European Rail Travel - Train AMS - LON via BRU 24 hr rule?

Hi, I've been reading all over about the possibility of stopping 24 hours in Brussels if I take the train from AMS to London. However, can someone help clarify a few concerns I have:

1. The 24 hours starts from the train time I take departing Amsterdam to Brussels? and ends at the time of the Eurostar departure?

2. How do I book a ticket for any train within 24 hours? http://www.nshispeed.nl/en appears to be cheaper than Eurostar, however both sites have an assigned time for both the AMS to BRU and BRU to LON trains.

Do I just book whichever Eurostar I want and they'll let me onto any earlier intercity train AMS within 24 hours, rather than the intercity train time I book online?

Thanks,
-Chris

Hi,

First of all, we have a Euro Rail forum here. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/european-rail-travel-654/ which can answer all your questions.

But briefly, you can book a simple cheap use-any-time ticket from Amsterdam to Brussels and take the intercity train there. Then you can stay as long as you want in Brussels, and take the Eurostar to London at your leisure. Same deal going the other way. And you don't need to reserve for the normal train. You can walk up 10 or 15 minutes before the train leaves (assuming you have a Euro credit card, otherwise give yourself a little more time), buy a ticket and get on.

Thanks, didn't realize there was a euro rail forum. Can an admin move my post? I don't know how.

Also, regarding buying separate tix, it's cheaper to buy it together it seems, otherwise I would just do that. It's 50 eur from AMS to LON on the NL speed web site, or 50 eur from BRU to LON on the Eurostar.

So doesn't make sense to book it separately based on what I'm seeing, thanks. And no european credit card.

Thanks, didn't realize there was a euro rail forum. Can an admin move my post? I don't know how.

Gladly done. Please continue to follow the thread in the European Rail Travel forum.

stut
Co-Moderator
Europe Forum

Hi, I've been reading all over about the possibility of stopping 24 hours in Brussels if I take the train from AMS to London. However, can someone help clarify a few concerns I have:

1. The 24 hours starts from the train time I take departing Amsterdam to Brussels? and ends at the time of the Eurostar departure?

2. How do I book a ticket for any train within 24 hours? http://www.nshispeed.nl/en appears to be cheaper than Eurostar, however both sites have an assigned time for both the AMS to BRU and BRU to LON trains.

Do I just book whichever Eurostar I want and they'll let me onto any earlier intercity train AMS within 24 hours, rather than the intercity train time I book online?

Thanks,
-Chris


Stimpy's post (#2 of this thread), of course, is generally sound. I'm pretty sure, though, that he's referring to purchasing the AMS-BRU ticket via the yellow electronic machines. And the way he puts it, it almost sounds like he's talking about walking up to the counter at BRU and purchasing your LON ticket. Of course, that's fine.

A couple caveats:
(1) If you don't have a Maestro card or credit card with (Chip +?) Pin, then purchase from those yellow machines can be a bit painful. You can purchase at a service desk with a 'regular' credit card for an additional 3 or 4 euro service charge.
(2) I never have figured out how to get the 24-hour leeway built into the online nshispeed.nl purchase. I went to the service desk at AMS Centraal and they helped me to design my ticket--that's the procedure I'd recommend.

I took your requested AMS-BRU-LON-BRU-AMS trip just last month.

Here's what it all looked like: I told the ticket agent* that I wanted to be able to stop over in BRU for the evening, and she immediately understood. These were special super saver tickets. Basically, she ended up giving me BRU-LON and LON-BRU (Eurostar) tickets that had assigned seating and fixed departure times. The AMS-BRU and BRU-AMS (Intercity train) tickets had neither assigned seating nor fixed departure times, but were labeled with the same dates as my respective BRU-LON and LON-BRU tickets. The agent told me that--outgoing--I was only allowed to depart from AMS within 24 hours of my BRU departure. So if my BRU departure was at 10am on Wednesday, I was not allowed to depart AMS on a Tuesday 9am train. The same held for my return: I had at most 24 hours from the time of my BRU arrival to step onto my BRU-AMS train.

If you buy your AMS-BRU-LON-BRU-AMS tickets on nshispeed, I'm pretty sure that your Intercity tickets (AMS-BRU and BRU-AMS) will have fixed departure times on them. And that's not what you want.

It was nice that the agent also printed out the 24-hour ride rules for that kind of Intercity tickets. She told me that some train conductors may not be trained well enough to recognize.

Why bother restricting yourself to these rules if you can just follow Stimpy's suggestion? It really boils down to your Eurostar seating preference sensitivity. If you want to better ensure aisle or window seating, or seating in a 'foursome', then booking (with an agent) earlier is better than booking mere hours before your Eurostar departures.** Furthermore, if you are traveling with others, and you want to sit together with them, then it's definitely important to book your Eurostar tickets farther in advance.

