take a later train which is perfectly punctual. Thus the rail authorities can claim figures as high as 90% punctuality, whereas, according to TTB, a lot of passengers were disastrously late. TTB asked 903 volunteers to keep a rail diary for a total of 7,500 trips in October, including multiple train connections. One in five passengers has to change trains at least once. Late arrivals as a percentage of all trips across the day:

On time 49%
5 to 10 min late 23.1
10 to 15 min 10.8
15 to 20 min 6.0
20 to 25 min 2.5
more than 25 min 5.1
Too early 3.4

(December 16, 2009)