The corporate logo designed in 1936 by Henry van de Velde consists of the linguistically neutral letter B in a horizontal oval.

NMBS/SNCB is an autonomous government company, formed in 1926 as successor to the Belgian State Railways.

[2] 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 (B-Cargo) 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.

[3] Faced with rising losses, in June 2012, the Belgian transport minister announced further reform: NMBS/SNCB Holding would be split up, so NMBS/SNCB (the train operator) would be separate from Infrabel (the infrastructure owner).