On Monday morning, the road traffic authorities reported 425 kilometres of tailbacks, due to train travellers taking heed of warnings of possible disruption and using their cars instead.

Next Monday, 18 October, the whole nation is likely to be hit by a national day-long strike, bringing trains to a standstill.

Future cost-cutting plans are likely to bring further chaos to rail travellers. Many people were surprised at the beginning of last week when it was reported that the NMBS was planning to close ticket windows at several stations, plus phase out buying a ticket on the train, making ticket purchasing for many travellers impossible.

The NMBS explained that the leaked document was a discussion of various options, none of which was up for implementation at the moment.

Another heavily criticised recent proposal involved charging passengers a €7 supplement to buy an international rail ticket from a ticket office instead of online. Critics pointed out that the measure would discriminate against those without internet connections, most notably the poor and the elderly. The situation worsened as visitors to the NMBS website saw that not all tickets are available online. The supplement was cut to €3.50 for most international tickets, though it remains at €7 for the TGV.

The NMBS also incurred the wrath of federal minister Inge Vervotte, responsible for government- owned enterprises, with its plan to raise fares from February. The average increase across the board was about 2%, but tickets for short trips would go up by much more - 17.6%.

Vervotte pointed to an agreement that caps fare increases at 1%. She called on the NMBS to "send a message" to users for its lack of punctuality and the serious disruption travellers have had to put up with in the past year.