The report was commissioned by the NMBS, which operates the trains on Belgium's railways, and Infrabel, which operates the rail infrastructure. Global consulting firm Arthur D Little was asked to come up with ways in which train punctuality could be improved; the increase in the number of late trains is seen as one of the most severe problems the industry is facing in the coming years.

The resulting report contains more than 100 recommendations, which, according to Jos Digneffe of public workers' union ACOD, "basically come down to one thing: more cooperation between the NMBS and Infrabel. In other words, the split was a stupid idea."

Infrabel split off from the NMBS in 2005. "In 2004 93% of trains were running on time - after that, the figures started falling year after year," Digneffe says. "Then it all went wrong. The split was the cause of all the problems. I've been saying that for years. Apparently it takes €1 million of taxpayers' money to reinvent the railways. Arthur D Little is being paid for writing down what should have been obvious to everyone."

"The cost of the study is not as important as its interest," said a spokesman for the NMBS. "An external
company was brought in so that they could bring their own analysis to the situation, from a whole new angle. We're too deeply involved here."

The report, according to Infrabel, gives a good oversight, but the company has not waited for its conclusions to begin implementing changes. "We're hard at work - for example, with the renewal of overhead cables in and around Brussels," the spokesman said. "We want to see improvements in the short term."