Charleroi Airport Brussels South

[185]

The 'special airport bus', the A to the centre is £5 to the station. Any cheaper alternatives known? It's less than two miles aswell.

Thanks in advance

 

[fowler9]

The 'special airport bus', the A to the centre is £5 to the station. Any cheaper alternatives known? It's less than two miles aswell.

Thanks in advance

Doesn't that include the train to Brussels?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Doesn't that include the train to Brussels?

No. Actually the fare on the airport shuttle bus is €5 not £5.
The standard rail fare from Charleroi Sud to Brussels is €9.40.
You can get combo tickets from SNCB but they just add the two fares together.
The bus from the airport direct to Brussels costs €14, and gets you there quicker.
I think there might be a cheap local option involving a TEC bus from the station to the airport industrial area and then a walk, but as it was heaving down when I went I didn't bother!
SNCB do have some very good deals if you qualify.
As a senior I could get a €6 return ticket to anywhere in Belgium after 0900 (€8.80 across the border to Aachen or Roosendaal)

 

[radamfi]

If you have time on your hands or simply want to travel around Belgium by bus, you can get a TEC day ticket for 8 euros which gives you unlimited travel on TEC buses throughout the French/German speaking part of Belgium, including TEC buses to/from Brussels.

 

[johnnychips]

Bus 68 operates almost to the airport (stop 'Bolla') from the station; bus 62 operates to the same stop from Metro station 'Madeleine' but I don't know what the fare is.

EDIT: it's in zone 2 so 1,90 euros.

www.infotec.be is useful but in French. Look for 'Plan du reseau' if you want a map.

 

[185]

Brilliant, appreciated. May head for a local service bus... did the same at Paris Beauvais last month to save some pennies. Think the fare is €1.50 which is a saving when buying for more than one traveller both ways.

Were doing the SNCB ten journey €78 ticket, bit of a saving with that.

 

[92002]

Brilliant, appreciated. May head for a local service bus... did the same at Paris Beauvais last month to save some pennies. Think the fare is €1.50 which is a saving when buying for more than one traveller both ways.

Were doing the SNCB ten journey €78 ticket, bit of a saving with that.

The express coach from Flibco.com booked on the Charleroi airport site has fares starting at €5.

The earlier booked fares get the prize.

Coaches go to Brussels Midi/Zuid and are a lot quicker than the bus to Charleroi Sud train combination.

 

[johnnychips]

My mate arrived from Manchester to Charleroi quite late one night and said that getting on the bus to Brussels was a free-for-all. Some passengers were left behind.

 

[185]

The express coach from Flibco.com booked on the Charleroi airport site has fares starting at €5.

The earlier booked fares get the prize.

I don't trust Flibco. Three months ago, their fare was 2x€16x2=€64rtn. It still is now, hence looking for a plan B.

 

[johnnychips]

Where are you planning to go when you reach Charleroi and what time do you get there?

 

[button_boxer]

Bus 68 operates almost to the airport (stop 'Bolla') from the station; bus 62 operates to the same stop from Metro station 'Madeleine' but I don't know what the fare is.

EDIT: it's in zone 2 so 1,90 euros.

www.infotec.be is useful but in French. Look for 'Plan du reseau' if you want a map.

Blimey, it's gone up. I used to fly into Charleroi reasonably regularly a number of years back and I'm pretty sure that back then the bus from the airport to Charleroi Sud was a normal fare rather than a premium priced service. I used to get the multi trip ticket that pushed the price down even further, equivalent of less than €1.20 each way.

 

[atillathehunn]

Bus 68 operates almost to the airport (stop 'Bolla') from the station; bus 62 operates to the same stop from Metro station 'Madeleine' but I don't know what the fare is.

EDIT: it's in zone 2 so 1,90 euros.

www.infotec.be is useful but in French. Look for 'Plan du reseau' if you want a map.

Do you mean Bolland stop? I've been looking on the map, but don't see Bolla, only Bolland, round the back of the airport. Never taken this bus before, even though I've been going through Charleroi airport for years, very annoyed.

Alternatively for the OP, you can quite often just hitchhike to town if you walk out of the airport.

I was trying to leave the airport the other day while Belgium was on the strike, it took over four hours to leave the airport on a bus to Brussels (only place with any trains running). The Fiblico bus is clean and (normally) fast, but expensive. Unless you need to be at Zuid station in BRU then it's probably better to head onto the trains at Sud station. Connections there are good to the north, west, east and even south into France.

 

[radamfi]

TEC have 3 single fares

http://www.infotec.be/Titresettarifs/Tickets.aspx

1.90 for up to 60 minutes within 1 or 2 zones
3.00 for up to 90 minutes any distance except express buses
5.00 for up to 90 minutes including express buses

plus 8.00 for a day ticket including express buses

So it looks like the A service is now classed as 'express'. However, the specific page for the airport

http://www.infotec.be/fr-be/medeplacer/solutionsdemobilité/solutionstec/navetteaéroportbsca.aspx

says "Le tarif unique d’application sur la ligne A est de 5 € par trajet." I'm not sure if this means that you can't use any other tickets on bus A, like the 8.00 euro day ticket.

