Commuting to Brussels for work

Last activity 27 February 2013 by Ratchet_

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Jemmy12Contributor24 January 2012 22:42:33

100

I've recently changed jobs and while I can generally get away with working from home I am expecting to have to commute more and more to the office which is located in Brussels ( I currently live in Hasselt) For the odd time the commute isn't so bad but if I need to do it daily it will be a bit much for me. Into the bargain my girlfriend,who is Belgian lives in Balen and I would like to relocate to a town between Brussels/Balen and Hasselt.
I am looking for advice as to where would be a good place to go and if possible which towns in my little 'triangle' have a direct train line to Brussels. Having a direct train to all 3 towns would be great but I don't think I will get that!

Any info you guys can give me on places (like Diest/Aarschot etc.) for things like nightlife, general entertainment, rental prices and of course transport links would be greatly appreciated..

Thanks in advance.
Jemmy12

HarmonieViP25 January 2012 05:12:59

19273

Hi Jemmy and welcome to Expat.com!

Harmonie.

schoolmumSerial expat28 January 2012 18:19:39

726

Take a look at the SNCB map and their timetables. Your most convenient places to live in terms of travel time to Brussels and Balen are going to be Antwerpen near Berchem station and Lier (very quiet). Aarschot is feasible except it's a bit longer train commute in terms of time to Balen.
http://www.belrail.be/F/infrastructure/ … age=cartes

Jemmy12Contributor28 January 2012 18:58:18

100

schoolmum wrote:
Take a look at the SNCB map and their timetables. Your most convenient places to live in terms of travel time to Brussels and Balen are going to be Antwerpen near Berchem station and Lier (very quiet). Aarschot is feasible except it's a bit longer train commute in terms of time to Balen.
http://www.belrail.be/F/infrastructure/ … age=cartes

Cheers for that,
It seems to confirm what I already thought. Aarschot isn't too far of a commute for me. I love the quality of life here in Hasselt so it will be a bit of a change to head to somewhere like Lier.The commute to Balen isn't so bad as that will be in my own time, I was more concerned with the Brussels line.

I'll do a bit of snooping around on immoweb and woon centrale and also check out what the cost of living is

nybenMember12 February 2013 13:23:13

I commuted from bruges to brussels and from door to door it took me 2 hours. some people could get used to that but honestly i couldn't

Jemmy12Contributor12 February 2013 15:10:21

100

I've since went back to Horeca,
I've moved to be closer to work and now live less than a 5 minute walk from my bar :-)

Ratchet_New member27 February 2013 10:34:50

I live in Hasselt and have to commute daily to Brussels. It's a real pain... on a bad day, it takes me up to 3 hours to get there. I now leave home at 6AM and only hit 15min of traffic jams...

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