The Belgian rail company NMBS reported that there was serious disruption to rail services across Belgium early on Wednesday afternoon. The rail infrastructure company Infrabel said that the disruption was due to a major IT issue. VRT News received reports of trains coming to a halt and information display screens at railway station failing to update departure times.
Serious disruption to rail services in the whole country due to IT issues, services now gradually returning to normal
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The first reports of trains grinding to a halt reached us at around 1:30pm. At Antwerp Berchem station for example trains were at a standstill and all the signals were on red. The information display screens were either blank or were displaying outdated information.
The rail infrastructure company Infrabel said that the disruption was caused by an “IT issue” but was unable to say how great the impact on rail services was. However, VRT News received reports of disruption to service across the country.
At around 2pm passengers on international trains were told that there were issues with rail traffic in and around Brussels. The Belgian rail company NMBS said in a statement issued at around 2:20pm that “rail services are subject to severe disruption across the network”.
By 2:45 pm Infrabel reported that the IT issues had been resolved. However, delays are likely to continue for some time yet. The rail infrastructure company and NMBS says that the disruption will have been largely resolved before the start of the evening rush hour.
