Namur, Belgium – Lille, France via Charleroi, Mons & Tournai Intercity / TER train

From Namur in Belgium, the capital of Wallonia to Lille in France via Charleroi, Mons & Tournai.
This is a great connection by a conventional intercity (sometimes mentioned as TER) train between bigger cities in Belgium and a big city in France.
In this video we discover the railway station of Namur, the train and the views from the train along this route.

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▬▬▬▬▬▬ RELATED VIDEO’S ▬▬▬▬▬▬
Tournai – Lille: https://youtu.be/dS-0fvRy8gU
Lille – Antwerp: https://youtu.be/MWPwFj89QCk
Lille – Paris: https://youtu.be/ShbO-YtX-BA
Paris – Maubeuge – Charleroi: https://youtu.be/icf1NuMtZQI
OuiGo Classique Brussels – Mons – Paris: https://youtu.be/gacjLAXFUdk

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▬▬▬▬▬▬ VIDEO CONTENT ▬▬▬▬▬▬
00:00 Trainviking Passenger POV YouTube channel
00:42 Introduction
01:33 Namur, Belgium railway station
06:03 Like, comment & subscribe
06:47 Environmental impact train vs car on this route
07:00 Train Namur – Lille SNCB / NMBS MS96
14:03 Ticket information & views from the train
20:40 End of this trip report Namur, Belgium – Lille France via Charleroi, Mons & Tournai by train

Trip report 260
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Quickly before we start with this video, I started another YouTube channel called Trainviking Passenger POV where I basically show you the views from the train for entire routes. as much as possible with original sound without voice over and without music, just ultimate slow TV. For this route, I also recorded the views from the train along the entire route. You can check those videos on the Trainviking Passenger POV YouTube channel. It’s listed in the description of this video. Ultimate slow and totally different from these trip reports. For now, we really start with this video. In this video, we’ll be traveling on board of a Belgian intercity train from Namur, the capital of Wallonia via Charleroi Central Station and Tournai to Lille Flanders in France, just across the border from Belgium. This train is a perfect connection between Belgium and France without taking the high-speed trains. I’ll show you all in this video as we first show the railway station of Namur, the train and of course the views from the train along this route. Join me on board of this train from Namur in Belgium to Lille in France. For now, let’s get this video on the track and let’s roll the intro. [Music] I arrived in Namur by intercity train from Brussels. This train is continuing its way to Luxembourg, the capital of the relatively small country with the same name. For the same reason, this is a more international station than you might think at first. You also find a kind of alternative connection to France via Dinant and Givet, but there will be another trip on that in the not too far away future on this channel. There is this underground passage over here from and to the platforms. And if you’re traveling with bikes, for example, this is absolutely perfect, But this is also not the prettiest part of the station. There are quite some screens with information about departing trains. And my train was already listed over here. But before we go there, let’s discover the railway station and the 
direct surrounding a bit. Surprise, surprise, at the front of the railway station, you’ll find some bus stops like pretty much always. There used to be also a TEC ticket counter, TEC is the company for the buses in this part of Belgium, but that is now somewhere else. Around 160 m at the side of the station. It’s not that obvious to be honest. However, there’s another ticket selling point for the TEC buses. I’ll show you in a bit. For the buses at the front of the station, there are quite some clear screens near the bus stops with information about departure for the buses. And you also find some vending machines, although I do have to say that the infrastructure to buy your tickets online is pretty good as well. If you want to get around by bike, you will find the bike sharing program of the Belgian state owned  railway company, Blue Bike, here as well. And you can also park your bike over here. For now, let’s go into the railway station. This railway station has been open since 1843. And obviously, there have been the necessary renovation to meet the modern-day standards. At the front of the railway station, there are some shops. However, the main concourse can be found at a higher level where you find more shops, waiting areas, and some railway related services. I mean, it’s not a true international hub railway station, but it’s a relatively nice railway station to be honest. If we move to another level, so a little bit higher, you will find another bus stop. This place is rather big to be honest. And because of the glass at the ceiling that includes little solar panels by the way, it’s really bright at this place. I just really like this to be honest. Here you will also find a ticket and information point for the TEC or the TEC. I don’t know how  you want to pronounce it, what are the buses in this part of Belgium. And obviously there are quite some waiting areas at this area as well. Well, I think you get it. And we’re not here to  take a bus, but a train instead. So, let’s go back to the main concourse for this railway station, what is more train related. Around the main concourse, there are quite some shops and some vending machines. As you can see over here, you can even buy some noodles. At this spot, you are located above the railroad tracks. There are some vending machines where you can buy train tickets as well. But once again, the infrastructure to buy your train tickets online is relatively good as well. And apart from that, at the back at this main concourse, you will also find a staffed ticket counter. There are quite some screens with information about departing trains. From here and for the buses, you will find screens as well. From and to all the platforms, you will find, of course,  stairs, but also elevators and escalators. Trains within Belgium do not have dining cars, so if you  want to buy some food and drinks, you can do that as well. My train today departed from track number seven, and it was already listed when I recorded this. However, just to be sure, I bought some snacks at the supermarket that is also located at this main concourse. And here on the right at this spot over here, you will find a staffed ticket counter. Well, for now, let’s go to our track for today. What is for today’s journey, track number seven. And the train just arrived when  I was recording the rest of the railway station. And that has also been listed on the information screens at the moment. The train has arrived. I hope you like this video so far on this intercity train between Namur in Belgium via Charleroi and Mons to Lille here in France. If you do so or if it’s a helpful video to you, please give me a thumbs up. I really appreciate that. Questions, feedback, comments, even if you just want to say hello, feel free to leave a comment. And if you like to see more trip reports about long distance 
