Belgium

The Country

Belgium is a very simple country to travel round with direct international connections to many places; including London, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Basel & Cologne.

Train Travel

SNCB operate the national rail service, throughout Belgium; also offering many cross border trains into neighbouring countries. SNCB online timetables are available, also in real time, as is a downloadable SNCB offline timetable.

A comprehensive list of both passenger and freight operators in Belgium can be found on the helpful Railfan Europe website’s Belgium page.

Train times and Tickets

Booking tickets for travel within Belgium can be done at most SNCB stations or online. If you only require reservations for either Interrail, Eurail or railway staff passes then this can be done via phone to the DB office in London.

If choosing to use an Interrail pass, either for just within Belgium, or to pass through Belgium, all the relevant details on the passes, including the different types/lengths of validity available, can be found on the InterRail website.

For those travelling from outside Europe then the Eurail Pass is your ticket to Europe, details of which can be found on EU Rails’ website.

Finally travel in Europe can be made a lot simpler by using the very, very, helpful smartphone app courtesy of Eurail. This app is available both online and offline and is always up to date (well it has been for the countries I’ve used it in; including for any planned engineering works); for me it was an essential part of my travel in Europe. This app is linked to the Hafas system, which countries like Germany, Austria & Switzerland use for their train planning online tool. Eurail has done what the individual countries haven’t though and made it available offline.

For the Rail Enthusiast

A comprehensive list of Belgian Locomotives by their respective railway system can be found on the Railfaneurope website’s Belgium page. This also explains a bit the various operators of the network and how they have amalgamated over the years.

A detailed map/atlas of the Benelux Railway Systems, which includes Belgium, is available from European Railway Atlas.