SNCB launched Thursday, at Brussels North station, a major awareness campaign against attacks on rail staff. Last year, 1,900 cases of physical or verbal violence targeted attendants, Securail agents and station staff, or five per day. SNCB CEO Sophie Dutordoir pleaded before the Ministers of Mobility Georges Gilkinet, of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne and of the Interior Annelies Verlinden for “close-knit collaboration in order to deal with this societal evolution”.
As a sign of “final whistle to aggression”, a concert of whistles sounded Thursday morning in the Brussels station. Among the whistling railway staff, Nassera, Maxime, Dalila or even Johan, who lend their faces to the campaign, which is available until mid-March in posters and on the screens of stations and trains. “I asked to remove the feet from the seat”, “to lower the music”, “not to smoke” Or just “a ticket. This does not deserve an attack”. Behind these testimonies, their portraits disfigured by broken glass under the impact of a blow.
This violence has been on the rise since the coronavirus crisis: +60% compared to 2019. In January of this year alone, it increased by 50% compared to the same period last year. The latest examples are recent: this Sunday in the Liège region and Wednesday in Kortrijk, resulting in spontaneous work stoppages.
In 2022, assaults (physical for 40% of them) caused the absence of 450 rail employees. Half originated from fraud, 17% constituted gratuitous assaults, 16% followed offenses (such as riding a bicycle or smoking in the station), 9% “disruptive behavior” (drunkenness, etc.), while a minority were related to services (5%) or health measures (4%).