and or international traveling, well, this kind of ticks the box for long distance. it’s an 
intercity at least and it is an international train. But if you like to see more to show you what it’s like to travel on a more sustainable way of transportation, then hit that subscribe button if you haven’t done this already. For now, let’s continue with this video. And quickly before we go to the train, let’s take a closer look on the environmental impact if you’re traveling by train or car on this route. Well, I think the data speaks for itself. For now, let’s continue with this video. And today’s journey will be on board of a Belgian railclass MS96 train. These trains have been produced in surprise surprise 1996. And there’s a small number of these trains that can operate both in Belgium and France. You can take bikes on board of this train and the bike area has been marked crystal clear. Although the bike area itself, it’s really disappointing. This train consists of three carriages and there’s one carriage in first class. Apart from the number one at the side, an extra yellow stripe indicates where you find the first class. Compared to the capacity onboard these trains in second class, I think the first class is actually a bit too big to be honest. Well, I’ll show you the interior in a bit. If I’m honest, both first and second class are nice products on board of these trains. However, because you find relatively a big area in first class, first class gives you much more guarantee for a good seat. You can’t reserve seats on one of these trains by the way. Another thing, these trains can be combined. So, they can be mixed with other trains. And if they do that,  they can basically push the front of the train aside and you can walk from one train set to the other train set. So if you have a train with different destinations, please check where they might go to. Well, that wasn’t the case for this journey. For this journey,  it was just one train set only. For this journey, I was traveling with the use of interrail and I had a second class pass, however, within Belgium, it’s relatively easy to buy a first class upgrade, and that is also what I did. There’s a small area of secondass that’s close to the driver. I think that is a silence area. And then you find two second class carriages that basically come in a  layout like this. I reviewed these trains already in two other trip boards in the past. A little less than half of the seats do come in an airline style composition. In that situation, you find a rather big and sturdy foldout table in the seat in front of you, there’s a footrest and at the side, there’s a small litter bin. All windows, both in first and second class on board of these trains, do have a sunscreen. Coat hangers can be found right next to the windows. For luggage, you do find the overhead luggage racks on board  these trains that do provide quite a lot of space for luggage, but don’t miss out on the back 
ends between the seats. If the seats come in this composition. That doesn’t only count for this train, but for trains in general. And for the other seats facing each other at the side near the window, there’s a table and right under that you find a litter bin. The amount of leg room is a little bit less generous than on the airline style seats,  but it’s still pretty good. Officially, there are no power sockets on board these trains. However,  at the very end of the compartments near the information screens that will host route information for obvious reasons, you will find an unofficial power socket. That’s maybe two per carriage. That’s it. So, it’s  not that impressive to be honest. I mean, these are definitely not the newest trains, but they’re also not trains I would consider as old. I mean, I like these trains to be honest. At the doors, it has been clearly marked if you’re in the first or second class area of these trains. Before we move on to the first class, at the outside of the train, a bike area has been marked as well. And that’s basically over here. Actually, on the left, there’s a kind of luggage area or where you can put your bikes on that was locked over here. But yeah, people just put their bikes on the hallway over here. I mean, traveling with your bike is possible, but the facilities are 
quite disappointing, to be honest. Of course, no train tour is complete without showing you the toilets, and you’ll find two of these toilets on board of these trains. Both of them are in standard or second class. Within the carriage that hosts the first class, you will find a bigger accessible toilet. Although in terms of bigger and accessible toilets, it’s not that huge to be honest, but you just find some more support bars as you can see over here. In terms of accessibility, these trains do not have level boarding. So, if you’re traveling in a wheelchair, for example, you need 
to request assistance at the railway stations. Speaking of accessibility, within the first class, 
you will also find the accessible area. Actually, I only noticed that during this journey on board of these trains, but some of these seats can be popped up. So, if you’re traveling in a wheelchair, you can take a seat over there. Just like in most European trains, first class comes in a 2×1 configuration. The seats do provide really a good amount of leg room. It’s a bit better than in standard or second class, and the seats are a bit wider. What I don’t like about these seats is that the armrests cannot be adjusted. But the comfort level in first class is really good and especially 
