Eurostar
Dep London St Pancras International 08:55 8th June 2016 (local time)
Arr Brussels-Midi/Zuid 12:05 8th June 2016 (local time)
Seat: 26 Carriage: 3 (
Standard Class)
Thalys
Dep Brussels-Midi/Zuid 12:52 8th June 2016 (local time)
Arr Rotterdam CS 14:02 8th June 2016 (local time)
Seat: 26 Carriage: 3 (
Comfort 2)
Several thousand words in, surely we’re in a position to get going on this trip… Well, we would be, if only I were in the Netherlands rather than the UK. As Alaina is Dutch, this is a conundrum I often have to solve, and (through her encouragement initially), I've grown to prefer the train as the solution. Typically the plane will win out on price, but since I either have to cross London for LCY-RTM or deal with two giant hubs worth of stress for LHR-AMS I’ll happily go by rail if the fare is close. In this case, despite booking less than a month in advance the asking price was a modest £49.50 – and Alaina had enough frequent traveller credit to knock £20 off of that.
Since there’s nothing exciting about a commuter train from Slough (3 carriage stopping service, no hope of a seat with luggage in tow), let’s start in a bit more style at Kings Cross St Pancras station, the UK terminus for Eurostar services. Sometime next year these should be running all the way from here to Amsterdam, which will also mean direct service to my usual destination, Rotterdam. Better still, it’ll (by electrical necessity) be operated with the shiny new e320 fleet. But for today they’ll only get me as far as Brussels, and I'll be travelling on the older e300 stock.
Having arrived at the station entirely too early, I head up to platform level where I can get a look at examples of both. With the Euro 2016 soccer tournament kicking off later in the week in France there was a photo op taking place with a goal set up on the platform in front of a pair of trains. Or there would be, if they hadn't already managed to lose their ball on the tracks... Instead they had to settle for a lot of flag waving.
Unable to determine if I’m looking at world-famous players or just sportier members of train crew, I head back down to ground level just as security is opening for my train (70 minutes before departure, underlining just how unnecessary my early arrival was). Despite both (UK) exit and (Schengen) entry checks, it’s a matter of minutes to get through to the waiting area.
Having finally stumped up for Amex platinum, I now have access to the business premier lounge, otherwise reserved for passengers of that class or carte Blanche holders (well beyond my reach; I don’t even have a proper carte classique account, just ‘guest’ status through an Amex-related loophole). Clearly being a novice, I manage to miss both the bag storage and stairs to the main section, settling at first in the lower level waiting area. I partially realise the error of my ways when passengers for an earlier service make their way down to board. Heading upstairs (suitcase still in tow, sigh) I’m much more impressed – a decent array of newspapers and magazines, continental breakfast, chilled bottle water to go, Wi-Fi, printers, and... table football? Plus of course comfier seating, fancier bathrooms and far fewer people.
Definitely a pleasant way to pass the time (and a good argument for keeping the card next year), so I wasn't overly concerned when the announcement came at 8:30 that our inbound was delayed. Since all it had to do was turn up (rather than be repaired) we were able to start boarding at our intended 08:55 departure time, and as trains have a lot more doors than planes we only set off ten minutes late.
As mentioned, this is the old product, which
I've reviewed before - so here's some recycled images since the carriage was a bit too full for photographs this time:
Fortunately I had a seat pair to myself at boarding, and when no one joined me in Ebbsfleet I could spread out since from there it's nonstop to Brussels!
To be honest there’s little to report on – standard class doesn't get you any food save what you brought on yourself (in my case, looted lounge pastries), and a chunk of the journey is through a tunnel and thus rather lacking in scenery. But until you head under the channel your data connection will work, and an ipad loaded with catch-up TV kept me entertained for the rest, alongside a skim through the Eurostar magazine. Apart from collecting another five minutes of delay, it all just works, and I comfortably traded the UK for France, then France for Belgium.
We reach Brussels at 12:20 (local time), leaving half an hour for my connection. My most recent visit was shortly after the terrorist attacks, and whilst the security presence is lower than then, there's still a trio of army trucks outside. But there are no additional checks for the Thalys, so I have time to battle my twin enemies – humidity and the French language – and grab some lunch before boarding.
On board the aircon slowly makes its presence felt, but that advertised Wi-Fi does not (supposedly it's now available free of charge even in comfort 2, but you have to register and that was stuck in an infinite loop). It’s another busy service, and I have a seatmate as a result, but it's still more space than you'd get on a short haul flight. As such, the kilometres easily roll past and soon enough we’re pulling in to Rotterdam Centraal.