A warning of widespread travel disruption has been issued ahead of a general strike in Belgium on Thursday – one of the busiest travel days of the year.
The action will close the Beglian rail network for the day forcing Eurostar to cancel trains to and from Brussels for 24 hours.
The high speed Channel Tunnel passenger service will be unable to run services between 10pm local time on December 21 and 10pm the following night.
All other domestic and international connecting services to and from Brussels will be unable to operate.
Eurostar services to and from Brussels will terminate and commence at Lille Europe station. A limited replacement coach service will operate between Lille and Brussels Midi station.
But the company warned that demand is likely to be “extremely high” for the coaches and it expects both stations to become busy as a result.
Eurostar is recommending passengers switch tickets to travel either before or after December 22 and will allow tickets to be exchanged free of charge subject to availability on alternative services.
Ticket refunds will also be made available for those unable to travel.