{"id":5178,"date":"2026-03-07T12:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T12:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/5178\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T12:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T12:05:11","slug":"most-intercity-trains-to-run-as-three-day-rail-strike-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/5178\/","title":{"rendered":"Most intercity trains to run as three-day rail strike begins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a aria-label=\"View image\" class=\"prezly-slate-image-rollover\" id=\"image-007bcf38-a9a9-4559-8706-e33072b0eb33\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.assets.prezly.com\/007bcf38-a9a9-4559-8706-e33072b0eb33\/Belgaimage-158664442.jpg\" style=\"max-width:5300px\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"prezly-slate-media prezly-slate-image__media prezly-slate-media--image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Belgaimage-158664442.jpg\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_paragraph__6o_o7\">Around seven out of ten intercity (IC) trains will run on Monday, the first full day of a three-day rail strike in Belgium, according to the national railway operator NMBS\/SNCB.<\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_paragraph__6o_o7 styles_alignLeft__uBPYW\">About half of the local L trains and suburban S trains will also operate, while only a limited number of P trains are expected to run.<\/p>\n<p>Strike from Sunday evening<\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_paragraph__6o_o7 styles_alignLeft__uBPYW\">The disruption is due to a strike called by the socialist rail union ACOD Spoor. The industrial action runs from 10:00 p.m. on Sunday, 8 March, until 10:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 11 March.<\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_paragraph__6o_o7 styles_alignLeft__uBPYW\">Despite the strike, SNCB said that all P student trains will run on Sunday evening, allowing students to return to their university cities. These services increase capacity to destinations such as Brussels, Leuven, Ghent, Li\u00e8ge and Louvain-la-Neuve.<\/p>\n<p>Disruptions will vary each day<\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_paragraph__6o_o7 styles_alignLeft__uBPYW\">The rail operator warned that the impact of the strike will vary from day to day. Passengers are advised to plan their journeys carefully and check the online journey planner, where the adapted timetable will be available from Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_paragraph__6o_o7 styles_alignLeft__uBPYW\">The strike follows earlier tensions between rail unions and management. A previous strike notice for 5, 10 and 12 February was rejected by HR Rail, the joint personnel body of SNCB and Infrabel. The unions challenged that decision before the Council of State, but the appeal was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belganewsagency.eu\/belgian-court-backs-rail-employer-over-strike-notice-refusal\" class=\"prezly-slate-bookmark-card-component__thumbnail\" style=\"background-image:url(&quot;https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770786740_754_600x600.jpeg&quot;)\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"prezly-slate-bookmark-card-component__thumbnailImage\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770786740_754_600x600.jpeg\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" alt=\"Website preview\"\/><\/a>Growing frustration over strikes<\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_paragraph__6o_o7 styles_alignLeft__uBPYW\">Railway chief <a class=\"styles_link__4YAiu\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belganewsagency.eu\/ceo-of-nmbs-says-strike-action-is-really-no-longer-reasonable\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Sophie Dutordoir had already expressed frustration<\/a> earlier this year over the frequency of industrial action.<\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_paragraph__6o_o7 styles_alignLeft__uBPYW\">\u201cI don&#8217;t underestimate the changes for my employees, but what&#8217;s happening today is really no longer reasonable,\u201d she said in January, referring to the repeated strikes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_paragraph__6o_o7 styles_alignLeft__uBPYW\">Monday\u2019s action marks the 33rd day of railway strikes within a year, underlining the ongoing tensions within Belgium\u2019s rail sector.<\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_paragraph__6o_o7 styles_alignLeft__uBPYW\">\u200b\u00a9 BELGA PHOTO EMILE WINDAL<\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_paragraph__6o_o7\">Related news<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belganewsagency.eu\/brussels-airport-cancels-departing-passenger-flights-on-12-march-due-to-national-strike\" class=\"prezly-slate-bookmark-card-component__thumbnail\" style=\"background-image:url(&quot;https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772695694_600x600.jpeg&quot;)\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"prezly-slate-bookmark-card-component__thumbnailImage\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772695694_600x600.jpeg\" width=\"600\" height=\"399\" alt=\"Website preview\"\/><\/a><a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belganewsagency.eu\/transport-disruption-intensifies-as-rail-and-walloon-services-prepare-for-week-long-strike\" class=\"prezly-slate-bookmark-card-component__thumbnail\" style=\"background-image:url(&quot;https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772885111_852_600x600.jpeg&quot;)\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"prezly-slate-bookmark-card-component__thumbnailImage\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772885111_852_600x600.jpeg\" width=\"600\" height=\"326\" alt=\"Website preview\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_paragraph__6o_o7\">\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Around seven out of ten intercity (IC) trains will run on Monday, the first full day of a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7],"class_list":{"0":"post-5178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-belgium"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116187806020747536","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}