Advice on local Belgium-Germany buses

[alex397]

I’ll be travelling from Liège to Aachen next week, but rather than just get a direct train I’ll be doing something a bit different. I plan to get the train to Eupen, in the small German speaking area of Belgium, then getting a local bus from there to Aachen.

I will either get the 14 direct to Eupen, or the 396 to Vaals in the Netherlands then an Aachen local bus.
The 14 seems to be jointly operated by Belgian TEC and German ASEAG (though it seems the Belgian operator SADAR runs it on behalf of them). My question is, what ticket do I need to buy (I think it may be the ‘region3tarif’ ticket) and what language will the driver likely be speaking? It seems a silly question to ask, but last time I had to buy a ticket from the driver on the continent there was a big language barrier, and the driver got angry with me and so did the passengers - I was so embarrassed I just left the bus and had a very long walk instead! I’d rather be prepared with what to say so I don’t have a silly panic again!
Presumably I’ll just talk in German, as it’s a German speaking region, but there’s the possibility a TEC driver would only speak French.

 

[dutchflyer]

Hello again-just by chance I rode that bus on FR 15/8, which was an official holiday in Belgium and a normal workingday in that part of DE=Germany. Combination of my DE-ticket and TEC/Belgian yearly senior BUs pass (cost 12€) was accepted without any problems. Aim was to also ride the weekend only 385 on a straight road from Eupen toward Monschau in DE-which appeared some 25 mins late. 14 is just normal bright yellow TEC buses-only busfreaks will know where to look to find if it is by TEC itself or some local operator. DO note that in Eupen-as such very, very rare in BE, BUSstation (quite a nice one) is NOT right next to trainstation-the 14 has a stop like ´Stationstreet´Bahnhofstrasse, on demand and not obvious right away when coming off train-use google map
Going this way this bus passes Aachen HBF-on other side of road and then turns into the centre to end at Elisenbrunnen Main busstation. As is near usual around all main german HBF=main station: there will be homeless and near drunk bottle collectors around, some may ask for small change.
IF you also want to do more trips in this area-3 countries, get the EUREgio ticket as a daypass (NOT 24 hrs!!) which is already from Liege (Luik, take the chance to ride its brand new tramline) or at least admire this Calatrava designed building. Pass is also valid there. Buy from the blue NMBS/SNCB trains machines.
What is best buy next as #2 also depends on which other trips you intend to make that day and on which side of border.
In that area , surprise, surprise, german is the main language, also in the BE side, and its even official recognised as ´Deutscher Sprach Gemeinschaft´ in the as for languages hyper-sensitive state of Belgium. Driver will speak that (HAS to by law!) and probably also the wallon brand of French. Chance on also basic /en/: my estimate 50%-more likely by young ones as older ones. In fact there was an original spanish lady living/working in the flemish part who also took that 385 and had a lively discussion with that driver in /en/ as she spoke no german but also the flemish brand of dutch. But that driver was german and the bus too-ASEAG.
In fact in the busstation is also a ´self´ TEC ticket machine, but if they also do those tickets I cannot say.
SO: do not worry, if this is really the only bustrip to make and no advantage in those other tickets: just say to driver (there is still a fairly strict entry ticket control over there on the BE side and hardly at all on the DE side) Aachen (Aix la Chapelle in /fr/) and a ticket will come out of her/his machine. Should be less as5€ and I think it is still cash only. In fact the nr of passengers still buying tickets is minimal to nil, but in this area they are in general very well used to tourists and choice of languages. And in the highly unlikely case that there really is some non-understanding: there will be a few other pax who will be multi-lingual and happy to help out. Which as such is generally the normal way of us around here to handle such things-myself too in other countries.
If you belong to the younger generation married with or at least fond of the ´handy´=german for the smartfone: show it on that thing will also work.

 

[rvdborgt]

I will either get the 14 direct to Eupen, or the 396 to Vaals in the Netherlands then an Aachen local bus.
The 14 seems to be jointly operated by Belgian TEC and German ASEAG (though it seems the Belgian operator SADAR runs it on behalf of them). My question is, what ticket do I need to buy (I think it may be the ‘region3tarif’ ticket) and what language will the driver likely be speaking? It seems a silly question to ask, but last time I had to buy a ticket from the driver on the continent there was a big language barrier, and the driver got angry with me and so did the passengers - I was so embarrassed I just left the bus and had a very long walk instead! I’d rather be prepared with what to say so I don’t have a silly panic again!
Presumably I’ll just talk in German, as it’s a German speaking region, but there’s the possibility a TEC driver would only speak French.

In Belgium, on both these routes, the drivers are required to be able to speak German and French. AFAIK, both routes are subcontracted to SADAR from Kelmis (including the buses operated on behalf of ASEAG), so chances are it's indeed the case.
A single ticket Eupen-Aachen will be €5.80, indeed with the region3tarif.

14 is just normal bright yellow TEC buses

Or a bus in ASEAG outfit.

DO note that in Eupen-as such very, very rare in BE, BUSstation (quite a nice one) is NOT right next to trainstation-the 14 has a stop like ´Stationstreet´Bahnhofstrasse, on demand and not obvious right away when coming off train-use google map

In this direction, the bus stop of line 14 is right in front of the station, on the side of the station.

 

[alex397]

Thank you for this invaluable information! Very interesting to read. I find this border area very interesting.

Though I didn’t mention I am doing a round trip from Liège - Aachen - Maastricht - Liège in a day, so maybe this Euregio ticket will cover all of my journeys? I just plan to travel on local buses and trains.

 

[Full Standing]

Yes, you should be able to. You can travel on all buses and trams in the area covered in the below map (which includes, among a few other things, the continuous area in the Aachen-Liège-Maastricht triangle). Further, you can travel on all rail lines coloured blue in the map (which includes the Aachen-Liège, Liège-Maastricht, and Maastricht-Aachen lines).

You can find the map at https://avv.de/de/tickets/tickets-f...les/tickets/flyer/euregioticket.pdf&cid=55575.



== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 20 Aug 2025 ==

I find this border area very interesting.

I second that. It is one of my favourite places in Europe. I even used to live there.

 

[johncrossley]

Grenstreinbus.be | Grensoverschrijdende treinen en bussen vanuit België

Een actueel overzicht van alle grensoverschrijdende intercity- en lokale treinen vanuit België alsook van alle lijnbussen tussen België en de buurlanden. In woord en beeld.

www.grenstreinbus.be

is a comprehensive guide to all buses and trains that cross the Belgian border, including the fare policy that applies on each route.

It is in Dutch, but the English 'summary' seems to have most of the same detail. Obviously you can use Google Translate or similar.