Practical information
Description
Timeline
Stakeholders
Strengths and offer
Urban logistics
Positive impacts
Needs
Logistical challenges
Practical information
What?
A territorial food logistics idea: using lightly occupied daytime or off-peak trains to transport market-garden harvests from the Pajottenland to Brussels-Midi, then redistributing the products across Brussels.
Who?
Frank Nevens, researcher and lecturer in sustainable agriculture at Ghent University, chair of Pajottenland+ / LEADER Pajottenland and project coordinator at the Department of Spatial Planning of the Province of Flemish Brabant.
Where?
Pajottenland ↔ Brussels-Midi.
When?
No operational project has been publicly identified to date. The idea should be understood as a working hypothesis or avenue to confirm.
Contact
Frank Nevens
Nevens.frank@telenet.be — +32 492 58 61 20
Resources
UGent Research Explorer; Pajottenland+ / LEADER; VILT; Landbouwleven; Pajottenland+ Local Development Strategy 2023–2027.
Description
This sheet focuses on an idea attributed to Frank Nevens: using lightly occupied daytime trains to transport harvests from the Pajottenland to Brussels-Midi. The general principle is to bring a productive territory close to Brussels closer to a major urban consumption basin, not only through short food chains, but also through an existing transport infrastructure.
The proposal is not documented as a stabilised operational project. It should therefore be presented carefully, as an inspiring hypothesis to test, rather than as an already proven solution. Its interest lies precisely in the question it opens up: what kind of organisation, governance and light infrastructure would be needed to reconnect Brussels with its productive hinterland?
The idea shifts the focus: it is not only about the last mile, but also about the link between local production, inter-territorial transport, the station, break of load and fine-grained redistribution within the city.
Timeline
Today
No public operational project has been identified. The idea should be considered a working hypothesis to be confirmed with Frank Nevens and the relevant actors.
2023–2027
The Pajottenland+ / LEADER local strategy provides a relevant territorial framework for thinking about links between agriculture, short food chains, logistics and proximity to Brussels.
Stakeholders
Frank Nevens, as the person associated with a reflection on sustainable agriculture, short food chains and the link between the Pajottenland and Brussels.
Producers in the Pajottenland, who could supply harvests or products to be brought into the city.
Railway and station actors, essential for testing rail access, timetables, handling and reception spaces.
Urban logistics operators, able to handle sorting, micro-storage and redistribution from Brussels-Midi.
Shops, kitchens, associations, markets or pick-up points in Brussels, which could receive the products.
Public authorities and territorial structures, notably Pajottenland+ / LEADER, the Province of Flemish Brabant and the relevant Brussels actors.
Strengths and offer
A short food corridor between a nearby agricultural territory and Brussels.
A strong image for the exhibition: field, local station, train, Brussels-Midi, then cargo bike or light vehicle.
A reflection on logistics nodes, not only on final delivery.
A possible test of multimodal logistics: local consolidation, train, then fine-grained urban redistribution.
A way of reusing an existing infrastructure rather than relying entirely on the road.
A link with the historical imaginary of the farmers’ tramway in the Pajottenland, reactivated as a contemporary logistics question.
A possible avenue for a small seasonal pilot, a public demonstration or a one-off experiment around selected products.
Urban logistics
How does it work?
Products would first be collected or consolidated on the Pajottenland side, ideally from several producers. They would then be transported by train to Brussels-Midi, using capacity available outside passenger peaks. On arrival, the main challenge would be the break of load: receiving, sorting, possibly cooling, briefly storing and redistributing the products. The Brussels leg could then involve cargo bikes, small vehicles, shops, kitchens, associations or pick-up points.
Why is it interesting?
Because this hypothesis shows that short food chains do not only depend on the distance between producers and consumers. They also depend on consolidation places, transport modes, break-of-load points, timetables, available spaces and actors able to coordinate flows. It raises a structural question: how can a nearby productive territory be connected to a major urban station without adding yet more vans to the road?
Which obstacles does it respond to?
Dependence on road transport, lack of logistics professionalisation in short food chains, difficulty connecting farms to urban demand, lack of logistics spaces in the city, dispersion of producers and difficulty bringing suitable volumes into Brussels.
Identified nodes / obstacles
Consolidation on the Pajottenland side; access to rail; railway timetables; sufficient volumes; handling; break of load at Brussels-Midi; possible cold chain; micro-storage; urban redistribution; governance between producers, railway actors, logistics operators and Brussels recipients.
Positive impacts
Environment — potential reduction of part of road traffic if volumes are sufficient and if rail actually replaces van or car journeys.
Space — possible use of an existing node, Brussels-Midi, rather than creating new heavy infrastructure; attention is needed, however, not to overload an already constrained space.
Neighbourhood — possibility of better organising the arrival of local products in the city, provided that redistribution from the station is fine-grained, discreet and adapted to the neighbourhood.
Social relations — possible strengthening of links between Pajottenland producers, shops, associations, kitchens and Brussels eaters around a more legible food supply.