Coastal rail services to be disrupted on weekends from April to May

Rail traffic to and from the Belgian coast will be diverted or limited for five weekends in a row from Saturday 23 April due to works, Bruzz reports.

Infrastructure manager Infrabel and railway company SNCB announced on Thursday that the works, to be carried out on weekends from 23-24 April to 21-22 May inclusive, will continue the construction of a third and fourth track between Ghent and Bruges. As a result, two out of four IC trains will not connect the two cities during this period. The addition of two tracks will make the coast more accessible to passengers and freight trains, according to Infrabel. On this section, maintenance and renewal of the railway infrastructure will also be carried out.

SNCB has put in place an alternative transport plan to limit the impact of this work for rail users. However, passengers will have to take into account extended travel times or changes to routes and schedules. In periods of high numbers of passengers, it will also be necessary to plan for the possibility of taking another train, warns the SNCB.

Among other disrupted services, the IC Eupen-Brussels-Ostend link and the Genk-Brussels-Blankenberge link will be diverted between Ghent and Bruges, resulting in an additional 20 minutes of travel. IC trains between Brussels Airport-Brussels-Knokke will stop in Ghent.