Belgium is experiencing three consecutive days of strike action on the railways. Major disruption is expected till Thursday. Today only a quarter of services will run. The following days no more than half of all services will operate. Rail company NMBS advises the would-be travelling public to consult its app to find out which services are running. Services should be billed 24 hours ahead of time.
The big Belgian rail unions, ACOD Spoor (socialist), ACV Transcom (Christian) and VSOA Spoor (liberal), are staging a 24-hour strike lasting till 10PM tonight. They are unhappy with the level of investments by NMBS and rail track company Infrabel. This industrial action is followed by a 48-hour strike by the rail drivers’ union ASTB in protest against work pressure.
In the event of strike action since 2017 NMBS has operated an “alternative timetable”. Staff need to indicate 72 hours ahead of time whether they are working. The rail company then considers how many staff it has at its disposal and which services it can run. “24 hours ahead of time we communicate. It’s a big advantage” says NMBS’s Dimitri Temmerman. ”Passengers know what they can expect and meet no surprises on the platform”.
Rail company NMBS keeps the travelling public up-to-date via its app and website. “The trains that materialise in the app are the ones that are running. You’ll see them up on the screens in stations. You can count on them running”.
A quarter of services will run on Tuesday: 2 out of 5 IC services between the major cities, one in four suburban services, the L and S trains. Most commuter services are axed.
Greater disruption is expected in Wallonia where the Namur signalling station is closed. This means no trains in the in the greater part of Namur and Luxembourg Province and in parts of Flemish Brabant.
On Wednesday strike action will affect the entire country with around half of all services operating: one in two ICs, L and S trains. Few P commuter services will run.
It’s unclear what will happen on Thursday but NMBS believes it will be able to operate half of all services.