In the wake of the tragic accident that occurred in Halle on Monday the 15th, Infrabel is launching a new website. Please visit www.spoorveiligheid.be for any questions you may have about rail safety.
Infrabel, the Belgian railway infrastructure manager and NMBS, the Belgian railway operator regret to announce that a serious accident occurred on Monday 15/02 at 8.30 a.m. near Buizingen.
At an Infrabel board meeting on Thursday 28 February, Belgium's railway infrastructure manager gave the green light to its participation in the "Wind Train" project which involves the installation of a wind farm to power the High Speed Line between Leuven and Liège (Ans).
Infrabel, manager of the Belgian railway infrastructure, is continuing efforts to carry through its signal box concentration project on the Belgian rail network. This project is one of the pillars of the company's programme to progressively modernise train control systems (Traffic Control and signal boxes), and is notably aimed at improving the safety and punctuality of rail traffic.
The Diabolo project aims to "unlock" Brussels Airport and is to be implemented under a public-private partnership initiative, the first of its kind in Belgium for a project on this scale.
In 2007, Infrabel maintained an overall punctuality record of 89.2%. For the benefit of passengers, the Belgian rail network manager has published detailed figures on its website www.infrabel.be and from now will be announcing its time-keeping statistics four times a year.
Infrabel's Traffic Control has distinguished itself in the "ICT Manager of the Year 2007" competition held on 28 November last year by the DataNews and Trends Business ICT magazines: Frederic Tais, ICT Projects Manager for SNCB-Holding, was declared "ICT Innovator of the Year - Public Sector" for the "Traffic Control Solution" project.
In December 2007, Belgian rail infrastructure manager Infrabel plans to inaugurate four new infrastructure projects including two new local stations. By the end of the year the railway operator SNCB will have integrated these new services into passenger timetables and the impact on internal traffic in terms of punctuality and enhanced mobility is expected to be highly positive.
Fret-SNCF, Europe's second biggest rail freight operator, and Infrabel, manager of Belgium's railway infrastructure, have today signed a Service Level Agreement (SLA) designed to sustainably improve the quality, performance and fluidity of freight traffic on the Belgian network. Growing internationalisation of goods flows and the opening up of the European rail freight market have prompted businesses to seek increasingly competitive and higher quality rail services, which effectively means end-to-end handling by a single rail company.
Last weekend's "J'aime le train" (I love the train) campaign has finished and the railway sites that were opened to the public for the first time have resumed their daily activities. The success of the weekend was matched by the contribution of Infrabel staff: both were simply outstanding!
Infrabel is commencing rail development and modernisation works at the port of Brussels. Through this increase in capacity, Infrabel wants to ensure better development of the port and to strengthen intermodality between rail and water transport.
The EEIG (European Economic Interest Grouping) for the Antwerp/Basel-Lyon freight route, which Infrabel has been appointed to manage, submitted a request for financial support to the European Commission on 12th July this year.
Infrabel is pursuing the realisation of its plan of concentration of signal boxes, with a view to improving regularity and safety on its network and further improving working conditions for its personnel.
Infrabel and DB Netz, the rail infrastructure managers for Belgium and Germany respectively, have recently signed an agreement for the electrification of the line connecting Montzen and Aachen West.
On 5th April, Infrabel, SNCB-Holding and the SNCB introduced the first phase of the deployment of GSM-R. The "GSM for Railways" system will reinforce safety on trains and along the tracks, nationally and internationally.
On Friday 23rd March, Infrabel inaugurated the new rail tunnel under the city of Antwerp. Nine years after the first blow of a pick, the tunnel linking the north and south of Antwerp is now complete.
