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Eurostar Brussels service to be suspended due to 24-hour strike
Dick Murray, Transport Correspondent27 Jan 2012
Eurostar today warned it will be unable to operate any services to or from Brussels on Monday because of a 24-hour national public sector strike across Belgium
The strike, which is over cuts in unemployment benefits and the rise of retirement age, will severely disrupt the entire Belgium rail network.
On Sunday evening, the 19.04 Brussels service from St Pancras International will instead terminate at Lille, where passengers will be transferred to a bus service. The 24-hour strike will be over at the same time on the next day.
For passengers heading to Brussels on Monday, Eurostar will be running services to Lille for connecting bus services to Brussels Midi.
The strike will also cause severe disruption for passengers heading to further destinations in Belgium, Holland and Germany.
Passengers were strongly recommended not to try and travel that day or change dates. Eurostar said tickets will be exchanged.
UK cleaners row over pay cuts
UK cleaners on Eurostar trains and stations have voted to go on strike in a row over pay, and dates have not yet been set.
The RMT union said 150 of its members working on three separate contracts for cleaning contractors OCS and Initial earned "little more" than the minimum wage and had been offered a "derisory" increase.
The cleaning contracts are with Eurostar and Network Rail.
Bob Crow, the RMT leader, said both Eurostar and National Rail had a "moral obligation to ensure that workers on the Channel Tunnel network do not suffer this kind of super-exploitation.
Reader views (9)
I went to Lille once it has a metro system with train carriages so narrow you can play kneesy with the person opposite but its perfect for little gauls and I don't mean gals.
- Jack Spratt, Richmond, Surrey, 27/01/2012 11:21
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Will the UK Govt be bribing French Eurostar staff not to strike during the Olympics?
- Swiss Bob, Gen, Switz, 27/01/2012 11:18
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Go Bob, go! You're doing a great job for you union members, I just wish you were PM instead of the toffee-nosed, snake-oil salesman we have at present!
- ID, South Coast, UK, 27/01/2012 11:09
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Make them redundant and contract to a cleaning company. Simple.
- Nigel Powers, London, 27/01/2012 11:00
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no comments yet about driverless Eurostar trains ?
- Donald, Milton Keynes, 27/01/2012 11:00
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Alex, which would you rather they did - go on the dole and become "scroungers" or work for a living and try to improve their terms and conditions through their union?
Or should they just put up with cr@p pay that could give them less than benefits?
- JohnS, SW8, 27/01/2012 10:51
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Yes I have. But I don't do it by taking a job and then complaining about its pay. I look for a better job to start with. I also do not inconvenience my paying customers with my personal grievances.
- Alex, London, 27/01/2012 10:47
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Alex. "But they knew this going into the job, didn't they? How can you strike over that"
Alex, if in the past everyone had adopted your point of view we would still have small boys going up chimmneys,etc, have you never tried to improve your lot?
- Lady Maitland Farren., Chelsea, 27/01/2012 10:28
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"The RMT union said 150 of its members ... earned "little more" than the minimum wage"
But they knew this going into the job, didn't they? How can you strike over that?
- Alex, London, 27/01/2012 09:54
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