Koby

I doubt it. There is only one hotel at BRU that can be reached without shuttle or public transport: the Sheraton.

nofrills

At this time, with the ticket offices closed, you'd have had no problem buying the ticket on the train for the same price.

fastflyer

What's the advice on late arrivals from London via Eurostar to Brussels Midi with future onward train travel: spend the night in Brussels at a hotel or take a late train onward to the Netherlands/ elsewhere in Belgium.

Also, should I be concerned about changing trains at Brussels Midi after about 8pm or should I rework my plans to arrive during the daytime? Is the taxi queue at Midi guarded or will I have to fend off hoodlums? I wouldn't normally be concerned, except that I noticed that the US State Department has posted the following under its Belgium listing:

"In Brussels, pocket picking, purse snatching, and theft of light luggage and laptops are common at the three major train stations: the North Station (Noordstation or Gare du Nord); the Central Station (Centraal Station or Gare Central); and especially the South Station (Zuidstation or Gare du Midi, the primary international train hub). "

Travelomania

Depending on your own preference and departure times of onward travel.
If you arrive on the late Eurostar from London on a weekday, chances are there will not be any onward trains to get you to NL, or anywhere else for that matter, beyond a short distance.
Suggest to check the train schedules for the desired direction.
Plan ahead .. you get the idea from my prior post #15


IMHO and from my own experience you should be perfectly alright - even after dark - just be alert and try to avoid a transfer in the late night hours - say after 11.30pm - and only if you can.
I will let the more knowledgeable Belgians (if willing) respond to the above quoted statement

wardcall

Brussels South Station can look deserted late at night but as already written if you can't find a place to buy your onward ticket you can buy it on board from the attendant.

As to the State Department listing: Brussels South is a major railway hub but is surrounded by areas many Belgians (often non-locals) would describe as no-go after dark, although I doubt that being really the case, having lived in Brussels in a not-much-better neighborhood for quite some years. Having said that, it is NOT a nice neighborhood.

That in itself doesn't mean the station itself is dangerous, far from it. But let's be honest, can you name any major railway station in a large city where petty theft and purse-snatching is completely non-existent? In that sense, it's probably more dangerous at rush hour than during evening hours...

If you have to change to a taxi and you are not feeling safe, I would suggest you make the change at Central station: this is situated in a more upscale area. North station is in the middle of the business district with nothing but deserted office buildings at night. Don't listen to would-be drivers solliciting inside the station, the real drivers are outside at a rank.

Hope this helps!

SmilingBoy

I disagree - Central is deserted at night, and in any case, the Eurostar does not stop there. The area around the station is nicer around Central than around Midi, but if you just want to go to the taxi rank, Midi is better. North is probably even worse than Central (although I don't know it well).

Brussels Midi is really not that nice, especially at night, but from Eurostar Arrivals to the taxi rank is only a very short walk (50 m from the train track to the stairs/lift, then down one floor and another 50 m to the taxi rank outside), and there will be hundreds of people coming off the Eurostar. Never felt unsafe coming off the Eurostar and going to a taxi, and I travel on the Eurostar very regularly.

However, if you can still get a connecting train from Brussels Midi to your final destination in the evening, I would probably do that, unless you fancy a night out in Brussels.

Thor3

I've looked through the Belgium Railways website and searched Flyertalk forums but cannot seem to find if I can take a large suitcase(s) on the Airport Express from an arriving Eurostar at Midi Station to BRU.

Are there restrictions or limitations to size, number?

Koby

No, no limitations as such. But you'll have to carry everything yourself from one platform to another and onto the train.

Added: if of course you plan on bringing a container worth of luggage you might get some questions... They do have a rail freight division as well...

vonlance

Sorry to drag up an old thread guys but need a little advice.

catching a eurostar train from st pancras at 06.50 in april, dur to arrive in brussels 10.07

i need to catch my Finnair flight at 11.40. i know check-in closes 45mins before departure.

i won't have any bags to check in, will i make it via train or will this be a taxi job?

thanks

Mike Jacoubowsky

It's quite a long slog from where the train drops you off at the airport to the check-in area. If the taxi drop-off is a lot closer (which I don't know to be the case), that could be less risky. Off-hand, that's a tighter connection than I'd want to try.

There's also the issue of making it from the Eurostar platform to the local one. If you want to try, make sure you know the track your local train is likely to depart from ahead of time. Bahn.de is your friend.

And finally, my experience with trains in Belgium, in particular local trains, is that they're not quite as formally run as elsewhere. In other words, being a few minutes late is routine. The flip side is that the conductors look & act like something out of 20's America. Uniforms, mannerisms and even flip-open pocket watches.

vonlance

Taxi it is then! Rush hour traffic? Totally misread that the airport was 25 mins away by walking!

Mike Jacoubowsky

Yeah, you'd have to be pretty quick to cover 18k in 25 minutes by foot! Keep in mind I have no idea of traffic between Brussels Midi and the airport, so the 25 minute time quoted for driving on Google, with "no traffic information", might not be something to rely on.

If you run into issues, is there a later flight you can take? You're a lot more comfortable with tight connections between modes of transport than I am!

vonlance

worst case I take the Eurostar Sunday evening... hoping to avoid though

No later flights I believe... AH well

Thanks for the info and reality check!

Mike Jacoubowsky

My son and I stayed at the IBIS across the street from the Midi train station a couple years ago. Not too bad and not too expensive.

Just noticed this was a thread I posted a question to back in 2011.
No can do. I only make pointless mileage runs nowadays, nothing with a purpose.

Seriously, you're almost posing that question to the right guy. Anything would be better than my SFO-MNL MR without layovers. Disclaimer: It wasn't that tough a mileage run; just don't need to ever again visit the Manila airport.

vonlance

could you take a trip and find out how long transit time is, would help me out :-)