Year after year, Belgian railway operator NMBS / SNCB is seeing growing interest in international train travel during the summer months. Since 2019, the number of bookings via NMBS / SNCB International has increased by more than 50 per cent, the operator says in a press release.
Tag: Aachen
Leo Express wants night train service from Slovakia to Ostend, Belgium
Leo Express, a Czech railway operator, intends to introduce a night train service between Ostend in Belgium and Bratislava in Slovakia via Germany and Czechia from mid-December 2026; Thibault Lapers reports on his Mobilithib Substack. Leo Express notified the Czech Office for the Protection of Economic Competition (Úřad pro ochranu hospodářské soutěže) of its intentions.
Deutsche Bahn’s Antwerp – Brussels Airport – Leuven – Cologne ICE aims to attract tourists and Port of Antwerp-related business
German passenger trains operator Deutsche Bahn intends to launch a high-speed train service linking Antwerp, Brussels Airport – Zaventem, and Leuven (Louvain) with Aachen (Aken, Aix-la-Chapelle) and Cologne. An application has been submitted to Belgium’s Federal Agency for Transport Regulation.
The Rolling Tables dinner train experience in Belgium from 1 August 2025 and in the Netherlands from 1 November 2025
In 2024, Dinner Train was going to offer dine and ride train experiences in Belgium after doing so in the Netherlands. It never happened. Now, the concept gets a second chance under the brand The Rolling Tables.
DESSAU | Technikmuseum Hugo Junkers Engineering Museum
October 2024. During a week-long whistle-stop tour of Germany, we visit Dessau-Roßlau in Saxony-Anhalt, Weimar in Thuringia, Coburg in Upper Franconia (Bavaria) and Kassel in Hesse. Smaller cities, yes. But each with their own significance. Untouched by overtourism. We’re avoiding using the white trains of DB Fernverkehr, Deutsche Bahn‘s long-distance section and opt to use…
TRI-COUNTRY TRAIN | Taking a peek at Heerlen and Aachen
After years of being in the pipeline, the (in)famous Tri-Country Train started running in the summer of 2024. Operated by Arriva and with NMBS / SNCB personnel on the Belgian side of the route, the Drielandentrein, Dreiländerzug or Train des trois pays connects Liège in the eponymous province in Belgium to Maastricht in the province…
Spanish CAF to provide trains for NMBS / SNCB AM30
Train manufacturer Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) from Spain is said to have won a major contract to build hundreds of new AM30 / MR30 electric multiple units (EMU) for Belgian railway company NMBS / SNCB. The CAF Civity Duo then could be a base for the AM30.
Belgium to host Eurovision Song Contest 2026? But in which city?
Coming Saturday, 1 February 2025, a jury and the television watching public will decide will represent Belgium for Flemish public broadcaster VRT at the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Basel in Switzerland. Oddly, Belgium has been on top of the bookmakers’ charts for the outright win. Íf, and it’s a big íf, that happens, which…
PHOTOS | AM66 ‘Klassiekje’ / ‘Classique’ Farewell Ride at Antwerp-Central Railway Station
Train geeks young and old gathered today, Saturday 14 December 2024, for the farewell tour or retirement ride of NMBS / SNCB‘s Classical Twin EMU, also known as AM66, MS66, MR66, ‘Klassiekje‘ or ‘Classique‘. The retirement ride started at Schaarbeek / Schaerbeek in Brussels, stopped and stops (as I’m writhing this post) Antwerp-Central, Ghent-Saint-Peter’s, Ath…
Farewell to the NMBS / SNCB AM66 ‘Klassiekje’ or ‘Classique’
On Saturday 14 December 2024, Train World is running a farewell tour for the NMBS /SNCB Classical Twin EMUs, as Wikipedia calls the AM66 or MR66. Train staff call these Klassiekjes or Classiques. Sometimes in French Doubles. The farewell tour is sold out.