Eurostar - stupidly tight connection in Brussels

[BankQuayLowLvl]

Hi all,

Have recently booked a journey from St Pancras to Cologne changing in Brussels. I've messed up, though, and misread the time differences. The upshot is that I've given my partner and I a 12 minute change in Brussels Midi onto a second Eurostar service (though this second service was booked through DB).

It's a €25 fee per passenger to change it, which is something I'd like to avoid if possible. Any ideas whether a) this is a feasible change (unlikely) or b) whether there's any likelihood of being accepted onto a later train in this event? I assume this is well under the recommended transfer time and this would invalidate the Railteam/HOTNAT policies.

I shall email Eurostar and beg for mercy in the meantime.

Thanks in advance.

 

[rvdborgt]

If you check e.g. the DB planner, then you will see that it offers shortish connections to the ICE. Normally the connection time is then 20 minutes, and sometimes 16, so I wonder what connection you've booked. Many people make that connection. If your Eurostar ends in Brussels, then change your seats to the front of the Eurostar. HOTNAT applies if you miss such a connection and you can be rebooked on the next Eurostar free of charge if there are free seats. Also see what Seat61 says.

 

[StephenHunter]

If you check e.g. the DB planner, then you will see that it offers shortish connections to the ICE. Normally the connection time is then 20 minutes, and sometimes 16, so I wonder what connection you've booked. Many people make that connection. If your Eurostar ends in Brussels, then change your seats to the front of the Eurostar. HOTNAT applies if you miss such a connection and you van be rebooked on the next Eurostar if there are free seats. Also see what Seat61 says.

Yes, that's right. You should be able get across in less than 10 minutes.

 

[SephenWorceste]

That is a tight connection. I have done twenty minutes (several times) which was fine until my Eurostar from London was late. I still made it just.

If you have done this connection before you might have used the mid train passage that connected platforms. I believe that is not used at the moment. On that assumption as suggested by others you are better at the front of the train.

I would make sure I am at the train door well before it arrives. You want to be first off and not behind the people with an enormous quantity of too large luggage. I always worry if there are a group of Americans or families in my carriage.

I would try to memorise the layout of the station in advance. I did not do this first time, and lost time wondering around. The useful signage was not easy to find amongst all the commercial advertising. It seems a bad station for this.

When I was late I boarded my onward train at the first carriage. They shut the doors and departed while I was still in the first carriage and walking along the train to my carriage. Had I walked along the platform to my carriage I would have missed the train.

Good luck.

 

[BahrainLad]

If your Brussels Eurostar is continuing to Amsterdam it’ll use the through platforms which allow an easier change than the terminating ones, and if you’re super lucky there’ll be a cross platform transfer.

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

As a regular user of this connection, until last year, 12 mins is just about doable. But the Eurostar from London seems to be late (eg > 3mins) at least 25% of the time, so it's not a great connection. If it were me, I'd pay the change fee on the Brussels-Cologne connection and budget on having some lunch in Brussels (go to Brussels Central and explore round there, although a new ticket for this connection would be needed.

 

[BankQuayLowLvl]

Thank you all for your comments.

If you check e.g. the DB planner, then you will see that it offers shortish connections to the ICE. Normally the connection time is then 20 minutes

This is not a valid connection as far as I can tell. DB does not present it as an option to book. As you say 20 minutes is normal.

HOTNAT applies if you miss such a connection and you can be rebooked on the next Eurostar free of charge if there are free seats.

Do you know if this still applies if the "connection" booked is not a valid one, as in this case?

I would try to memorise the layout of the station in advance. I did not do this first time, and lost time wondering around. The useful signage was not easy to find amongst all the commercial advertising. It seems a bad station for this.

If your Brussels Eurostar is continuing to Amsterdam it’ll use the through platforms which allow an easier change than the terminating ones, and if you’re super lucky there’ll be a cross platform transfer.

Really helpful advice both. I will have to consult my partner on whether she is willing to gamble on the dash between the trains (she has far less tolerance for this sort of thing than I do).

