SNCB plans quiet carriages on all trains

Belgian railway operator SNCB plans to add "quiet carriages" to all of its trains in the future, according to the group's latest activity report.

“Travelling is not just moving from point A to B, it’s also taking advantage of the journey to read, think, work, rest,” the report reads.

“This is why SNCB decided to experiment with silent zones on some of its trains. In these carriages, recognisable by pictograms on the inside and outside, you’re asked not to talk loudly to each other or on the phone, to lower the volume of headphones or earphones and to put mobile phones on silent.”

The concept already exists in some trains in European countries such as Switzerland, Austria, Poland, the Netherlands and Germany.

According to a survey conducted by SNCB, seven out of 10 travellers favour the idea and 30% say they’d take the train more often if a silent zone was offered.

A pilot project on some trains between Eupen and Ostend via Brussels-Luxembourg in 2023 proved a success.

“We are currently investigating how this concept can be gradually rolled out across the entire SNCB network,” the railway operator said.

Quiet carriages aside, passengers in 2023 were overall slightly less satisfied with SNCB’s services than in the previous year, according to the activity report, giving the company an average score of 7.17 out of 10, a slight drop compared with 2022.

“The result represents the total of different scores based on criteria such as comfort and cleanliness, passenger information and staff relations,” said SNCB spokesperson Tom Guillaume, noting that about 5,000 people responded to the satisfaction survey.

The highest satisfaction levels were observed in 2020 and 2021, during the pandemic.

The SNCB hopes to achieve a score of 7.36 out of 10 by 2027.

“We monitor this satisfaction indicator very closely, as it is very important to us,” Guillaume said. “All our actions are aimed at increasing customer satisfaction.”