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Belgian state fines SNCB for cancelled and delayed trains
Belgian railway operator SNCB has been fined €416,666 by the Belgian state for failing to meet service standards in 2023.
SNCB was deemed insufficiently punctual, with too many cancelled trains and too many minutes of delays.
Under the public service contract between the railway company and the state, the SNCB receives a performance report drawn up by the federal transport mobility.
New, however, is the inclusion of financial consequences. If SNCB does better than what was upon with the government, it can receive a bonus. But if it underperforms it risks a fine, capped at a maximum of €5 million.
The 2023 report revealed that the railway operator achieved results in line with the public service contract on nine performance indicators that year, including customer satisfaction, connections, parking spaces at stations and carbon footprint.
SNCB did better than the standards agreed upon in two areas: passenger information in disrupted situations and the energy consumption of electric trains.
But SNCB scored below what was agreed upon for three performance indicators: cancelled trains, punctuality and minutes of delay.
The fine will be paid to the Belgian state.
Comments
And the passengers who were directly impacted by these delays and cancellations? Does the Belgian state plan to use some of the money to compensate them?
Are they going to fine the airport security workers for all the canceeled flights caused by their strikes? How about for the people who missed their connecting flights by having to stand in line for 3.5 hours to get their passports checked at one of the 2 open kiosks for international arrivals?
The passenger should be compensated - in Germany up from 60 minutes delay you get 25% back, up from 120 minutes 50%. For a smaller country like Belgium the thresholds should be 30 and 60 minutes!