Transport, post and bank services to be reduced over Ascension holiday

Brussels public transport provider Stib, the Flemish De Lijn bus service and the national rail operator SNCB are all adapting their services for the upcoming Ascension weekend, while Bpost will close its post offices on Thursday and Friday. Belgian banks will also keep their doors closed during this long weekend.

Stib and De Lijn will operate their Sunday schedule on their networks on Thursday, which is Ascension Day and therefore a public holiday. The two companies will then operate a school holiday schedule on Friday, the traditional ‘bridge’ day to the weekend after a public holiday. Saturdays and Sundays will follow the usual weekend schedule.

SNCB trains will run on Thursday according to the Sunday schedule. On Friday, some trains running during the morning and evening rush hours will be cancelled. There will be no change to the services on Saturday and Sunday as SNCB will provide a normal weekend schedule.

All public transport users are encouraged to plan their trip via their transport company's website or mobile app.

As for Belgian postal service Bpost, it will not distribute any mail, parcels, newspapers or magazines on Thursday. All post offices will also be closed, including pick-up points and MassPost centres. Only parcel vending machines will be operational, but they will not be refilled during the public holiday, the postal company said.

On Friday, the post offices will keep closed but the rest of the services will be accessible: delivery of mail, parcels, newspapers and magazines will be resume as normal, the "post points" and "parcel points" will open according to their specific opening hours, the parcel dispensers will be operational, and the Bpost contact centre will also be reachable.

The banking federation Febelfin announced that banks will generally be closed throughout the long weekend, although exceptions can be found in some areas.