The Belgian rail company NMBS has revamped the Travel Planner on its website. From now on passenger will be able to see the composition of the trains running on the route they intend to use. This will enable them to know how many carriages are available, whether the train has airconditioning, where the carriage is where they can put their bicycle, whether a carriage is adapted to the needs of people with restricted mobility and where the first-class carriage(s) are on the train.
In addition to this passengers can now also see whether the train is expected to be busy. This function was first launched during the coronavirus crisis in 2020 and has been incorporated into the new-look travel planner.
For the time being the new functions are only available on the NMBS travel planner website and not on the rail company’s app. However, this will change sometime in the next few months. From later this year the information will also be available on the screens that show departure times at railway stations.
What else is new?
In addition to the information about the composition of a train, NMBS’ spokesman Dimitri Temmerman announced a number of other new innovations. "For instance, we want to start a test where we will indicate on the platform exactly where a train will stop. This will be launched at Brussels-North in the coming months."
Furthermore, SNCB has launched a new version of BikeOnTrain. BikeOnTrain shows travelers who want to take their bikes with them which train is best suited to them doing so. In the new version, the planner now also shows whether a station is accessible for bikes, for example thanks to the presence of lifts or bike chutes to the platforms.