Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer Belges SNCB (Belgium)

Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer Belges SNCB (Belgium) ... Belges, not to be confused with France's SNCF) is the Belgian national railway operator. It was created in 1926. The NMBS/SNCB is an autonomous government company. In 2005, the company was split up into three parts: Infrabel, which manages the railway infrastructure, network operations and network access, the public railway operator NMBS/SNCB itself to manage the freight and passenger services, and NMBS/SNCB-Holding, which owns both public companies and supervises the collaboration between them. Essentially, this was a move to facilitate future liberalisation of railway freight and passenger services in agreement with European regulations. Several freight operators have since received access permissions for the Belgian network.