On the warmest day of the year so far, thousands were left stranded in overheated trains, crowds of passengers built up at stations, Ghent city officials went into emergency mode, and a number of people had to be hospitalised suffering from heat and dehydration. Meanwhile, the green party Groen! has called for the resignations of the three CEOs of the rail authority.

A breakdown of overhead power lines at Oostkamp, near Bruges, on the main Ostend-Brussels line was the cause of the chaos. Ten people were taken to hospital in Blankenberge after suffering the effects of heat waiting for a train. Would-be passengers, many of them children returning from an end-of-term school trip, were also kept waiting at stations in De Panne, Torhout, Bruges and Ostend. The Red Cross and local fire services were called in to help distribute water to the crowds.

One of the main problems was that passengers were often stranded on trains between stations. Many trains are equipped with air conditioning, but that failed to operate when the power was cut. Those trains have windows that cannot be opened, and safety rules make it impossible for train staff to open the doors of a train standing outside of a station. Temperatures inside the trains were said to have reached 45 degrees.

The mayor of Ghent triggered the municipal disaster plan, placing emergency services on alert and setting up a crisis cell in the city hall. Trains heading through Gent-Sint-Pieters station were held to allow passengers to obtain water and medical assistance if required. Three children were taken to hospital with symptoms of dehydration. Elsewhere, the Eurostar travelling from London was blocked at Halle for 90 minutes because of a broken-down NMBS train. It was later towed into Brussels South station almost two hours late.

Aside from the problems of the state of the rail infrastructure, one of the main complaints from passengers and politicians was the lack of information provided by the rail authority. “Passengers were left to their own devices,” complained the public transport users’ group TreinTramBus.

 • Passengers affected by the chaos on the rails on 27 June can apply to the NMBS for compensation via their website, although some incidents will be considered force majeure, with no compensation paid. At the beginning of June, all seasonticket holders received a free first-class ticket as an apology from the authority in return for a recent record of late trains.