BRU-LUX SNCB – 2nd Class

Operator: SNCB

Headcode: IC2112

Route:    BRU-LUX

Class:    2^nd Class

Seat:     N/A

Date:     Friday 6^th January 2023

Having arrived in the Belgian capital onboard a Eurostar service from St. Pancras (read about that here), I had just 40-minutes to make my way through Midi station before my next train departed. As the main station for Brussels, Midi station is served by a number of international operators such as Thalys, DB and SNCF, however despite my journey crossing a border it was with the Belgian national operator, SNCB.

The current Midi station (or Brussels-South or Brussel-Zuid) was opened in 1952 and parts of it look like they’ve not been refurbished since they were built. There’s a large concourse under the tracks, providing access to all of the platforms along with having the obligatory range of shops and food outlets, and this looks relatively modern, however the platforms themselves have certainly seen better days.

About five minutes before departure, our train rolled in from the sidings to the south of the station and I was a bit surprised to see that this ‘Intercity’ service between two European capital cities was being operated by a 3-car, single deck EMU as opposed to a loco hauled set or double decker unit.

Departing Midi station to the north (slightly concerning when heading to the south-east of the country), we left on time and began our crawl around the capital, taking 23 minutes to call at the four other Brussels stations on our journey. Taking a look at Google maps Brussels-Luxembourg station, the last of the Brussels stations, is just 3km from Midi via road, with us having taken a big loop around the city centre. Not a great distance to cover in 23 minutes.

In total our service across Belgium was scheduled to call at 13 intermediate stations (including the 4 in Brussels) before crossing the Luxembourg border and running non-stop to Luxembourg city. Whilst the majority of these were major towns and cities, a couple did seem to be smaller towns, I assume to allow easier and faster changes between the local and Intercity services.

Unfortunately, passenger comfort didn’t seem to be particularly high on the priority list for the designer of the class 08 Desiro unit we were travelling on. With rock hard seats, no Wi-Fi and no power sockets (A.N. turns out there were limited power sockets, in the overhead luggage racks of all places! No wonder I didn’t see them), these are not ideal trains to be travelling on for 3 hours across the country.

I’m aware this sounds very moany, and I’ll be honest, it is. For an ‘Intercity’ route between two European capital cities, operated by an 8–13-year-old unit, the product offering on the service was poor. SNCB also don’t provide any catering onboard, so make sure you pack plenty any drinks and snacks you may want for the journey.

The line south from Brussels-Luxembourg towards Ottignies appeared to being upgraded by SNCB, with engineering works taking place over most of the distance between the two cities. Having done a bit of digging, this is the combined output of the Lines 161 and 162 upgrades and Brussels-Ottignies RER project intending to provide high-frequency suburban services as well as increase the reliability and speed of the ‘Intercity’ services.

The main intermediate station enroute to Luxembourg was at the city of Namur, capital of both the province of Namur and the region of Wallonia. The station here is an important junction station between the north-south Brussels-Luxembourg line and the east-west Lille-Liège line and serves more than 18,000 passengers a day (equivalent to more than 16% of the city’s population). The approach to the station provides a stunning view over the city and of the rivers Sambre and Meuse which have their confluence in the city.

The journey across south-eastern Belgium certainly provided an excellent range of countryside out of the window, with a mix of farmland, forests and rolling hills. Just as I’d get used to one type of scenery the view out of the window would change and we’d be passing through another. For the railway geek in me, there was also a range of railway yards and sidings to keep me occupied, including at Marloie where the railway seemed to serve a large lumber yard with stacks of logs rising high above the railway.

The penultimate stop on the journey was at Arlon, the final station in Belgium and just a few miles from the border with Luxembourg. Some ‘Intercity’ services from Brussels terminate here, with onward journeys for the short hop through to Luxembourg being completed on a CFL (Luxembourg railways) double deck unit, a train much more suited to long-distance journeys than SNCB’s option. Other than seeing the stopping service sat in an adjacent platform ready to follow us across the border, Arlon station was pretty un-noteworthy.

As we made our way across the Luxembourg countryside and into the outskirts of the city, it meant my journey on SNCB was coming to an end. Whilst the engineering works on the line shows that there are efforts being made to improve this service, it genuinely surprises me how poor the level of service is between Brussels and Luxembourg. For a journey of 225km, a travel time of almost 3 and a half hours is very poor, especially given the trip can be made by road in under 3 hours. Hopefully SNCB can improve the service sufficiently to make it a serious option in future.

Lounge              0*

Seat/Facilities     2*

Food               0*

Service             5*

Punctuality         5*

Overall Rating      12/25 (read about my rating system here!)