There will be almost no peak hour trains on Thursday and a number of IC connections will also be canceled due to the passage of storm Ciarán. The railway company NMBS announced this on its website.
Rail network operator Infrabel had announced a number of measures on the rail network earlier on Wednesday due to the storm. For example, no trains will run between Bruges and the coast on Thursday and domestic trains will be allowed to travel at a maximum speed of 80 kilometers per hour.
These measures obviously have consequences for train traffic. This will be “seriously disrupted”, NMBS said. “Some trains will not run, other trains have a changed route or adjusted departure times,” it says on the railway company’s website.
In concrete terms, most P-trains (peak hour trains) will be canceled on Thursday. This also applies to the following IC connections: Ostend – Ghent-Sint-Pieters – Antwerp-Central, Kortrijk – Brussels – Schaarbeek, Antwerp-Central – Lier – Hasselt, Brussels-Zuid – Namur – Liège-Sint-Lambertus, Tournai – Lille Flandres (FR), and Antwerp Central – Mechelen – Brussels South. Many other IC connections have been shortened. Most S and L trains would be running. Due to the speed restriction, departure times can be adjusted.
NMBS advises travelers to plan their trip just before departure via the travel planner on its website or in the app. “The adjustments will be fully included in the journey planner from Thursday morning,” said NMBS spokesperson Bart Crols.
In the meantime, Infrabel is calling on people who live near the tracks to ensure that nothing can blow onto the tracks, such as garden furniture, trampolines, toys, etc. If that does happen, it is not recommended to retrieve the items yourself. “It is best to notify the emergency services via 112 so that they can do what is necessary to interrupt train traffic and have the objects removed,” says Infrabel.
Storm Eunice caused more than 400 hours of delays for train traffic in early 2022.
