The works involve the installation of the automatic braking system TBL1+, the absence of which was one of the factors in the Buizingen rail crash in February that killed 18 people. The crash was caused when a train passed a red signal and collided head-on with an oncoming train, something that will be technically impossible after the braking system is fitted. During the inquest that followed the Buizingen crash, it was admitted that, despite pledges to install the safety system following the last major accident (at Pecrot in 2001, when eight people died), only 25% of tracks and 1% of trains have been brought up to date.

“Safety is our priority, even if rail users have to put up with some inconvenience,” said Inge Vervotte, the federal minister for government enterprises last week, announcing the plans together with Marc Descheemaecker, the head of the NMBS, and Luc Lallemand, head of infrastructure agency Infrabel.

Over the three-year period 2010-2012, a total of 16,000 trains will be cancelled, or 14 trains a day out of an average of 4,000 a day. By the end of 2012, the TBL1+ system will have been fitted to 87% of the tracks on the network, including all of the most dangerous points. Trains, meanwhile, will be fitted with the system by the end of 2013.

The new work schedule will need additional staff, and the NMBS has 230 vacancies for technical and engineering jobs. For the TBL1+ installations, 47 staff will need to be hired by 1 May. Former workers who took early retirement are to be invited to return to work for a period. The works will also require paid overtime working by existing staff, Infrabel said.

The cost over the three-year period is €104 million, part of a safety budget of €175m, also announced last week. Rolling stock renovation and the fitting of an interim safety system called Memor will cost €59.4m, while the NMBS’ own mobile phone technology, GSM-R, used for digital communications, will be extended to the entire network, at a cost of €11.5m.