History of Rail Transport in Belgium Expansion, Nationalisation and Electrification

History of Rail Transport in Belgium Expansion, Nationalisation and Electrification

In France and Germany, private companies quickly built connections to the Belgian international lines, connecting the cities of Lille, Valenciennes (in France), Cologne and Aachen (in Germany) to the Belgian network between 1842 and 1843.

Despite the fact that very few lines (47.7 km) were built by the Belgian State Railways between 1845 and 1870, subsequent development of the rail network was largely organized by the state rather than by private companies. Several lines were built by private companies, notably the Namur to Liège line built in 1851, on a ninety-year lease which would return them to the government after the period has lapsed. Many of the mainlines were operated by the Belgian State Railways. Within ten years of its first railway, Belgium had more than 560 kilometres (350 mi) of railway lines, 80 stations, 143 locomotives and 25,000 pieces of rolling stock. Belgium's first telegraph line was installed in 1846 along the Brussels-Antwerp railway. Unlike canals, which made internal trade much easier than international, the railways also pushed Belgian companies to export their goods abroad. The success of the railways both intensified Belgian industrialisation and consolidated Antwerp's position as one of Europe's pre-eminent ports.

Ownership, Nationalisation and Electrification

The Belgian government resisted attempts by foreign companies to buy up railway assets in Belgium. In the winter of 1868, against a background of French threats to Belgium and Luxembourg under the rule of Napoleon III, the French Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Est attempted to buy up numerous railway lines situated in southern and eastern Belgium in the provinces of Liège, Limburg and Luxembourg. The Belgian state, under Leopold II, felt that the takeover presented a military and political threat and intervened to stop the sale in 1869. A British diplomatic intervention made Napoleon back off, thus ending this Belgian Railway Crisis.

In 1870, the Belgian state owned 863 kilometres (536 mi) of rail lines, while the private enterprises owned 2,231 kilometres (1,386 mi). From 1870 to 1882, the railways were gradually nationalised. In 1912, 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi) were state property compared to 300 kilometres (190 mi) of private lines. Full nationalisation was considered at the time, but was not enacted until 1926 when the National Railway Company of Belgium (SNCB-NMBS) was started, replacing the earlier Chemins de fer de l'État Belge. By 1958 the network was fully state-owned.

The SNCB-NMBS first introduced electrification on the 44 kilometres (27 mi) Brussels-North to Antwerp-Central line in May 1935. The system adopted was 3 kV DC.

During the German occupation in World War II, the SNCB-NMBS was forced to participate in the deportation of Belgian Jews to camps in Eastern Europe as part of the Holocaust.