The rail unions have announced plans for 5 days of strike action at the end of next month. The strike on the country’s rail network will start on Monday 26 January and end on the evening of Friday 30 January.
Previously, the unions had threatened a week of strike action and now this threat will be a relatively for commuters and other rail passengers during the last week of January 2026. The week of action is planned to coincide with the votes in the Federal Parliament on the Federal Government’s pension and labour market reform bills.
HR Rail that is the employer of those that work for the rail service provider NMBS and the rail infrastructure management company Infrabel is not reacting for the time being and will wait until an official strike notice has been issued. This is likely to be sometime next week.
The announcement appears to indicate that the new year will see a continuation of the wave of industrial action on the country’s railways.
It is still unclear what the impact of the week of strike action will be. However, NMBS says that it will draw up an alternative timetable based on the number of staff that indicate that they won’t be joining the strike. The alternative timetable will be published a couple days in advance and will be available on NMBS’ website and the rail operator’s app.