If the A is classed as express, just like the other express routes, that would imply you could get a Multiflex, giving 4 90 minute rides trips for 13.20:

http://www.infotec.be/fr-be/titresettarifs/cartes.aspx

 

[Howardh]

I used the bus from Charleroi to the rail station (connection to Brussel) and everything was fine and cheap. The only prob was the bus at the airport was at the bus stop.....the furthest one!!

*Must admit* at Charleroi station was looking at the timetable for a connection to Mechelen - which simply didn't appear on the timetable. Ahem, I forgot I was in the French speaking side.....and Mechelen is Dutch/Flemish.....

EDIT Love Charleroi airport, worth a day out just to sit in the lounge drinking genuine trappist beer. Hold the plane up, still got half a glass left....

 

[atillathehunn]

I used the bus from Charleroi to the rail station (connection to Brussel) and everything was fine and cheap. The only prob was the bus at the airport was at the bus stop.....the furthest one!!

*Must admit* at Charleroi station was looking at the timetable for a connection to Mechelen - which simply didn't appear on the timetable. Ahem, I forgot I was in the French speaking side.....and Mechelen is Dutch/Flemish.....

EDIT Love Charleroi airport, worth a day out just to sit in the lounge drinking genuine trappist beer. Hold the plane up, still got half a glass left....

The bus stop used to be right outside the terminal building. Then, without much warning, they moved it quite a long way down away from the terminal, and then forgot to put up a sign for many months to say where the bus had gone. Still, whenever I go for the bus, many people are still confused where the bus departs from...

Though I would radically disagree that Charleroi is a good place to spend any amount of time more than the minimum check in time...! The planes are homogenous, the beer is overpriced, and the chairs are horrific!

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I got a one Euro flight from there a while ago (to Stansted) - the bus connection from the centre was a disgrace ...and the terminal facilities were about par for a greasy spoon on the A40 in the 1960's......still , got there - no complaints.

Charleroi is a deeply depressing settlement though - sort of a dirtier version of the worst of the UK cities ..

 

[Hophead]

Charleroi is a deeply depressing settlement though - sort of a dirtier version of the worst of the UK cities ..

Never been myself, but it does seem to have an interesting and incomplete Metro system (other links are available).

 

[185]

Oh heck. Whole SNCB on strike Monday. Sticking with the dull shuttle bus instead. Flibco get the money.

http://sncb.be

Trains r poo. Sometimes :P

--------------
Et voila....
http://www.belgianrail.be/fr/actualite/greve-8-decembre.aspx

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Charleroi is a deeply depressing settlement though - sort of a dirtier version of the worst of the UK cities ..

The rail journey east to Liege takes you through a landscape reminiscent of Sheffield or Wolverhampton (run down industry and closed collieries).
But the wider natural scenery gets really nice after Namur and the big river Meuse is impressive - like a miniature Rhine in places.

PS On the run from Charleroi to Brussels you pass though the real Waterloo station about half way.
Not quite as big as our version.

 

[92002]

I got a one Euro flight from there a while ago (to Stansted) - the bus connection from the centre was a disgrace ...and the terminal facilities were about par for a greasy spoon on the A40 in the 1960's......still , got there - no complaints.

Charleroi is a deeply depressing settlement though - sort of a dirtier version of the worst of the UK cities ..

Obviously a good while ago

€1 flights haven't existed for many years.

Charleroi also now has a brand new terminal, with brand new facilities.

The road transport to Brussels has also changed hands at least twice in the last 4 or 5 years. With yes brand new coaches.

 

[dutchflyer]

Day tickets are NOT accepted anymore on the A-that explains why it is A and not some nr.
Ive also looked at it and alas I have to write not that positive:
THIS airport is officially at least INaccessible for pedestrains-it has been designed that way (now that this new Terminal is open since some 2-3 yrs), to prevent theft-after all CRL is not a crimefree area.
Ive done it-late evening (for a very early flite out) but had to walk via a kind of drench and pass the whole parking lot-but this must have been all on camera and i was not stopped. Goodle maps is pretty misleading as (then) it still showed the old terminal, which is still there, but out of use at other side of runway.
Actually the closest by stop has a direct bus-365, to Brussel-zuid (NOt sat/sun anymore), for indeed just 3 eur./single. That commune is named Gosselies.
A kind of citybus ends at (have to look that name), only hourly evenings till about 22.30, then cross main road- there is a cheaper airport parking and they give you free rides on their shuttle to the terminal.
Or-maybe, a free shuttle from 1 of the airporthotels (vanderValk), which sit on the Gosselies side of the protected area.
For 5 eur you can, with preplanning and luck even use long distance FlibCo buses:
to Luxembourg and now also to Gent-Brugge. Only on trips without direct air connection.
You can find names of HTL/bus etc via the official airportsite.

 

[radamfi]

I took the 365 from Bruxelles-Midi/Brussel-Zuid to Charlerloi a few years ago and it was run by a high floor coach seated bus, i.e. 'dual-purpose' in UK bus speak. It takes a while but of course the fare is very cheap.

 

[185]

Ended up using the Flibco shuttle on the way out - €16 up to Bruges on the shuttle to beat the rail strike.

Travelled back yesterday via Charleroi, ended up using the A (€5) because the 68 (€1.80) wasn't displayed on the screen, and it had gone by the time we found which stand TEC-bus had hidden it on. Don't want the tourists finding it