A new rail link connecting the Brussels Airport with the high-speed rail network to Paris/Amsterdam/London/Köln was inaugurated on June 7th, this year. The new link will allow high-speed trains to stop at the airport on their way to Brussels or Antwerp, giving passengers more flexibility in their travel choices and improving connections between rail and air transport.
The project – called Diabolo – has so far received almost EUR 9.7 Million in trans-European transport network (TEN-T) co-financing.
The project involves completing a rail section (including a tunnel underpassing Brussels Airport) linking Brussels Airport with the existing Brussels–Antwerp–Amsterdam and Paris–Brussels–Köln–Amsterdam–London high-speed rail networks, also known as TEN-T Priority Project 2.
The airport used to be only accessible by a dead-end railway station served by local and regional trains, or by a very busy road. The completion of the rail link to Brussels Airport further enhances Europe’s network of high-speed railway lines and the creation of an interoperable and continuous rail network. It will also help reduce the isolation of the airport by improving accessibility and reducing congestion.
Currently, the airport is directly serviced during weekdays by four connections per hour from Brussels and two per hour from Leuven. As of December 2012, the airport will be serviced by a total of eight direct connections, significantly increasing the options available to the passengers.
From June 2012, when the link was inaugurated, during weekdays, the existing connections were reinforced by a direct InterCity train from Antwerp (which also calls at Mechelen station) and an IR-train connecting the airport to Mechelen. Starting in December 2012, a second direct connection will link Antwerp to the airport by extending the above-mentioned IR-connection to the port city. Passengers travelling from Antwerp will reach the airport in just over 30 minutes, effectively cutting the duration of the trip in half.
In practical terms, Diabolo will provide Thalys and rail travellers with direct, high speed access to Brussels-Midi station, Paris, Liege, Cologne and Amsterdam.
Diabolo is the first public-private partnership for the Belgian railways and represents a total investment of EUR 678 Million (at 2012 price level, the project exceeding initial costs by around EUR 138 Million), and includes works financed by private investment (Northern Diabolo NV) and public investment by Infrabel, the Belgian national railway infrastructure manager.
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