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The NMBS (Nationale Maatschappij der Belgische Spoorwegen, National Company of the Belgian Railways) is an autonomous state-owned company, though bounded by the Belgian equilibria. Flemish priorities are continuously neglected, and in May 1996 it came to an open conflict between the NMBS on one side and the Flemish Parliamant joined by the Flemish Minister-President Luc van den Brande on the other side. Luc van den Brande even threathened to invoke a "conflict of interests" at the federal government.
The NMBS uses the following mechanism to avoid investments in Flanders: each time a new plan for ten years is launched, the investments in Flanders are planned in the second halve of those ten years, while the Walloon investments get the first five years. But usually, after five years, the plan is superseded by another, new plan, after most of the Walloon investments but before Flemish investments. The result is that Flanders doesn't get much. An example of this was STAR21, that was supposed to run from 1991 until 2000, but that was called of in 1995. The new plan is supposed to run from 1996 until 2005, and most of the investments in Flanders are planned after the year 2000, while most of the Walloon investments are planned before the turn of the century. If this plan too would be cancelled around 2000, Flanders won't have seen much of the promised investments this time either.
In May 1996, the Flemish Parliament asked the NMBS's attention for the following priorities:
There's definitely something wrong with the main axes the NMBS recognizes. Some of the important railroad axes that each day bring thousands of passengers to their work offices aren't recognized as main axes, while other railroads in Wallonia that hardly have any passengers at all are too. In this logic, some necessary investments in Flanders are put aside, and moreover, to its own disadvantage, a lot of potential passengers are lost this way. Of course, as a national holding, the NMBS should indeed guarantee transport services in scarcely populated areas too, but it cannot justify the recognition of some of those Walloon main axes.