Day trip to Vimy Ridge from Brussels

I have been to Vimy, but not from Brussels, but my impression is you really need a car to see Vimy Ridge.

What I did was take the Eurostar from London to Lille, and rent a car from there. After Vimy, I continued on to Bruges, all in one easy day.

The reason I suggest a car for Vimy is:
(a) Vimy Ridge is not near Vimy or any other town. It is about an hour walk from the closest train station, which is in the town of Vimy 5 km away; and
(b) Vimy is a small station, not on any main lines from Brussels. Four connections is the simplest train journey I could see on Google Maps.

But do go. Vimy is a special place for any Canadian. The trenches are so close together, and you will see the hill that the Canadian Corps had to go up that day in April 1917. The monument itself is a bit garish, but it has the names of all those who died.

We did Vimy as a day trip from Paris back in 2010.

We took the train to Arras, then were trying to decipher the bus schedule, but took a taxi instead (they were outside the train stn). We walked around the site itself, visited one or two of the cemeteries, then at the Canadian museum? pavilion? interpretive centre? the gal working there called us a taxi to take us back to Arras.

The funny thing was - the taxi back was cheaper! The guy couldn't speak English, but he drove us by a few of the American and German cemeteries and gave us a whole handful of pamphlets!

If you wanted to explore more of the cemeteries and battle sites - a private tour may be more up your alley - maybe you could arrange one to pick you up in Arras...?

The train planner of the Deutsche Bahn shows a reasonably efficient journey time of a little bit over 2 hrs, with a change in Lille (Lille Europe to neighbouring Lille Flandres station) and another one Lens, and trains running almost hourly.
It is still a 1 hr walk from Vimy railway station, which in good weather could be pleasant though.

I'm sure there must be taxis at the Vimy rr station - looking at Rome2rio and it says an 8 min taxi ride at a cost of ~$20 (not sure if it's using Canadian or American $, but since I'm located in Canada, most likely converting to Can$) so you just have to decide if you'd rather spend the $$ or enjoy the walk.

Edit - yes, I see in the corner of the rome2rio that I am set to Can $

Vimy station is tiny. Maybe taxi, maybe not. Arras station is a big one and very likely to have a taxi. It isn't too far from the very impressive Vimy Ridge.

I'd go even further than Nigel and say very unlikely to be a taxi at Vimy station. It is tiny. Once you start considering cabs, you're back to my original suggestion of renting a car. Cheaper than train + taxi and way more fun and convenient.

I stand corrected. Didn’t realize how small the Vimy station is. Going by our experience at Arras where there were 4-5 taxis outside the station in a queue.