Oostende railway station (; ) is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

Ostend Ostend ( ; ; ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke, Raversijde, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the la ...

West Flanders West Flanders is the westernmost province of the Flemish Region, in Belgium. It is the only coastal Belgian province, facing the North Sea to the northwest. It has land borders with the Dutch province of Zeeland to the northeast, the Flemis ...

, Belgium. It is operated by the

National Railway Company of Belgium The National Railway Company of Belgium (, NMBS; , SNCB; ) is the national railway company of Belgium. The company formally styles itself using the Dutch and French abbreviations NMBS/SNCB. The corporate logo designed in 1936 by Henry van de Ve ...

(NMBS/SNCB).

History

The first station in Ostend was opened in 1838 during the reign of King Leopold I on the former Belgian railway line 62 to

Torhout Torhout (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities of Belgium, municipality located in the Belgium, Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Torhout proper, the villages of Wijnendale and Sint-Henri ...

and is now a supermarket. The current station was opened in 1913 during the reign of King Albert I. It is designed to connect trains and ferries and is built with

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

bluestone Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of natural dimension stone, dimension or building stone varieties, including: * basalt in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand * diabase, dolerites in Tasmania, ...

from

Soignies Soignies (; , ; ; ) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It consists of the following districts: Casteau, Chaussée-Notre-Dame-Louvignies, Horrues, Naast, Neufvilles, Soignies and Thieusies. Casteau is k ...

and

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

from

Euville Euville () is a commune in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. In January 1973, it absorbed the former communes Aulnois-sous-Vertuzey, Vertuzey and Ville-Issey.neoclassical style inspired by the French 18th-century architect

François Mansart François Mansart (; 23 January 1598 – 23 September 1666) was a French architect credited with introducing classicism into the Baroque architecture of France. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' identifies him as the most accomplished of 17th-c ...

and the

Louis XVI style Louis XVI style, also called ''Louis Seize'', is a style of architecture, furniture, decoration and art which developed in France during the 19-year reign of Louis XVI (1774–1792), just before the French Revolution. It saw the final phase of t ...

. The station was served by a daily

Thalys Thalys (French: ) was a brand name used for high-speed rail, high-speed train services between Paris Gare du Nord and both Amsterdam Centraal and German cities in the Rhein-Ruhr, including Aachen, Köln Hauptbahnhof, Cologne, Düsseldorf Hauptba ...

high-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail transport network utilising trains that run significantly faster than those of traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated railway track, tracks. While there is ...

service to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

between 1998 and 31 March 2015.

Train services

Oostende railway station is a major hub on the

(NMBS/SNCB) network with frequent InterCity trains serving

Brugge railway station Brugge railway station (; ) is the main railway station in Bruges, West Flanders, Belgium. The station opened on 12 August 1838 on railway lines 50A, 51 and 66. The current building has been in use since 1939. The station is one of the busi ...

, Gent-Sint-Pieters, Brussels-South and Liège-Guillemins on Belgian railway line 50A. Connecting InterCity trains run to

Antwerpen Antwerp (; ; ) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after Tournai and Couvin. With a population of 565,039, ...

and

Kortrijk Kortrijk ( , ; or ''Kortrik''; ), sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray ( ), is a Belgian City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region, Flemish Provinces of Belgium, province of We ...

. The station is served by the following services:Belgian railways timetable brochures
*Intercity services Ostend - Bruges - Gent - Brussels - Leuven - Liege - Eupen *Intercity services Ostend - Bruges - Gent - Sint-Niklaas - Antwerpen *Intercity services Ostend - Bruges - Kortrijk - Zottegem - Brussels - Brussels Airport

Kusttram

Ostend is a major hub on the Kusttram, which is the coastal tramway run by

De Lijn Vlaamse Vervoersmaatschappij De Lijn (, ), more commonly known as De Lijn, is a state-owned enterprise run by the Flemish government in Belgium to provide public transport with about 2240 buses and 399 trams. De Lijn was founded in 1991 after the ...

Former ferries

Regie voor Maritiem Transport Regie voor Maritiem Transport (RMT) was the Belgian state-owned ferry service and operated ferries on the Ostend-Dover route under the name Oostende Lines. For the last few years until its demise in February 1997, the ferries from Ostend went ...

used to run services connecting to the

Port of Dover The Port of Dover is a cross-channel ferry, cruise terminal, maritime cargo and marina facility situated in Dover, Kent, south-east England. It is the nearest English port to France, at just away, and is one of the world's busiest maritime pas ...

connecting with

Network SouthEast Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the networ ...

trains from Dover Western Docks to

London Victoria Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a London station group, central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, London, Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named afte ...

and

London Charing Cross Charing Cross railway station (also known as London Charing Cross) is a London station group, central London railway terminus between the Strand, London, Strand and Hungerford Bridge in the City of Westminster. It is the terminus of the South ...

stations. These ceased in 1994. In the past, ferries operated to Folkestone Harbour connecting with

Folkestone Harbour station Folkestone Harbour station was one of four railway stations in Folkestone, Kent. It served Folkestone Harbour with connecting boat train services across the English Channel to Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, Boulogne. The station was opened by ...

boat train A boat train is a passenger train operating to a port for the specific purpose of making connection with a passenger ship, such as a ferry, ocean liner, or cruise ship. Through ticketing is normally available. __NOTOC__ Notable named boat train ...

s to London Victoria and London Charing Cross.

Gallery

File:La gare (Ostend station) (4738412348).jpg, Frontal view File:Station Oostende Hal.jpg, Interior of the station File:Station Oostende Perrons.jpg, View of the platforms and tracks File:Station Oostende Naam.jpg, Place name sign on a platform

References

Footnotes

Citations

External links

* {{Commons category-inline Railway stations in West Flanders Ostend Railway stations in Belgium opened in 1838