if you have an upgrade in the weekends, it’s worth the money. For the airline style seats, just like in standard or second class, you do find a sturdy foldout table in the seat in front of you, a footrest, and a small litter bin at the side. Apart from that, you also find reading lights in first class. You won’t find this in standard or second class. Just like everywhere in the train, at the end of the open compartments, you will find screens that will host basic route information. This is only in the language of the language area where you’re in. I think this can be improved. I know we stay in a French-speaking part of Belgium and we’re traveling to France. However, this is an international train and I know languages in Belgium were a very sensitive topic. When I mentioned this once on the intercity train between Antwerp in Belgium and Lille in France, I mentioned that the information in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium or Fllanders should be at least also in France and otherwise English because you’re  in an international train after all. Some Flemish people were really criticizing me and saying that you should just learn another language. Well, I don’t hope that that person travels too much to other places. I mean, I’ve been with the train to China, but I don’t speak Chinese,  Russian, Polish, or well, they were basically the languages I needed for that journey. What I’m basically saying, information on international trains should be a bit more than only the local languages. At least English, I think, but since we’re in Belgium, Dutch makes sense as well,  at least for the more important railway stations. Anyway, while I show you some views from the train along this route, I will tell you something basic about ticket fares. Ticket prices for these trains or just fixed prices. However, there are quite some promotions when it comes to this and it might be interesting to split your tickets for the Belgium and the French part on this topic. During weekdays, this is for most of the times a direct train between Namur in Belgium to Lille in France via Charleroi, Mons and Tournai. However, in the weekend and also at some specific times during the weekday, you need to change trains in Tournai. This doesn’t impact the travel time to be honest because this direct train just waits a bit longer over there. Basically, at the railway station of Tournai, French staff takes over. The Dutch name for Toirnai is, by the way, Doornik I literally once missed a train to to an because I didn’t know that the Dutch name was Doornik. And if you haven’t heard from my accent yet, at least if you watch this video in the original language, I am Dutch. Anyway, if you buy tickets from Tournai or Doornik to Lille and the other way around, the Belgian and the French state and railway company do have different prices. And for example, if you book your ticket via the Dutch or Luxembourg state railway companies, that use the same back end as the Belgian state railway company, I can only book tickets for these trains until the last station in Belgium. And then I just looked it up when I was editing this video if I want to book a  train ticket for these trains by the French state and railway company from Lille to Namur It’s also not possible, only to Tournai or Doornik (Dutch spelling). And this is why I actually really like Trainline for booking my train tickets. Of course, this doesn’t work everywhere in Europe, but there are quite some booking systems linked to the Trainline website. And sometimes you will find, for example, two booking systems on one route and Trainline is linked to both of these systems. So you just get the best prices or the best deals in terms of cancellation policy. And since a couple of months, I do have an affiliate link to Trainline as well. You can find it in the description of this video. And if you purchase your ticket via that link, you support the channel as well. If you are a regular viewer of this channel, you can already find a lot of older videos as well where I didn’t have any affiliate links at all where I still mentioned Trainline. I just really like them. And I know there are other good booking websites for trains as well, but there are not that many. While if you want to travel by plane, there are so many actually quite good booking websites. And because state-owned railway companies apparently cannot 
sell a little bit more than what they should, I think supporting external booking websites like Trainline or the solution to make train traveling at least on international routes easier. This to make traveling by train more affordable for everybody and especially easier. And yes, there are still lots of improvements to make when it comes to these booking websites as well. However, they are a great step into the right direction. If railway companies don’t want to sell each other’s products by themself, well,  then a third commercial party just has to step in. And if they’re doing a great job, I don’t see what’s wrong with that. Anyway, I already showed you some views from the train. At this moment, the train is almost arriving at the railway 
station of Charleroi in Belgium. From Charleroi, you will also find trains that are heading to France. I do have a video on that as well. After that, our train also calls at Mons where you will find the Ouigo Classique low budget train between Brussels and Paris that also calls there. If you like to see the vies for the entire route from the train, I do have a video on this as well. You can find it on the train Viking passenger POV YouTube channel. And if it’s not there yet, just stay tuned. But that’s on another separate YouTube channel. For now, I just show you some bits from the train for the last part of this journey. [Music] I hope you liked this video or this has been a helpful video to you. If so, please give me a thumbs up. I really appreciate 
that. Once again, questions, feedback, comments. Let me know in the comment section. If you just want to say hello, feel free to do so. And if you like to see more trip reports about more sustainable ways of transportation, the main focus for this channel is once again 
long distance and or international traveling, then hit that subscribe button if you haven’t done 
this already. Before we really end up this video, one very last thing. Once again, thank you for watching. If you want to see other videos, of course, you can subscribe to this channel and you can find lots of other videos on this channel as well. And if you want to see specific trip reports about specific routes or train station reviews, in the description 
of this video on YouTube, you find a link to a map where you can find everything as well, 
but then on a map. See you on the next one.