Belgium’s rail infrastructure manager Infrabel is planning for its next generation of rail specialists with a new 20 million Euros training academy.

A symbolic first ‘spade in the ground’ ceremony marked the start of construction of the Infrabel Academy in Brussels, which will be fully operational by the end of 2020.

Around 500 courses will be available to employees at the facility, which is designed to meet the company’s need for well-trained technical professionals. It will also bring together many of Infrabel’s training operations from across the country under one roof.

Simulators

The academy will house various practical rail scenarios, with hardware including dozens of metres of track, signals, overhead lines and simulators, one of which will be a 3D facility. In 2016, a total of 8,132 Infrabel employees followed one or more courses for a total of 108,000 man days. The personnel costs associated with these training programs amounted to 41.5 million Euros, which corresponds to nearly six per cent of the total wage bill.

The dense freight and passenger network managed by Infrabel is one of the busiest in Europe, and sits on three key European Rail Freight Corridors: Rhine-Alpine, North-Sea Mediterranean and North Sea-Baltic.