REPORT OF BACK-ON-TRACK BELGIUM CONFERENCE 24TH MARCH 2022

On Thursday March 24th I was in Brussels for the first time in two years, attending the conference organised by Back-on-Track Belgium on the theme “Night Trains – Back to the Future?!” A hundred of us filled the room and others listened in by video link, for presentations and discussion on Brussels as a night train hub,  private initiatives, the economics of night trains and issues of ticketing and passenger rights. Displayed around the room were the winning and shortlisted posters promoting night trains – the result of a competition organised by Back-on-Track Belgium in 2021  which had attracted nearly 90 entrants. We were welcomed by Georges Gilkinet, Belgian Federal Minister of Mobility,  who expressed confidence that his country would

February 2020

SOME EUROSTAR NEWS Eurostar announced a new direct return service from Amsterdam to London starting on the 30th April. The service will run twice daily taking around 4 hours and 10 minutes with a stop in Brussels. It is expected that these trains will also serve Rotterdam from the 18th May. AND WE HAVE BEEN NOTICED IN THE PRESS !! Our letter to the New European titled “Back on the Rails” was published on 13th February. We were able to explain the outcome of our January meetings in Brussels and publicise the planned October “Back-on-track” conference – also in Brussels. One of our members also had a letter published in the Financial Times on the same day titled “Couchettes may

January 2020

A SERIES OF MEETINGS TOOK PLACE IN BRUSSELS At the end of January just before the UK formally left the European Union 3 members of the campaign joined a series of meetings organised through Back-on-Track with a group of MEPs, civil servants from DG Move and the head of The Community of European Railways. We received a very warm welcome at all the meetings that we attended on the 28th & 29th January. As part of the New Green Deal the MEPS are clearly keen to see an expansion of both day and night train services. They are hoping that a new night train from Berlin to Brussels can start before the end of 2020. We found out from DG-Move