Belgian trains

Hi We are now in the final planning of our Belgian beer trip.

We will be doing a fair share of train travel:

BRU Airport-Gent, Gent-Bruges-Gent, Gent-Brussels-Gent and finally Gent-BRU Airport.

Are there any suitable discount cards we can use or is it normal tickets all over?

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You could get the special 22 euros from Airport to any destination in Belgium, %26quot;including bus fare from/to Airport%26quot; to train station, then just buy returns for the rest.

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Eh thats 22 euros return fare.

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By my count that is 6 trips but you don%26#39;t say how many %26quot;we%26quot; are: there is a 10-trip railpass for €73 which can also be used between 2 or more people, so if there are 2 of you, you can use it for 6+4 of these trips and buy 2 individual tickets for the cheapest trip (Gent-Brugge or vice versa). If there are 3 of you, you can buy 2 railpasses covering 20 trips, but you would only be doing 18 so this is really only interesting if the normal price for each trip would be (well) above €7.30.

It can in any case be more economical to buy a normal ticket for some trips - e.g. Gent-Brugge only costs €5.90 so why pay €7.30? (Gent-Brussels on the other hand is €8.10 and BRU-Gent, €9.20) OR, if any of them were to be RETURN trips on a Saturday or Sunday, e.g. Gent-Brugge-Gent and/or Gent-Brussels-Gent, the weekend return ticket is much better value than 2 trips using railpass (€6.60 and €9 respectively instead of €14.60).

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P.S. I%26#39;m sure you can work this out for yourself, but as the normal fare for BRU to Gent is only €9.20 (and the railpass price for 1 trip is €7.30), the %26quot;special%26quot; fare of €11 single from BRU (or CRL) to any station in Belgium is hardly the best deal in this instance! (It could be if you were going to Brugge, which would otherwise cost €14.20 single)

For fare calculations: sefora.b-rail.be/sefora/Sefora/berekenen.do

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P.P.S. In case of confusion, note also that there is no bus from airport to railway station at BRU, which has its own station. It is only for CRL that the %26quot;airport special%26quot; fare is for a combined ticket including TEC bus between Charleroi-Sud railway station and the airport.

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Oh %26quot;we%26quot; are 8 persons.

I have studied the B-rail website and as I can understand and you also say te best price for us is singles

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That was not my conclusion, except for Gent-Brugge-Gent, as the price for each trip, even on a weekday, is less than €7.30. However:

- Firstly you don%26#39;t say whether either of the 2 day return trips you would be taking would be at the weekend, which affects matters.

- Secondly, as I told you, BRU(=airport)-Gent costs €9.20, so for 8 people, this alone justifies purchase of a railpass for €73 rather than paying €73.60 for 8 individual tickets, as you would have 2 %26quot;free%26quot; trips left over!

Similarly, Gent-Brussels-Gent is 16 trips (2 x 8) which, at €8.10 each, would cost you €129.60 on a weekday. If you had already bought a railpass for BRU-Gent as just described, you could do 2 of these trips on that and buy another for the next 10, leaving 4 to pay individually: 4 x €9.20 = €36.80, and this plus €73 = 109.80, so almost €20 cheaper than buying individual tickets.

This, of course, assuming that both pricing (I don%26#39;t work for Belgian Railways!) and my maths are correct.

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Sorry for my lack of concentration!

I will look in to it better when work doesent interfear so much!

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So now we try to penetrate this once and for all!

We 8 adult gentleman (?) arrive BRU airport at friday 23/10 around noon.

And we travel as previousley posted

I see the ten trip Rail pass for 73€, so we can do any trip we like for 7,30€?

As I can see there is 32 trips more expensive then 7.30! And we buy three Rail passes this is the most economical.

I made an Excelsheet!

But I think we will buy four to prevent total chaos when splitting the cost among us!

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Be careful : you have to take into account that 2 days of your trip (I assume Saturday and Sunday) are part of the weekend.

And during weekend, you can get special fare %26quot;Billet Weekend%26quot; (avalaible from Friday 19 h to Sunday). In this case, for example, you can begin your trip on friday after 19 h and return on sunday.

So you only pay 6,60 euros for a return ticket to Brugge and 9 euros for a return ticket to Bruxelles.

Then as your trip from and to Brussels airport is taking place during week day it costs 9,20 euros one-way or with a rail pass 7,30.

Or even cheaper, if you are over 65 years old, you can get %26quot;Senior ticket%26quot; : it is 5 euros the return ticket from where you want to where you want.

But you have to make the return trip the same day as you make the trip to the place you want and during the week your train has to leave after 9h01.