What is the best train to take, Thalys or Rail Europe? I see that on a previous posting, it was stated that Thalys is more expensive and not necessarily faster. But that RailEurope is not actually a railroad company.
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Raileurope is a reseller and their service is not worth using. Their tickets are much more expensive compared to the real prices sold by the national railways.
One day when the rail link is complete, Thalys will be very fast, but that is not the case now between Ams and Bru. And you would need to buy a ticket in advance and is usually valid for a particular train. So if your itinery has changed your ticked may not be valid.
The best is to go by IC train which stops on roughly 6 stations between ams and bru, you can buy it on the day and there is no need for reservation.
All these trains stop in Antwerpen and you can change there for a connection to Brugge but mostly it is best to go to Brussels and change there.
You can find connection on the Netherland Railways and Belgian railways websites, easy to find them on the web. The trip takes about 2.5 hours to Brussels and then another hour to Brugge.
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apologies, read it as Bruges, not Ghent. The only difference is that you get off in Ghent and not in Bruges! The rest of the info is valid for both
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It appears that many foreigners think that %26quot;Rail Europe%26quot; is a company that operates trains throughout Europe: it isn%26#39;t, these are operated by national companies like Belgian, French, German Railways, by international consortia such as Eurostar and Thalys, and also by private companies such as Virgin in the UK.
Rail Europe is not an alternative to Thalys, indeed as the official international agency operating on behalf of a number of European train companies, it is the main supplier of Thalys and TGV tickets to non-European residents.
One thing is the train, which identifies the train operator, another is the source of tickets. It is always cheaper to buy direct from the train operator.
As for which is %26quot;better%26quot;, Thalys or InterCity - why don%26#39;t you start by simply looking at the timetable?! In the first instance, the best train is the one that leaves at a convenient time, and after that you decide on your own criteria. But either way you will have to change in Antwerp on the way from Amsterdam to Ghent, and the train from Antwerp to Ghent will be IC/IR (i.e. Belgian railways) and cannot be reserved.
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en
Note also that as it appears you will be starting your journey in the Netherlands, if you buy it on the day as is perfectly possible with IC (and makes no difference to price) you will be buying it from Dutch Railways, so see www.ns.nl. Note that they charge extra for buying tickets from the ticket desk rather than from a machine at the station.
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Thank you very much for your response to my question.
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Thanks a lot. You have been very helpful!
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We just got back from a trip where we took trains from Brussels to Bruges, Bruges to Amsterdam, and Amsterdam to Brussels - each time we just turned up at the station, bought tickets at the window, and took the next available train. Very easy. I wouldn%26#39;t worry about buying tickets ahead of time.
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