Some 500 passengers were stuck on a train all evening yesterday. The service was supposed to take them swiftly from Brussels to Amsterdam, but a break-down meant they were stranded on the train for almost five hours. A little before midnight members of the emergency services escorted the passengers to a replacement train, after which they were able to continue their journey.
"The train in question was the Benelux service running from Brussels to Amsterdam," explains rail company spokesman Dimitri Temmerman. "The train was stopped in its tracks at 7pm due to a technical problem."
The incident happened at Merksem in Antwerp.
Initial attempts to solve the problem seemed to succeed, but an additional technical issue then surfaced. The decision was then taken to evacuate passengers. "Our priority now is to get all passengers to their final destination as quickly as possible and in a safe manner," Temmerman said yesterday evening.
Around 11pm, a replacement train arrived. Accompanied by emergency services, the stranded passengers were able to transfer to that train to continue their journey. The evacuation was completed a little before midnight.