Eurostar services to and from Brussels and Lille will be cancelled today as a result of the industrial action.

It is the latest blow to hit the service after a major fire broke out in the tunnel under the Channel, halting its use for several weeks.

The September 11 blaze, which was caused by a lorry, lasted 16 hours and left thousands of passengers stranded.

In all 32 people, lorry drivers and train staff, had to flee for safety and six were treated for smoke inhalation

The 24-hour walk-out by public sector employees began on Sunday evening, leading to the closure of Brussels Midi station and the rest of the Belgian rail network.

No trains will run between Brussels and Lille, said Eurostar, adding that because of the constraints of the amended timetable caused by the fire, no trains will run between the UK and Lille either.

Eurostar said passengers should change their travel plans. Services are expected to get back to normal after the strike ends.

The last strike by Belgian train workers, employed by the state rail company SNCB-NMBS, caused major disruption to national and international rail services.

As with last time, workers are striking over pay and conditions.

See also:

Belgium braced for general strike

BBC News: 5 October 2008

Eurostar will run no services between London and Brussels on 6 October

Unions in Belgium are preparing to stage a 24-hour general strike expected to cause transport chaos.

Workers are protesting at the rising cost of living and what they see as a government failure to fulfil promises to ease inflation.

The strike will hit domestic transport networks and has forced Eurostar to cancel services to and from the UK.

Belgium has been in political crisis for the past 15 months amid divisions between French and Flemish speakers.

The strike, due to start on Sunday evening, will force the closure of the Gare du Midi and the rest of the Belgian rail network.

Train services from Belgium to neighbouring countries such as the Netherlands and France are also being cancelled because of the strike.

"We have been waiting two years for answers on our purchasing power from the government, so now we are taking action," Rudy de Leeuw, head of the ABVV union, one of three taking part in the strike, told VRT Television.

Some government ministries will also be shut, as well as post offices and some school childcare services, the Associated Press reported the unions as saying.

Business groups said they would take legal action against unions if they tried to picket in an effort to block people or deliveries from entering company premises during the strike, AP said.

Belgian strike halts international trains, port hit

Reuters: Oct 6, 2008
By Antonia van de Velde

BRUSSELS - A nationwide strike over rising prices severely disrupted public transport in Belgium on Monday, forcing the cancellation of all high-speed international rail services in and out of the country.

Picketing outside the port of Antwerp restricted access, although workers at the port itself did not join the strike, Antwerp Port spokeswoman Annick Dirkx said.

Unions are protesting against what they say is the government's failure to respond to rising prices and are urging it to take steps to alleviate the impact of inflation.

They say they want to send a clear signal to the government before it presents its 2009 budget to parliament on Oct. 14.

"Purchasing power is really a point we want to stress," ACV trade union chairman Luc Cortebeeck said when the union announced the protest last month.

In Brussels, all tram services were scrapped and only a fraction of underground rail and bus services were running, a spokesman for public transport company STIB said.

Provincial train services were also hit and the two main rail stations in the capital, Brussels Midi and Brussels Central, were closed.

Frederic Petit, spokesman for Belgian train operator Infrabel, said all Eurostar services linking Brussels to London and Lille in northern France had been suspended until 10 p.m (2000 GMT). High-speed rail services to France, the Netherlands and Germany were also suspended.

HIGHWAYS JAMMED

Motorways were clogged with some 300 km (190 miles) of traffic jams between 7.00 and 7.30 a.m. (0500-0530 GMT), about 100 km more than on a normal day as more commuters drove to work, said Glenn Lamon of the Belgian automobile association Touring.

A Norwegian traveller who arrived at Brussels Central hoping to get to the Netherlands, only to find all services cancelled, expressed the frustration of many.

"It's always the same thing with a strike, that you are hurting an innocent person. That is the problem with a strike, but it's the only weapon workers have," said Finn Junker.

Workers at supermarket group Delhaize and at Carrefour's hypermarkets staged industrial action in Brussels and in the country's southern region of Wallonia.

The strike also halted production at an Audi plant in Brussels, according to a union official.

He added that there were no stoppages at the Belgian plants of Ford, Volvo and Opel.

(Reporting by Antonia van de Velde; editing by Keith Weir)