As a regular user of this connection, until last year, 12 mins is just about doable. But the Eurostar from London seems to be late (eg > 3mins) at least 25% of the time, so it's not a great connection. If it were me, I'd pay the change fee on the Brussels-Cologne connection and budget on having some lunch in Brussels (go to Brussels Central and explore round there, although a new ticket for this connection would be needed.

This might be what we end up doing, unfortunately!

 

[rvdborgt]

Do you know if this still applies if the "connection" booked is not a valid one, as in this case?

Normally not, but I suppose it became 12 minutes because of engineering works making the Eurostar arrival later. If you booked when the arrival time was still the earlier, normal one, then HOTNAT and AJC should apply. Check your original booking confirmation.

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

I would imagine the Eurostar desk on the groundfloor of the station would rebook you onto the next Brussels-Cologne Eurostar connetion under HOTNAT even if the timings you booked under were tight. They are very used to dealing with delays to/from Germany. It happens all the time. However, it maybe that the next Eurostar connection is full in which case you can loiter around the train when it arrives from Paris, find the Train Manager and ask very politely if they can find you spare seats. Would probably work.

In the past, they have been reluctant to transfer delayed pax from London on the ICE services (which generally would mean only waiting 1 hour in Brussels). These don't require reservations and are not always completely full. So that may work for you. Someone else can advised if a HOTNAT stamp and the London - Brussels -Cologne tickets that you would hold are sufficient paperwork for this. My impression these days is that DB and Eurostar don't see themselves so much as UK-style competitors as happened on the past on this line....

Of course, note that the next Eurostar connection is likely to be 2 hours from the original booked so bear this in mind if you are thinking of making further connections on DB within Germany (which are, themselves, often delayed....). Any journey on DB may be delayed, so always allow at least an hour extra for any Fernverkehr, ie. ICE, you make....

 

[rvdborgt]

In the past, they have been reluctant to transfer delayed pax from London on the ICE services (which generally would mean only waiting 1 hour in Brussels). These don't require reservations and are not always completely full.

They're never completely full. The BahnBonus seats can't be reserved, so they're in fact unreserved seats and won't even be occupied when reservations are mandatory.

 

[Mainline421]

However, it maybe that the next Eurostar connection is full in which case you can loiter around the train when it arrives from Paris, find the Train Manager and ask very politely if they can find you spare seats. Would probably work.

In this case you can stand, happened to me twice in recent times. They also have a small number of non-reservable seats.

 

[BankQuayLowLvl]

Normally not, but I suppose it became 12 minutes because of engineering works making the Eurostar arrival later. If you booked when the arrival time was still the earlier, normal one, then HOTNAT and AJC should apply. Check your original booking confirmation.

That isn't the case unfortunately. I booked them as two separate journeys - my intention was to allow a ~70 minute layover at Brussels but messed it up due to misreading the timezones. However it seems from Gerald's post that it may be fine.

I would imagine the Eurostar desk on the groundfloor of the station would rebook you onto the next Brussels-Cologne Eurostar connetion under HOTNAT even if the timings you booked under were tight. They are very used to dealing with delays to/from Germany. It happens all the time. However, it maybe that the next Eurostar connection is full in which case you can loiter around the train when it arrives from Paris, find the Train Manager and ask very politely if they can find you spare seats. Would probably work.

In the past, they have been reluctant to transfer delayed pax from London on the ICE services (which generally would mean only waiting 1 hour in Brussels). These don't require reservations and are not always completely full. So that may work for you. Someone else can advised if a HOTNAT stamp and the London - Brussels -Cologne tickets that you would hold are sufficient paperwork for this. My impression these days is that DB and Eurostar don't see themselves so much as UK-style competitors as happened on the past on this line....

Of course, note that the next Eurostar connection is likely to be 2 hours from the original booked so bear this in mind if you are thinking of making further connections on DB within Germany (which are, themselves, often delayed....). Any journey on DB may be delayed, so always allow at least an hour extra for any Fernverkehr, ie. ICE, you make....

This is all very helpful, thank you. We are not making further connections - Cologne is the final destination. So we will plan to rely on the Eurostar staff to help out then - and if it ends up being a 2 hour connection then so be it.