Rail strike also affects international trains
The nine-day rail strike starting Friday evening also affects international train traffic. The biggest impact is on the Eurocity Direct, between Brussels and the Dutch capital Amsterdam, which will not run in Belgium for the entire period.
The EuroCity between Brussels and the Dutch city of Rotterdam will run, but each day four of the sixteen outward and return connections will be cancelled. As for high-speed trains, two ICE connections (twice Brussels-Cologne-Frankfurt and back) have been cancelled on Sunday 23 February. Eurostar will be affected on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with six cancelled trains between Brussels and Paris each day. “Currently there is no impact on other days or other routes,” announced Eurostar.
Concerning night trains, Austrian railway company ÖBB's Nightjet will not run in Belgium on Monday, but stop in the German city of Cologne and depart again there. Passengers can take an ICE train between Brussels and Cologne. There is no clarity yet on Nightjet connections later next week. European Sleeper night trains would run as normal.
Then there are the short cross-border connections, to Roosendaal, Maastricht, Aachen, Luxembourg, Lille or Maubeuge. Whether trains will run on those connections is included in the travel plans of Belgian railway operator NMBS/SNCB.
Protest against government plans
The strike is an initiative of two smaller rail unions, OVS and ASTB, and will start on Friday at 22:00 and run until Sunday 2 March at 22:00. The unions are striking in protest at a number of plans by the new federal government, including an increase in the retirement age.
The strike's impact on rail travel in Belgium itself may vary from day to day. Belgian railway company NMBS/SNCB will draw up an alternative timetable for each day and warned that the impact "will be greater during the week than at the weekend". Travellers can check which trains are running a day before their journey using the travel planner.
On Saturday 22 February, the first day of the strike, about six in ten trains in Belgium will run. The situation on Sunday will be better: two in three IC trains and three in four S and L trains will run.
A Eurocity Direct train © BELGA PHOTO ANP / ROBIN VAN LONKHUIJSEN
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