From today (Wednesday 24 July) until Sunday 11 August the Belgian rail company NMBS will be providing 4 additional services between Brussels South railway station and the French capital Paris. The services are cheaper than the high-speed Eurostar trains.
The first of the “Eurocity” services left Brussels South Station for Paris on Wednesday morning. Olympic gold medalist Tia Hellebaut (photo above) was present at the launch of the Eurocity service. She told journalists that “The Olympic Games in Paris are not far away and Team Belgium is very good. So let’s all go to Paris to support them”.
Tia Hellebaut won a gold medal in the high jump at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. She says that she hopes that “all goes well and that everyone has a lot of fun and a lot of medals are won”.
4 additional services
Between now and 24 July, two Eurocity trains will run each day from Brussels South to Paris North. The trains will call at Mons (Hainaut). One train will depart early in the morning with the second leaving just after midday. Both trains will return from Paris in the evening. The journey takes 3 hours, twice as long s with the Eurostar.
The price of a ticket is 34 euro for a single journey in 2nd class, with a 1st class single ticket costing 49 euro. The service will also run during the Paralympic Games from 28 August and 8 September.