Eurostar Suspends Services to Brussels After Belgian Crash

Reports now show that Eurostar services to Brussels will remain suspended until Sunday, February 21st. This announcement comes just following a fatal train crash that occurred in Belgium earlier this week. According to media sources, 20 people are feared dead and another 55 have been seriously injured.

Efforts to start cleaning up and removing the wreckage were suppose to be started earlier this week. However, these efforts apparently just got started yesterday. The delay was caused by a decision by rescuers to continue the search for missing people.

Despite the delay, heavy lifting equipment is now in place and ready to begin removing damaged carriages from the track. Eurostar said, in a statement, that emergency services and the investigation team are still at the site of the accident. They are expected to be there for the next few days. As a result of this, no train services are able to run in the immediate area. This includes service for Eurostar, as well as Thalys, TGV and domestic services.

On top of this bad news for travelers, Eurostar is also operating a reduced timetable between its UK stations and Lille. Passengers that have tickets for UK Brussels journeys are strongly advised to postpone or cancel their trips. Exchanges and refunds are still being offered for these tickets.

The track line, in which the two trains collided on, is fitted with a security system. This brings up the question as to why the two trains hit. Well many trains are designed to halt automatically at a stop signal. However, one of the trains that was involved in the crash did not have this kind of system, and it ran a red light.