It’s been over two months since we looked into Dinner Train in Belgium. But some readers have posted updates on previous blog posts on the subject. And by coincidence, Danny looked up our date – 19 October 2024 – and found Dinner Train does not operate that day.

As a reminder: Dinner Train announced coming over from the Netherlands to Belgium in March 2024. The it was “second half of April”, the “in September”. 

But their calendar is empty. I looked up every single day until the end of 2024 and each time the message is “Sorry, er is geen beschikbaarheid voor deze dag. Kies een andere dag”. In English: “Sorry, there is no availability for this day. Please choose another day”.

Surely, this is the end, no? A non-starter, really. Dinner Train Belgium‘s Instagram is empty. Its Facebook page hasn’t been updated since 26 March 2024.

This is such a flop. It’s also a shame, because this could be successful.

Causes

The cause of this indefinite delay. Apparently a lack of rolling stock. Dinner Train is a private company. We so often hear private companies do it better than state-operated corporations. Well, maybe that mantra isn’t so accurate. 

Luckily we have our money back.

UPDATE 13 AUGUST

On Het Groot Belgisch Treinen Forum, Danny found a thread on the subject. Also in the Netherlands, Dinner Train is in trouble. Not refunding its customers, not paying its staff.

Dinner Train is quoted: “We have recently faced a number of unforeseen challenges, including several unexpected carriage failures, but also a complete train failure during the Easter weekend. The cause of the delay unfortunately lies with another party and we are taking the necessary steps to resolve the problem as quickly as possible. This has had a significant impact on our business operations and our financial reserves. In order to ensure our continuity, we have decided, in consultation with our financial experts, to temporarily limit our activities during the quietest period of the year, the summer months. This means that we will unfortunately not be able to operate any journeys during this period.”