Disruption in Belgium

[Shimbleshanks]

Just returned from a five day business trip travelling around Belgium and Holland. First of all, full marks to the NS staff at Schiphol station for retrieving my shoe after if fell between the train and the platform.

On Wednesday evening, there was major disruption on the Belgian network at around 17.00. One of the station staff at Bruges said there had been "an accident" but didn't elaborate further. I got the impression that whatever it was had happened between Ostend and Bruges. Any idea what it was?

Then, on Friday morning, trains between Roosendal and Antwerp were cancelled at 12.34 and the 12.37 stopping service, with replacement buses laid on to Antwerpen Berchem. Again, any ideas?

 

[Oscar]

If you can read some Dutch, you can find out about current and previous disruptions at www.treninvertraging.be ("trein in vertraging" - "delayed train").

I'll summarise the problems affecting your journeys in English here:
Wednesday evening (30/06):
17:25 - fatality on the line between Brugge and Oostende. Train service suspended
18:10 - a replacement bus service was set up and Brugge - Oostende passengers were told to take the IC-E to Blankenberge and the Kusttram to Oostende.
18:50 - severely disrupted service reinstituted
20:00 - service restarted with an extended journey time of 5-10 minutes.
02:40 (Thursday) - normal service resumed

Friday morning:
10:35 - technical incident in the Roosendaal area, train service suspended between Roosendaal and Essen (first station on the line towards Antwerpen).
11:10 - upon request of authorised personnel traffic remained suspended
11:50 - heavily disrupted service resumed
12:05 - full service resumed, delays possible as a consequence of earlier disruption
14:30 - disruption fully over

 

[EWS 58038]

Just returned from a five day business trip travelling around Belgium and Holland. First of all, full marks to the NS staff at Schiphol station for retrieving my shoe after if fell between the train and the platform.

On Wednesday evening, there was major disruption on the Belgian network at around 17.00. One of the station staff at Bruges said there had been "an accident" but didn't elaborate further. I got the impression that whatever it was had happened between Ostend and Bruges. Any idea what it was?

Then, on Friday morning, trains between Roosendal and Antwerp were cancelled at 12.34 and the 12.37 stopping service, with replacement buses laid on to Antwerpen Berchem. Again, any ideas?

Leaking chemical wagon near Roosendaal.