The West Fleming Giovanni Seynhaeve commutes daily from his home in Izegem to his work in Schaarbeek (Brussels), a distance of just over 100km. Fed up with all the delays he had suffered getting to and from work, at the start of last year Giovanni decided to start keeping a record of each time his train was late. The result is staggering to say the least. During 2024 the trains Giovanni Seynhaeve took between Izegem and Schaarbeek and back notched up a total of 4,612 minutes of delays.
Giovanni Seynhaeve commutes from Izegem (West Flanders) to Schaarbeek and back every day to his work at the Lego Discovery Centre Brussels. At the end of 2023 he came up with the idea of keeping a record of all the times that his train is late.
“NMBS had increased its ticket prices and I expected something in return in the way of more punctual trains”, Giovanni told VRT News.
From 1 January 2024, he started counting the number of minutes that his train was late during the 10 trips he makes each week between West Flanders and Brussels. “According to NMBS, a train is still punctual as long as it is not more than 6 minutes late. So, I only started counting after 6 minutes. In total, I counted 4,612 minutes of delays”.
223 minutes in 1 day
4,612 minutes equates to more than 3 days extra time spent on the train. On average, Giovanni faced 10 minutes of delays per journey in 2024. “About 3-4 of trains a week do run on time.”
"I am not the only one that is unhappy. Other rail passengers don't like it either. Some have even just become accustomed to it and think it is normal because it has been a issue for several years. But we should not think this is normal. Unfortunately, it is not getting better, and I fear it won’t be resolved”.
"NMBS is a company that should guarantee that people actually get to work on time, but it fails to do so. That is the sad think about all of this. The situation was worst in February due to the storm a lot of trains were cancelled and I was delayed 223 minutes just on the way back”.
Already new action planned
Nevertheless, Giovanni is not out for revenge. “You can do a lot on the train, because you are sat there with a lot of people talking, listening to music, reading books, looking out of the window at the landscape, ... So the train has a lot of advantages."
"The staff also do their work with heart and soul. I greatly admire everyone who takes care of all the passengers every day. They also get a thank you from me every day. Next year, I am going to take a positive approach. I am going to count every day that my train runs on time”.
Giovanni also has an open letter ready to address rail staff, NMBS and his fellow passengers. “I'm going to tell of what can go wrong during a train journey. People need to know what to expect when they board a train.”
“Punctuality has improved”
NMBS’ spokesman Dimitri Temmerman says that punctuality on the railways improved during 2024. 89.54% of trains were on time (or no more than 6 minutes late) this compares with 87.49% in 2023. Mr Temmerman added that 4 out of 10 delays are caused by people walking on the track.
“Of course, there are also delays that we can prevent ourselves. 100% punctuality can never be guaranteed. But more than 25,000 people work hard every day to make the commute to and from work run as smoothly as possible."