Images are being spread on social media showing thousands of stranded day-trippers in Ostend. Due to a stationary train, not everyone could leave home immediately, which caused many waiting travelers in and around the station. The police had to intervene and completely stopped train traffic.
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“We are still investigating the exact cause, but there was probably a signaling problem. That is why a train stopped at Ostend station in the direction of Bruges just before 7 p.m. Because only one of the two tracks could be used, many travelers were waiting in and at the station and that caused some problems, “said Dimitri Temmerman, spokesman for the NMBS.
According to Mayor Bart Tommelein, there were several thousand travelers in and at the station. At one point, the situation escalated when stranded travelers tried to open a gate. The police therefore decided to intervene and shut down all train traffic.
Trains can depart from the station again from 9.30 p.m. “We are now leaving one train after another so that we can spread the passengers well, which is of course important in the current context,” says Temmerman. Tommelein indicates that it is quiet again in the meantime, but that at least a thousand people are still waiting for a train home.
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