More misery for Belgian rail users

A 24-hour Belgian train strike went into effect last night at 10 PM.

No Thalys high-speed trains will connect Belgium with neighbouring France, Germany, or the Netherlands.

The Eurostar connection from Britain to Brussels is also affected by today’s work stoppage, company spokesman Bram Smets said:

“We advise travellers not to travel today and to exchange their tickets to travel on a later date or to get a refund by getting in touch with their initial point of sale,” said Eurostar’s Bram Smets.

The rest of the Eurostar traffic between London and France will run more or less as normal, according to company sources.

Belgian signallers and station staff have walked out for 24 hours in protest against a restructuring plan for the freight division of the national railway operator SNCB.

Normal working should resume on Friday although delays in getting back to the scheduled timetables could be expected.

All railroad traffic inside Belgium has practically ground to a halt.

Copyright © 2009 euronews

tags: Belgium, Transport