"Any Belgian Station" destination on the Eurostar

Question

Does the "Any Belgian Station" destination on the Eurostar imply unlimited Belgian train travel (naturally excluding Intercity-Express and Thalys) within 24 hours of arrival/departure of my Eurostar at/from Brussels?

Answer 1

This ticket gives you 24 hours, after the arrival in Brussels, to reach your final destination in Belgium. You cannot use it for roaming across the country.

A word to the wise: I am not a professional translator, but it seems to me that there may be an ambiguity between the English, Dutch and French versions of the "conditions of carriage". In the Dutch and English versions they mention travel within Belgium. In the French version they say something like "one trip within Belgium". If you are really stubborn you can use this as an argument, but I doubt that you will succeed ...

Answer 2

Unlimited? Yes, but different from what you are thinking. When reading the link you gave us with information about Any Belgian Station tickets, it says:

Any Belgian Station tickets are valid on Eurostar trains to Brussels, and then on any suitable connecting train service from Brussels to Belgian destinations, as long as you complete your journey within 24 hours of your Eurostar train arriving in Brussels.

The ticket allows you to get off the Eurostar and continue your travels towards any station in Belgian. So within 24 hours you would technically be able to go from Brussels towards any destination in Belgium. What it doesn't say is that you got use this ticket to get back to Brussels within 24 hours of your arrival. So after you got off the first train, you could try to take another train using this ticket, but chances are that this second train would not be coming from Brussels and therefore making your ticket invalid.

If we continue reading it says:

On your return, you can travel from your Belgian destination to Brussels on any suitable train, except Thalys or ICE high-speed trains, within 24 hours before your Eurostar train departs from Brussels to London.

So again, you can take unlimited trains towards Brussels, but not towards any other direction. And if you try boarding any train that would not go towards Brussels or towards a transfer station that will get you to Brussels, your ticket would become invalid for your current journey.

So technically you could use this ticket multiple times, but it wouldn't be practical calculating which trains you could and could not take.