Brussels-North remains Belgium’s busiest station

Brussels-North station kept its place as the busiest station in Belgium in 2024, receiving an average of 59,068 travellers per day, as many as the 300 quietest stations combined.

The passenger counts were carried out by Belgian railway operator SNCB in October 2024 and focused on weekdays.

The second busiest stations in Belgium were Brussels-Midi and Brussels-Central, each with more than 58,300 travellers boarding on weekdays. The three major Brussels stations on the North-South connection together receive more than 175,500 rail travellers on weekdays.

Brussels-Midi, the Belgian hub for international high-speed trains, is the country's busiest station during the weekend, beating even a typical workday in Brussels-North with more than 60,000 travellers per day.

In contrast, the quietest station in Belgium - Hourpes in Hainaut province - sees just five passengers a day.

Apart from Brussels, other busy cities for rail traffic are Ghent, Antwerp and Leuven. Gent-Sint-Pieters sees an average of 48,885 travellers, followed by Antwerp Central (38,611) and Leuven (31,230).

Only then do the first Walloon stations make the list: Liège-Guillemins (22,060), Namur (21,973) and Ottignies (21,123).

Another five stations have between 10,000 and 20,000 travellers boarding the train every weekday: Mechelen (19,197), Bruges (18,185), Antwerp-Berchem (15,447), Brussels Airport-Zaventem (10,774) and Charleroi-Central (10,589).

At the bottom of the list are almost 30 stations that see fewer than 50 travellers on weekdays, the quietest of which are at Hainaut stops: Hourpes (5), Maubray (10) and Beignée (13).

The quietest station in Flanders on weekdays is Aalst-Kerrebroek (East Flanders, 15 travellers per day).

Six other Flemish stops have fewer than 50 travellers per day: three in the East Flemish municipality of Erpe-Mere, namely Vijfhuizen (19), Bambrugge (46) and Erpe-Mere (49), the West Flemish stop Aarsele (26), Hambos in Flemish Brabant (41) and Wolfstee in Antwerp (49).

The traveller counts are conducted manually every year in October.

The SNCB does add the caveat that the counts "are the result of a short observation in time, which inevitably entails a margin of error, which in some cases can be considerable".

Automated counting systems do exist, but the manual count still offers "the best value for money", according to SNCB.