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Belgium operates a policy of cheap rail travel. [citation needed] Citizens in Belgium, especially students and older citizens, are offered incentives and cheaper fares in order to alleviate congestion on the nation's roads. Public sector employees are entitled to a free or heavily subsidised season ticket for commuting by rail.
NMBS/SNCB is an autonomous government company, formed in 1926 as successor to the Belgian State Railways.From 1942 to 1944, amid Nazi Germany's occupation of Belgium, the company was paid 51 million Belgian francs by the Nazi Germany to send 28 trains carrying 25,843 Jews and Roma people to Auschwitz where only 1,195 survived. [2]
Transport in Belgium is facilitated with well-developed road, air, rail and water networks. The rail network has 2,950 km (1,830 mi) of electrified tracks. [ 1 ] There are 118,414 km (73,579 mi) of roads, among which there are 1,747 km (1,086 mi) of motorways, 13,892 km (8,632 mi) of main roads and 102,775 km (63,861 mi) of other paved roads. [ 2 ]
Passenger rail services in Belgium are operated by NMBS/SNCB. The Belgian rail network is organised into three main domestic passenger train categories on the main lines, these are: Intercity (IC) trains–An express, limited-stop service, often calling only at major railway stations; in some cases it has stops at all stations along part of the ...
Patrimoine Ferroviaire et Tourisme (in French) (PFT) are a society dedicated to the preservation of Belgian railway heritage. They cover a number of aspects of railway enthusiasm , operating charter trains , maintaining heritage locomotives ( steam and diesel ) and operating a museum at Saint-Ghislain .
All operators stop at Brussels-South station, Belgium's largest train station. Some services also stop at Liège and Antwerp stations. However, these international operators are not allowed to sell tickets between two Belgian cities. Instead, passengers must take a Belgian IC train which uses the same high-speed lines [citation needed].
Following the Belgian Revolution of 1830, when Belgium split from the Netherlands, Belgium became a key site of railway development.In 1831, a proposal to build a railway between Antwerp and Cologne (in neighbouring Prussia) which would link the industrializing Ruhr and Meuse valleys with the ports of the Scheldt was considered by the Chamber of Representatives but was eventually rejected.
The station was opened in 1856 along the new railway line between Hasselt and Maastricht. In the end of the 1950s, the station lost importance and was closed. After the Limburg University Center was established near the former station in 1973, there was an increasing demand from students to reopen the station. This finally happened in 1991 ...