For the next 17 days passengers travelling on international rail services between Brussels, France and the UK will face longer journey times as the high-speed rail line between Brussels and the French border will be closed for maintenance work. Eurostar and TGV services will be diverted over standard rail lines and as a result of this will be able to travel less quickly than is usually the case.
The high-speed line between Brussels and the French border opened in 1997 and after 27 years the rail infrastructure management company Infrabel says that it is time for renovation work to be carried out on the line.
Earlier this year Infrabel announced a 310 million euro investment in the high-speed line. During the next 10 years work will be carried on the 74-kilometre high-speed rail link. Most of the work will be carried out at night. However, for the next 10 years the line will be also closed for 2 weeks each summer.
With its trains being diverted via standard rail lines, Eurostar expects half an hour to be added to journey times between Brussels and Paris and Brussels and London. The work is also having an impact on domestic services between Brussels and Mouscron (Hainaut) and Brussels and Mons as the high-speed services are now using the same track as they do.