The main reason that you might as well book your Intercity tickets at the same time as your Eurostar ones is that, well, you can get a good enough taste of Brussels in those 48 hours. And I think Brussels knows that. :)

My .02

-cmhsieh54



* If you can, try and book these "24hr-leeway" AMS-BRU-LON-BRU-AMS tickets at Schiphol's desk. I booked at Amsterdam Centraal and I spent a good 75 minutes waiting in line.
** Of course, such a point becomes less relevant if you plan on staying in BRU for multiple evenings at a time (and thus, booking at BRU's desk multiple evenings in advance).

Hi, I've been reading all over about the possibility of stopping 24 hours in Brussels if I take the train from AMS to London. However, can someone help clarify a few concerns I have:

1. The 24 hours starts from the train time I take departing Amsterdam to Brussels? and ends at the time of the Eurostar departure?

2. How do I book a ticket for any train within 24 hours? http://www.nshispeed.nl/en appears to be cheaper than Eurostar, however both sites have an assigned time for both the AMS to BRU and BRU to LON trains.

Do I just book whichever Eurostar I want and they'll let me onto any earlier intercity train AMS within 24 hours, rather than the intercity train time I book online?

Thanks,
-Chris

People seem to miss the point of your question, and suggest mistaken answers!

If you buy the (cheaper) ticket on hispeed.nl, it will be valid for ANY IC train departing 24 hours before the booked Eurostar departure. Don't worry, your ticket will NOT have specific times for the IC leg NL-Brussels, despite the fact that concrete times/trains are shown for it in the booking process. So go ahead, book it, and don't worry ;)

To be clear, I was not suggesting booking the Eurostar at the last minute, but the Intercity train. Those can be used anytime and there is no reserved seat, but I've never tried to purchase all the way to London from Amsterdam so I'm not sure if there is anything special about that vis-à-vis a 24 hour rule.

To be clear, I was not suggesting booking the Eurostar at the last minute, but the Intercity train. Those can be used anytime and there is no reserved seat, but I've never tried to purchase all the way to London from Amsterdam so I'm not sure if there is anything special about that vis-à-vis a 24 hour rule.

The whole point is, it is sometimes MUCH cheaper to book Eurostar on hispeed.nl (in which case the ticket will include a conventional train journey from any Dutch station) than on eurostar.com.

People seem to miss the point of your question, and suggest mistaken answers!

If you buy the (cheaper) ticket on hispeed.nl, it will be valid for ANY IC train departing 24 hours before the booked Eurostar departure. Don't worry, your ticket will NOT have specific times for the IC leg NL-Brussels, despite the fact that concrete times/trains are shown for it in the booking process. So go ahead, book it, and don't worry ;)

Thanks for mentioning this! It was something I was not aware of...

But certainly, while it's true that the Intercity ticket does not have specific times listed on it, to any newbie, it's not clear at all that this also means that the ticket can be used anytime within the 24-hour window. The conductor scans the 2-D barcode, and the first time I sat there with my AMS-BRU ticket after it was scanned, I was willing to assume that the 2-D barcode included information about the time/train as indicated during the online booking process. To the underinformed, that is the logical inference.

The conductor scans the 2-D barcode, and the first time I sat there with my AMS-BRU ticket after it was scanned, I was willing to assume that the 2-D barcode included information about the time/train as indicated during the online booking process. To the underinformed, that is the logical inference.

What kind of intercity ticket has a bar code? I've never seen one like that. If you buy a normal IC ticket either in Brussels or Amsterdam there isn't any bar code.

What kind of intercity ticket has a bar code? I've never seen one like that. If you buy a normal IC ticket either in Brussels or Amsterdam there isn't any bar code.

Online purchase, print-out at home.

Thanks nofrills, I think this helps clarify my concern. So I basically just book the Eurostar time I want on the nlhispeed web site and then the IC I can take any 24 hrs prior. Good stuff.

The others I can't really do since I'm not in Europe now and I have no Euro CCs...so I need to pretty much plan everything before I arrive because the Eurostar prices are expensive if I buy last minute.



People seem to miss the point of your question, and suggest mistaken answers!

If you buy the (cheaper) ticket on hispeed.nl, it will be valid for ANY IC train departing 24 hours before the booked Eurostar departure. Don't worry, your ticket will NOT have specific times for the IC leg NL-Brussels, despite the fact that concrete times/trains are shown for it in the booking process. So go ahead, book it, and don't worry ;)

Regarding using card without chip, on August 10th I booked the 50 euro ticket at Centraal using their computer terminal less than an hour before departure and was able to insert my debit card (w/o chip) in the machine and retrieve my ticket. The sign at the ticket window stated there would be a 10 euro service charge for any ticket booked there.
After arriving at St Pancras, I booked the 50.50 pound fare from Euston Station to Westport, Ireland, including the ferry from Holyhead to Dublin, as described on seat61.com. Again was able to retrieve my ticket at the station, no problem
Trying to book in opposie diection but am not finding anything below 61 euro. :confused::confused: