Hi all.
A year or two ago, SNCB started running across the border into France to give connections from Mons, Namur and Charleroi to Paris, changing at the above stations, using non-high speed services. The timetables clearly provide connections into the same SNCF trains, however I'm intrigued as to what the stock and crews actually do between runs given long layover times in France. As I understand it, the services are:
IC19208 06:15 Mons - Aulnoye Aymeries 06:42
IC19201 09:17 Aulnoye Aymeries - Mons 09:45
IC19232 17:06 Mons - Aulnoye Aymeries 17:33
IC19229 21:15 Aulnoye Aymeries - Mons 21:45
and
IC19808 05:19 Namur - Charleroi - Maubeuge 06:26
IC19801 09:30 Maubeuge - Charleroi - Namur 10:54
IC19832 16:08 Namur - Charleroi - Maubeuge 17:26
IC19823 21:32 Maubeuge -Charleroi - Namur 22:37
Do the SNCB crews simply sit around for several hours in France before working back?
To me, it would seem logical for the Aulnoye trains to run back to Mons and the services from Maubeuge to at least run back to Charleroi, enabling SNCB to be back on Belgian soil and more productive!
I've covered a lot of the Belgian rail network and these services are on my to-do list post-COVID.
A year or two ago, SNCB started running across the border into France to give connections from Mons, Namur and Charleroi to Paris, changing at the above stations, using non-high speed services. The timetables clearly provide connections into the same SNCF trains, however I'm intrigued as to what the stock and crews actually do between runs given long layover times in France. As I understand it, the services are:
IC19208 06:15 Mons - Aulnoye Aymeries 06:42
IC19201 09:17 Aulnoye Aymeries - Mons 09:45
IC19232 17:06 Mons - Aulnoye Aymeries 17:33
IC19229 21:15 Aulnoye Aymeries - Mons 21:45
and
IC19808 05:19 Namur - Charleroi - Maubeuge 06:26
IC19801 09:30 Maubeuge - Charleroi - Namur 10:54
IC19832 16:08 Namur - Charleroi - Maubeuge 17:26
IC19823 21:32 Maubeuge -Charleroi - Namur 22:37
Do the SNCB crews simply sit around for several hours in France before working back?
To me, it would seem logical for the Aulnoye trains to run back to Mons and the services from Maubeuge to at least run back to Charleroi, enabling SNCB to be back on Belgian soil and more productive!
I've covered a lot of the Belgian rail network and these services are on my to-do list post-COVID.