Chaos in Belgium

[Groningen]

Due to a homeless person setting fire in the morning near a signalbox railway services are disrupted in Belgium. Also tomorrow. Especially Brussel Noord to Brussel Zuid and v.v. was hit. And more chaos all around Brussel. Many services did not run.

2 articles in Dutch about the disruption in Brussel Zuid this week. For someone it was not warm enough in the morning.

https://www.hln.be/in-de-buurt/brus...&src=IE-TopResult&FORM=IE11TR&conversationid=

Moderator note: please put quoted text here

https://www.gva.be/cnt/dmf20190514_...ord-tot-morgenochtend-herstellingen-afwachten

Moderator note: please put quoted text here

 

[MarcVD]

The main damage of the fire is to some power supply cables, as this reduces the power available in Brussels North station to 30% of its normal value. Train cancellations are a direct consequence of that. There was some damage to the signalling system also, but that was repaired in a few hours. Repairing power cables will be another story...

 

[childwallblues]

I was travelling from Schiphol to Luxembourg on Tuesday morning and my train was terminated at Antwerp Central. We finally got a connection to Brussels Nord which was an Antwerp Central to Charleroi service (Class 2700 + Double Deck stock which left 22 late.
I was surprised to find that my connection to Luxembourg had not gone as it was 18 late. By the time we reached Arlon we were 53 late and the train was cancelled. This was due to a late start, very slow running to Ottignies and single line working between Km posts 91 and 101.

 

[MarcVD]

I was travelling from Schiphol to Luxembourg on Tuesday morning and my train was terminated at Antwerp Central.

Had I been in your situation, I would probably have avoided Brussels entirely by traveling to Liege via Hasselt and then onwards to Luxembourg via Gouvy.

 

[Groningen]

Just 4 minutes ago there was a message on Twitter that because of fire between Brussel Noord and Brussel Zuid all lines are blocked.

https://twitter.com/KMaquestieau/status/1129782143465512960

@nmbs Brand tussen Centraal en Zuid ? Je gelooft je oren niet: dit is de derde brand in vijf dagen. Dat is geen toeval. Hopelijk wordt de dader snel gevat. #infrabel doe je werk.

Translated from Dutch by Microsoft:

@nmbs Fire between central and South? You don't believe your ears: This is the third fire in five days. That is no coincidence. Hopefully the offender will soon be caught. #infrabel do your work.

 

[MarcVD]

Small fire on the tracks. Not known yet whether simple incident or sabotage. Trafic is now back to normal.

 

[Groningen]

The disruption lasted for 40 minutes. At 18.15 normal service could resume.

 

[MarcVD]

Only 4 of the 6 tracks were initially restored, the last 2, those where the fire developped, came back in service much later. It is very fortunate that this incident happened on a Sunday : during week days, more than 1200 trains ply those 6 tracks every 24 hours.

 

[Groningen]

Any disruption on this small piece of track can work through the whole of Belgium.