Investigation into fatal Leuven train crash

One person was killed and 19 injured after a train came off the tracks outside Leuven on Saturday afternoon.

The accident happened as the train, heading to De Panne, passed over a set of points. One carriage left the rails and derailed the others, for reasons that still have to be clarified. Rail traffic between Leuven and Brussels was suspended and replaced by a bus service, and is likely to remain disrupted for the rest of the week as infrastructure company Infrabel works to clear the wreckage.

On Sunday an extra track was opened to help ease the flow of trains through the station, which handles most of the traffic from Brussels to the east of the country, including Hasselt, Genk, Eupen and Liege. An emergency timetable was put in place on Monday.

According to rail authority SNCB, the Leuven-to-Aarschot and Leuven-to-Mechelen lines are likely to be cleared quickly. However, the main line linking Ostend and Eupen via Brussels and Leuven is likely to take longer.

According to the SNCB website, traffic could be affected until 26 February, with the worst affected the peak-hour or P-trains from Genk, Landen and Liege-Visé. The S-train travelling to Brussels-Luxembourg has been scrapped, but ICE and Thalys trains are running normally.

Meanwhile, work continues to remove the remaining three carriages and to carry out repairs on overhead lines. The Leuven prosecutor’s office is carrying out an investigation into the cause of the accident.

Photo: Olivier Gouallec/Newzulu