On Friday April 21st, Belgium’s national railway company, SCNB/NMBS, announced that train service in Flemish Brabant will be expanded in the coming years, including on weekends and evenings on Fridays and Saturdays. Nearly half of the province’s stations will benefit from an improved offer.
Major weekend changes are planned for December 2024. A second IC train between Leuven, Brussels and Liège will run every hour and a second one between Leuven and Antwerp is also planned. A new IC link from Leuven to Charleroi-Central, with a stop in Fleurus was also announced
From December 2024 onwards, the S-train offer will also be expanded and lengthened on Friday and Saturday evenings. There will be a train between Brussels and Antwerp until 01:00. This means that it will be possible to reach Leuven, Diegem, Vilvoorde, Hal, Liedekerke and Linkebeek from Brussels, or Vilvoorde and Leuven from Antwerp, among others.
The number of S-connections will also be expanded between June and December 2025, both during the week and at weekends. The mobility plan still needs to be approved by the Council of Ministers and its implementation depends on the recruitment and delivery of equipment.
The company’s board of directors approved the 2023-2026 mobility plan at the end of March, with the aim of having a 7.4% increase in the number of kilometers traveled by 2026. This is equivalent to more than 2,000 more trains each week. The focus will be on additional services in the suburbs of major cities and better weekend connections.
These more regular weekend connections will offer more options for a short trips outside of Brussels. One option is the capital’s Green Belt, which is renowned for its beautiful parks, gardens, and castles; surprisingly, many of them remain undiscovered. Many are easy to get to and offer the perfect getaway from the hustle and bustle of city life.
April is when all kinds of spring blossoms flourish. On the Groot-Bijgaarden Castle grounds, over a million bulbs are planted by hand, including the nearly 400 varieties of tulips on display during the April Floralia Flower Show. The abundance of pink, white, purple, and blue hyacinths and sunny daffodils help turn this nature exhibition into a vibrant tapestry of color. The festival’s backdrop – a stately 17th century moated castle – adds to the charm.
Tervuren Park is the ideal setting for your first picnic of the year. Gaasbeek Castle’s European-Grant-Award winning Museum Garden opens its doors to visitors again in May. And in the summer? Drop by the Coloma Castle Rose Garden Festival (13-27 June) in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw. ICI Paris XL has got nothing on the heady fragrance of its near-endless varieties of roses. Many of these parks will join the Parks Parade in June.
And Meise Botanic Garden is a sophisticated mix of floral splendor, rich culture, and history. Bouchout Castle, at the heart of this 92-hectare domain, dates back to the 12th century. Around the French Revolution, it was thoroughly renovated. That’s when the lavish garden was embellished with additional ponds and a rich variety of exotic plants. The last resident of the castle was Princess Charlotte, King Leopold II’s youngest sibling.
