LEO Express has notified the Belgian rail regulator of its intention to operate overnight cross-border services between Ostend and Bratislava, Slovakia. One train pair is due to run daily from December 13 2026, calling at up to 49 stations on an extended route via Germany and the Czech Republic.
The regulator will determine what economic impact the new service would have on existing operations.
The westbound train would depart Bratislava at 14.44, arriving at Ostend at 09.52 the following day. Eastbound, the train would leave the Belgian port at 19.10 and arrive in the Slovak capital at 14.18 the next day.
Leo Express says that the trains are timed to connect with other Leo Express services, such as at Přerov where connections would be available for Prague, Ostrava, Krakow, in Poland, and Košice in Slovakia.
Leo Express is not planning to apply for the legal status of operator on the Belgian network and aims on cooperate with a certified partner for operations in Belgium.
The trains would offer seating, couchette and sleeping accommodation in refurbished coaches, hauled by Siemens Vectron multi-voltage locomotives, running at a maximum speed of 160km/h. Initial train capacity is forecast at around 450 passengers, rising to 550 from the start of the 2029 timetable in December 2028.
Earlier this month a train of Talgo VI coaches with passive tilt, owned by Spanish national operator Renfe, the majority shareholder in Leo Express, arrived at the VUZ test centre at Velim in the Czech Republic.
According to the Spanish newspaper El Economista, Renfe could make available three of the 200km/h 13-car trains for the new service. It is understood that they were withdrawn from Madrid - Algeciras services at the end of last year.
The Talgo coaches would require authorisation for use in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany and Belgium if they were to operate the Ostend - Bratislava service. It is not known whether authorisation for use in other countries would be sought at the same time or whether existing authorisation will be maintained.
A spokesperson for Leo Express told IRJ: “It is too early at this stage to speculate where these vehicles might be deployed. As a rule, we do not comment on future or hypothetical business plans.”
The spokesperson added that notifying the Belgian regulator does not represent concrete plans. “It is an opportunity to examine open-access connections. Only afterwards would we consider applying for track access, and based on the offer from the infrastructure manager, we would finally decide whether to accept those paths or not.”
