Antwerp's Central Station

They have been working at it for years, they started it in 2000 and they are still not quite finished, but they are getting there... Antwerp's Central Station will be three times as big as it once was. Now some of the trains already arrive and depart in the tunnel. Which is quite nice, but it takes you longer to actually get there.

F.I. I had "early" late shifts this week, meaning that I started at 12.30 and finished at 21.00. I've been leaving for work rather early to make sure I had time to get a bite to eat and I had to run some errands and I never really know how long those will actually take. Monday I took the 10.59 train from Lier to Antwerp and I was outside the Station at 11.20. That train stops on the platforms on the first floor, so I only needed to take the stairs down, and I walked. On Wednesday I caught an earlier train in Lier, the one at 10.55. And I was outside the Central Station at 11.22, which makes a 6 minutes difference. Both trains are stoptrains, which stop at the same stops, take the exact same route and none of them ran into a delay on the way getting there, so it really made a difference that one of them stopped in the tunnel. 6 mins might not seem like a great deal, but it really makes a lot of difference if you're running from work to get home and need to catch a train. If we finish at half past an hour, we can catch a train at .43 (which stops at the first floor) or one at .46, which now stops at -2. We used to just have to run to a different platform if we missed the first, but now there is no way in hell of making the .46 one if you just missed the other one, so then you have to wait till .14, so that's half an hour gone...

They suddenly changed all the platform numbers, some of them are now numbered 21, 22, 23, which I first didn't get, I had no idea where the train was stopping :) I know it's all about getting used to that again, but rush hour suddenly became even rushier... :(