Belgian railway workers' strike paralyses services

Brussels: A strike by Belgian railway workers closed the entire network on Tuesday and halted all international services to neighbouring countries, although the roads were less congested than expected.

The 24-hour strike over pay and conditions, which lasts until 10 p.m. (2000 GMT), meant there were no high-speed trains such as the Eurostar to Britain and the Thalys to France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Some 400,000 to 500,000 people travel on the Belgian rail network on a typical weekday and major congestion was expected on the highways.

Traffic information body Be-Mobile said jams measured up to a combined 190 km (118 miles) in the morning rush hour, below the 250 km peak that it had predicted on Monday, but above the average for a weekday of between 120 and 170 km.

"Rush hour began early. It reached a peak at 7:30, but has tailed off since then. It seems that many people made appropriate plans," a spokeswoman said.

Air France laid on a special bus service to bring passengers from Brussels to and from Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport.

Thalys and Eurostar said they expected services to return to normal on Wednesday. Eurostar was also hoping that its last train from London to Brussels on Tuesday would be able to reach its final destination.

The ACOD/CGSP and ACV/CSC-Transcom unions said their members had rejected a provisional deal for 38,000 workers agreed with rail management last month and talks between the unions and the company on Friday failed to break the deadlock.

New talks are expected to take place later this week.