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Not exactly. Language rules are a touchy subject in Belgium. People in stations are supposed to use the language of the region where the station is. That is, a ticket window employee in Antwerp is not supposed to understand your request in french, is perfectly allowed to ignore any request...

Sorry to contradict you, but it actually was prerecorded. It was a female voice, but no lady actually ever worked in Liège Guillemins' block 45. Liège was the first station, and for long, the only one, in Belgium, to experiment with a prerecorded message system. Using message segments recorded...

Sunday service on december 25th in Belgium. A few train service cuts on 26th as some administrations are closed. Same on January 1st and 2nd. Same for trams and buses.

Yes the spanish train (I think there is only one, the Sud Express going to Lisbon) in now starting from Hendaye.

Essentially because of the line gradients. Previous high speed lines in Germany were built flat in order to accomodate freight. Koln Frankfurt is passenger only and is built like french HSLs with 3%+ gradients. ICE 1 and 2 cannot take that. Even Thalys applied but was denied access to the line...

Yes, like we also had MUs with SNCB séries 55 and CFL séries 18 diesel locos. Was nice to see them escalading hills on the Athus Meuse line before it was electrified.

Passenger wise you're right but you still can see the odd freight train with DB or german private traction. Almost never in Luxembourg City unfortunately, unless the City avoiding line is out of operation. By the way those CFL EMUs not only cross the border, but also get coupled to a german EMU...

Luxembourg ville is also a station which is routinely reached by services coming from the 3 neighbouring countries. There are not that many train stations in the world where you can see rolling stock from 4 different national railway administrations simultaneously. There is however a bit less...

And, as trains are not everything in life, if you go to Helsingor, don't miss the St Mary church, home of a magnificent baroque organ, once played by Dietrich Buxtehude... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmelite_Priory,_Helsingør

Would be interesting to go and look what remains of the installations that were once used to cross between Denmark ans Sweden by ferry boat. I was there 23 years ago...

It is going to the preservation site of the museum (aka Train World) in Brugge (the old Diesel depot).

Why that? As far as I know, they are qualified for the whole SNCF 25kV network.

AM96 it will be, I'm afraid, as there is nothing else really available for such a mission in the Belgian roster. We'll see later what will come out if we ever get a direct train to Paris (although the sight of an AM96 under the canopy of Paris Nord...).

I do not know when exactly the passenger trains stopped operating between Erquelinnes and Jeumont, but I can ensure you that they were still there in 2010, when I traveled from Charleroi to Algesiras, sans TGV, on the way to Morroco, and went precisely through this border point. So 10 years is a...

I love it because the rolling stock allows to look at the track ahead. Stunning scenery, and you get to understand how rack switches work... Same equipment, as far as I remember, on the rack railway to Monserrat. The train trip to there is something to considere seriously if you spend a few...

And you can interrupt your trip to visit the Val de Nuria rack railway. https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemin_de_fer_à_crémaillère_de_Núria

Even on SNCF, Interrail can be good value. A few years ago, using a one country pass, I visited some endangered lines in 'massif central' : Jeumont Paris Clermont Neussargues Beziers Nimes Arvant Aurillac Toulouse Paris Jeumont in 4 days. An a few weeks ago my son went from the french border to...

??? The Vincennes line was closed much earlier than that and never ran between Gare de Lyon and Gare du Nord...

Italy to London via Thello, Paris, and Eurostar : You can't get a CIV Ticket for that trip. Two separate legs =》No protection.

How long ago was that ? How many more people are travelling today ? How was the perceived threat (terrorism, refugees, etc) compared to today ? How many people worked in the border checking system compared to today ?