Belgium Rail Strike Cuts Trains Through January 30
A multi day rail strike is cutting train availability across Belgium, with SNCB running an alternative timetable through the last trains on January 30, 2026. Travelers moving between Brussels, Belgium, Antwerp, Belgium, Ghent, Belgium, and Bruges, Belgium are the most exposed because reduced frequency turns small delays into missed cutoffs. If your plans depend on airport access by rail or a tight connection into Brussels Midi for international trains, you should add buffer now and line up a workable backup transfer.
The Belgium rail strike trains disruption is not a single wave of cancellations that you can plan around once, it is a rolling, staff dependent service level that can change by day, which is why the journey planner check within 24 hours matters more than the normal timetable.
SNCB says the reduced offer is visible in its route planner about 24 hours before departure, and it is publishing daily summaries of what is running. That planning cadence is the operational hazard for visitors, because an itinerary that looked viable earlier in the week can become fragile if the train you assumed would be frequent becomes a long gap, or disappears.
Who Is Affected
Travelers inside Belgium are affected first, especially those relying on short, frequent hops between major cities for hotel check ins, timed tickets, meetings, or day trips. When service thins, the system behaves less like a metro style network and more like a limited departure schedule, so a missed train can mean a long platform wait and a late arrival that forces a same day plan rewrite.
Air travelers are the next group at risk, because rail is a common default for reaching Brussels Airport (BRU). Brussels Airport has warned that there will be fewer trains during the strike window, even with minimum service, and it is directing passengers to plan via SNCB. In practice, that shifts demand onto roads at the same time other travelers are also substituting, which can raise taxi and rideshare costs and increase variability in travel times.
International rail passengers can be hit even when their booked high speed train runs. Eurostar says it expects to run a near normal timetable during the strike period, but it also flags that domestic Belgian rail traffic may be disrupted, which is the connection chain problem. If you planned to reach Brussels Midi on a separate domestic ticket, or you built a tight margin between your feeder arrival and Eurostar check in, the feeder leg is where your trip can fail.
Cross border travelers using SNCB International services that touch Belgium should also treat the strike as a network wide capacity constraint, not just a Brussels problem. Even when an international segment operates, the reduced domestic pattern can affect positioning into the correct departure station, and it can compress passenger loads onto fewer trains, which makes platform conditions and boarding more competitive.
What Travelers Should Do
If you are traveling during the strike window, make your plan from the alternative timetable, not the usual service pattern. Check the SNCB journey planner the day before, then again before you leave for the station, and screenshot the itinerary you intend to take so you can prove what you were shown if you need a disruption certificate or a rebooking discussion later.
Use a hard cutoff test to decide whether to rebook or wait. If missing one train would cause you to miss a flight departure cutoff at Brussels Airport, miss Eurostar check in at Brussels Midi, or force an unplanned overnight, do not gamble on a marginal connection. Move to an earlier departure that still works if the next train is cancelled, or switch to a road transfer that you can control, and prebook it before demand spikes.
Over the next 24 to 72 hours, monitor the sources that change outcomes. SNCB updates the alternative offer around a day ahead, Brussels Airport posts operational guidance for rail access, and Eurostar's travel updates will tell you if international layers change even when the domestic strike remains the same. If your itinerary includes both Belgian domestic rail and UK rail on the same day, stacked disruption can compound, so also watch for separate UK network impacts when your Eurostar plan depends on reaching London on time, see Storm Ingrid UK Rail Disruption Hits Southwest.
Background
Belgium's rail system can keep running during strike periods via minimum service rules, but the practical effect for travelers is a lower frequency network that loses redundancy. The first order impact is fewer trains and fewer recovery options, which concentrates demand onto the services that do run and increases dwell time at major stations when crowds build around limited departures.
The second order ripple is how that capacity loss breaks connection chains across the travel system. Brussels Midi is a transfer hinge for domestic, cross border, and high speed services, so a reduced feeder pattern can cause missed Eurostar departures even when Eurostar itself is operating close to normal. The same mechanism hits air travel, because the rail link to Brussels Airport is a throughput valve, when fewer trains move passengers, more people shift to roads, which can tighten curbside flows, increase travel time variance, and raise the chance of missed baggage cutoffs.
A third layer shows up in costs and lodging. When more travelers substitute into taxis, rideshares, and private transfers, prices can rise and availability can fall at peak periods, especially around station clusters and airport corridors. When the last workable departure is missed, the outcome often becomes an unplanned overnight in Brussels or another hub city, which can compress hotel availability and inflate last minute rates. For additional operational context on this specific disruption window, see Belgium Rail Strike Disrupts Trains Jan 25 to 30.