Approximately 500 passengers experienced a nearly five-hour ordeal as they were marooned on a train journey from Brussels to Amsterdam on Tuesday night. The train encountered a

breakdown in close proximity to Antwerp around 7:00 p.m. Subsequently, passengers were only able to disembark around midnight, as reported by VRT.

The affected train was identified as the Benelux train, operating between Brussels and Amsterdam, according to a representative from the Belgian rail company NMBS who communicated with the Belgian broadcaster. "The train came to a halt at 7:00 p.m. due to a technical malfunction," the spokesperson stated.

Initially, technicians attempted to resolve the problem on-site, but encountered an additional technical issue, leading NMBS to arrange for passenger transfer to another train. This replacement train arrived around 11:00 p.m. with the assistance of emergency services, facilitating the transfer of passengers from the stranded train to the new one, which then continued to Rotterdam, reaching its destination at around midnight.

On social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), passengers voiced their grievances over inadequate communication and the discomfort of being stranded in darkness without access to water or air conditioning.

Responding to a post, the Dutch rail company NS also expressed a lack of awareness regarding the situation. "Has NMBS indicated whether they will only take you back to Antwerp or whether you can cross the border? Unfortunately, we have not yet received any information from them," NS conveyed. Photo by LHOON from Mechelen, Belgium, Wikimedia commons.