Daily De Tijd has discovered 25 per cent of seats on Belgian Rail trains do not yet have any air conditioning. On some routes, air conditioning is not even used during peak hours. That’s on carriages dating from before the mid-1990s, but improvement is on the way, the rail company promises.
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Quarter of all seats have no air conditioning: rail company pledges: ‘air conditioning on all trains by 2030’
Colin Clapson
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Figures from De Tijd show:
71.8 per cent of trains now operate with air conditioning.
But the figure is lower in the morning rush hour: for journeys with arrivals between 7am and 10am, the figure drops to 70.3 per cent.
The evening rush hour - arrivals between 5pm and 8pm - scores a fraction better at 71.2 per cent.
Aging carriages are to blame. Rail company spokesman Dimitri Temmerman points out that the average age of a train carriage is now 40 years. Only since the mid-1990s has air conditioning been provided as standard.
‘Within 2 years, 80 per cent of trains will operate with air conditioning. By 2030, all seats will have air conditioning. More and more new trains are being delivered,’ Temmerman tells VRT. And of course the older carriages are slowly being phased out.
The rail company is also trying to use its trains intelligently. Dimitri Temmerman: ‘Air-conditioned trains are used on the busier train connections, like those to the coast, when the weather is fine.’
Passengers who want to know in advance whether they will have air conditioning on their train can consult the rail company’s app. A list of the rolling stock used can be found there.