Passengers on the train to Bilzen are getting used to it. In recent weeks, on the approach to the Limburg town, the automatic announcement has been informing passengers they are arriving at the Austrian ski resort of ‘Fieberbrunn’, instead of Bilzen station.
Commuter Chiara, who takes the train from Alken to Diepenbeek every day, was able to make a video illustrating the phenomenon. In the video, the electronic voice can be heard announcing that the next stops are ‘Diepenbeek, Fieberbrunn and Tongeren’.
‘It's been happening for several weeks now,’ says Chiara. ‘It’s kind of funny. It sounds like the voice is saying ‘Fieberbroem’, a bit like a car. It always triggers a lot of chuckling in our carriage. But I really don't understand it. Fieberbrunn doesn't sound at all like Bilzen.’
So how come the automatically generated announcement is confusing Bilzen with Fieberbrunn? That’s a municipality in the Austrian region of Tyrol that is a popular ski resort. There is no clear connection with Limburg’s Bilzen.
Wrong code got entered
‘Every station at home and abroad has a telegraphic code,’ explains Belgian Rail spokesman Bart Crols. ‘In this case, a mistake happened, because the code of a foreign station was entered instead of the one for Bilzen station. It is not the first time this has happened'.
Passengers for Bilzen will have to get off at the ‘Fieberbrunn’ stop for a while. ‘The database with the telegraphic codes has been updated, but the data also needs to be updated in each train individually. For practical reasons we do that every time a train comes in for maintenance. So it may take some time before all trains are adapted.’
