Belgium’s national rail operator NMBS/SNCB activated a pop-up station at Antwerpen-Linkeroever on 2 May 2026, part of a complex programme of maintenance and signalling upgrades designed to de-congest Antwerp Central ahead of the summer rush. The modular facility, located on the left bank of the Scheldt, will handle up to 6,000 passengers a day and is linked to the city’s tram network and Park-and-Ride zones. The opening coincides with an intensive track-renewal schedule that will disrupt multiple corridors—Burst-Denderleeuw, Lichtervelde-Deinze and Brussels-South-Luttre among them—between 1 May and 10 May. NMBS has published detailed bus-replacement timetables and advises travellers to allow an extra 30 minutes on the affected routes. International services to the Netherlands, France and Germany are mostly unaffected, but intercity trains feeding Brussels Airport will run at reduced frequency during select off-peak windows.
![New Temporary Antwerpen-Linkeroever Station Opens as NMBS Warns of Widespread Track Works Through Mid-May]()
Meanwhile, travellers coming from outside the EU who still need to arrange entry documentation can turn to VisaHQ, whose online platform simplifies Belgian and wider Schengen visa applications by offering step-by-step forms, status tracking and responsive customer support; full details are available at https://www.visahq.com/belgium/
For multinational employers with Belgian headquarters or regional hubs, the works could complicate daily commuting and same-day business trips. Companies that subsidise rail season tickets should alert employees to claim compensation via NMBS’s delay-refund portal when disruptions exceed 60 minutes. Mobility managers arranging cross-border workshops in early May may find it faster to route delegates via Thalys or hire coaches from nearby Lille and Eindhoven. From a compliance standpoint, delayed staff may test Belgium’s strict working-time directives if overtime accrues; HR teams should remind managers that travel delays count toward ‘working time’ only under specific circumstances. Firms using rail for green-mobility targets can, however, leverage the temporary station as proof of Belgium’s continued investment in sustainable transport infrastructure—even during disruptive upgrade phases. Looking ahead, NMBS plans to decommission the temporary Antwerpen-Linkeroever platforms by mid-June once signalling between Berchem and Central is fully digitalised. A second wave of works is scheduled for August, and employers are encouraged to subscribe to NMBS’s B2B rail-alerts feed for early warnings.
Meanwhile, travellers coming from outside the EU who still need to arrange entry documentation can turn to VisaHQ, whose online platform simplifies Belgian and wider Schengen visa applications by offering step-by-step forms, status tracking and responsive customer support; full details are available at https://www.visahq.com/belgium/
For multinational employers with Belgian headquarters or regional hubs, the works could complicate daily commuting and same-day business trips. Companies that subsidise rail season tickets should alert employees to claim compensation via NMBS’s delay-refund portal when disruptions exceed 60 minutes. Mobility managers arranging cross-border workshops in early May may find it faster to route delegates via Thalys or hire coaches from nearby Lille and Eindhoven. From a compliance standpoint, delayed staff may test Belgium’s strict working-time directives if overtime accrues; HR teams should remind managers that travel delays count toward ‘working time’ only under specific circumstances. Firms using rail for green-mobility targets can, however, leverage the temporary station as proof of Belgium’s continued investment in sustainable transport infrastructure—even during disruptive upgrade phases. Looking ahead, NMBS plans to decommission the temporary Antwerpen-Linkeroever platforms by mid-June once signalling between Berchem and Central is fully digitalised. A second wave of works is scheduled for August, and employers are encouraged to subscribe to NMBS’s B2B rail-alerts feed for early warnings.
