Nine days of travel chaos in Belgium started late Friday. The nine-day train strike began at 10 PM and lasts until 10 PM on March 2, 2025.
The strike will affect nationwide train services, buses, trams, and metro services. Roughly 60% of IC, local, and suburban trains are scheduled to operate this Saturday, and the situation will change daily during the strike.
You can access the SNCB page for strike action here.
The SNCB updates the list of operating trains two days in advance so that travelers can plan their train trips and seek alternate options if they need to travel during these days.
SNCB’s Announcement for Monday:
⚠️Grève de 2 syndicats ferroviaires indépendants contre certaines mesures comprises dans l’accord de gouvernement.
📲Service alternatif visible 24h à l'avance dans le planificateur de voyages sur https://t.co/Lj68AkiU01 et dans l'app SNCB.
ℹ️Plus d'infos : https://t.co/ddV9dC1ejF pic.twitter.com/H5PI2C5n5A— SNCB (@SNCB) February 22, 2025
The operations for Monday don’t look too good, as 40% of the IC trains are operating and only 25% of local and suburban ones.
International rail services such as Eurostar, TGV INOUI, EuroCity, Eurocity Direct, ICE, and OUIGO are not affected by this strike action, but please check that their trains operate.
Here’s SNCB’s Announcement:
Rail strike: alternative service from Friday 21 February at 10 p.m. to Sunday 2 March inclusive
3 out of 5 IC trains and 3 out of 5 L/S trains will run this Saturday 22/02.
- The SNCB journey planner will be updated each day before a strike and will display the adapted train service.
- The impact of the strike will vary from day to day and will be greater on weekdays than on weekends.
Two independent railway unions (SIC and SACT) have decided to take strike action against certain measures included in the government agreement, on which consultation with the federal government must take place. SNCB, Infrabel and HR Rail consider these actions to be totally unacceptable, irresponsible and disproportionate. SNCB, Infrabel and HR Rail deplore the consequences for the 900,000 passengers transported every day.
Due to these two actions, train traffic will be severely disrupted from this Friday, February 21 at 10 p.m. until Sunday, March 2 inclusive. SNCB and Infrabel are developing an alternative train service for each of these strike days.
The alternative service is established on the basis of the intentions of the staff members concerned to work or not, after an intensive internal consultation. This information must be communicated 72 hours before each day of strike.
The alternative transport plan for each strike day will be summarized on the SNCB website two days in advance, and the detailed timetables will be systematically integrated one day in advance into the SNCB travel planner. The alternative train timetables for this Saturday 22/02 will therefore be available from this Friday morning. From Saturday morning, the travel planner will indicate the alternative service planned for Sunday. And so on… The impact could be very different from one day to the next and between the weekend and weekdays.
SNCB invites travellers to prepare each journey well in advance for the entire duration of these strike actions, by regularly consulting the journey planner on the SNCB website and/or app.
SNCB will continue to provide an assistance service for people with reduced mobility throughout the strike, based on the alternative transport plan communicated at least 24 hours before each day of the strike.
Conclusion
I took a Eurostar train from Amsterdam to Antwerp in early January, and the train station in Belgium is very impressive.
Uber pricing from Antwerp to Brussels Airport was reasonable when two were traveling but likely higher during this strike if some of the local transportation options are not available.
Strike actions are pretty common in Europe, but their length is not usually this long.
