Hi there, I am a traveller visiting Belgium in a couple weeks. I read that there was gonna be a strike on Tuesday 15 April, which was going to be the day we travel from Antwerp to Brussels airport to catch our departing flight.
Could I get some advice on whether the strikes would affect our plans to travel by train on Tuesday morning? Should I be changing our accommodation to spend the night before in Brussels instead of Antwerp?
Thanks in advance 🙂

by ladyvarze

7 comments

  1. Yes, your plans will be affected. And as the five unions are collaborating this time, I expect high impact. 
    Getting from Brussels to Zaventem will be easier, and could be good to look at bus routes already for that one’

  2. yeah its going to affect this, but you can already see if you have a train, they should have the schedule up the day before the strike

  3. Yes, when it is only 1 union striking you can work around it. Now it is going to be harder. I suggest sleeping in a hotel in Zaventem, near the airport. You can still go for a drink in the center in Zaventem. That is on walking distance from a lot of the hotels.

  4. there are bus services to go between Brussels airport and antwerp, of which there are 3: airportexpress, flibco and flixbus (I don’t recommend this one though for this short trip, not punctual enough)

    Besides, these are way cheaper than the train, too

  5. I wouldn’t count on getting to Brussels without issues. During a strike, there are usually still a fair number of trains running on the main routes, but this time, it’s a joint action by almost all unions. Moreover, if there is not enough staff at traffic control and at the signal boxes to ensure safe operations, some lines or districts may even have no traffic at all. Changing accommodations would be the safe option.

  6. Thanks for the advice everyone 😊 We will be looking to shift to a hotel in Brussels for the last night.

  7. Also maybe important to note that the train strike starts on Monday at 22:00 (10pm).

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