Booking A Train From London To The Hague
Just out of curiosity, I looked at how much it would cost me to go from St. Pancras to The Hague next Wednesday, the 30th of January.
So I looked up on the Belgian Rail web site called b-europe.co.uk. They offer two routes.
You can go to Brussels Midi, where you take a train to Essen in Germany and then another one to Rosendaal in The Netherlands, from where you get a Dutch train to The Hague. For this Grand Tour of the Low Countries you will pay £114.42.
Alternatively, you can take the Thalys from Brussels to Rotterdam and then take the train to The Hague. It will be 17 minutes quicker, but you can’t book it in Second Class, so it’ll cost you £188.75 in First.
I have done the single leg in the past for under £100 and I can book it for about £60 by means of easyJet.
So who would use the train from London to The Hague?
Not this enthusiast for rail travel, for a start!
It’s all double-Dutch to me!
The Fyra Farce Goes Worldwide
I’ve just been notified of two articles about Fyra; the Dutch/Belgium high-speed train from Business Traveller and Cleveland.com.
I’ve also had a look on the Eurostar web site. They’re saying this.
To travel to the Netherlands book your Eurostar to Brussels first and then your Thalys train from Brussels to Amsterdam, Schiphol or Rotterdam.
I suppose they’re only telling you what is possible.
Let’s face it London to Amsterdam is probably only a similar distance, as London to say Perth in Scotland. I haven’t done that journey but I know it would be one web purchase not two, as incidentally so would London to Geneva on Eurostar’s web site, changing in Paris.
It’s a complete mess and it seems to be getting worse, with little leadership or common sense being shown.
Fyra Suspended
The launch on the Fyra trains between Brussels and Amsterdam, must rank as one of the worst launches of any train services in the last few years. We’ve had a few bad ones in the UK, where reliability has been questioned and we’ve also had problems with the wrong kind of snow, but nothing, which seems to have been hated by so many as this train has. The BBC tries to explain the mess here.
If we are going to go back to the future, let’s hope that Eurostar are able to reinstate their beautifully simple ticket to Any Dutch Station.
I will be first in the queue to buy one!
If they don’t I’ll just go by train to that jewel of the Essex coast; Southend, get in an orange aeroplane and hop across to Schipol. The Belgians, Brussels and the planet will all be losers.
To The Hague And Back
On Tuesday, I took the Eurostar to see a friend in The Hague. This is a picture of me, eating a gluten-free breakfast in Premium Economy on Eurostar.
Eating A Gluten-Free Breakfast On Eurostar
I know it is only a snack, but it is nice to get something if you’re a coeliac and need gluten-free food.
I had orange juice, yoghurt, as much tea as I wanted, some Dove Farms biscuits, gluten-free bread, butter and a small pot of Tiptree jam.
This leg of the journey cost me £107. That may seem a lot, especially as I could have flown to Brussels on BA for £59, if I’d have booked earlier. But I would doubt, I’d have got such a nice breakfast and I would then have to get to and from the two airports at Heathrow and Brussels.
I actually booked a few days ago, but Standard Premier, always seems to be the same price of £107. I could have travelled in Standard for less at less than forty pounds or to any Belgian station for just £44. Standard Premier to any Belgian station is £116. For many travelling to the southern parts of the Netherlands, that will be a good option, as you can go to Antwerp and travel on from there. You’ll also get to see the triple decker station.
If you’re on an evening train, I’ve usually found the dinner and free wine to be excellent.
I had booked a connection in Brussels, that gave me over three hours in the Belgian capital, so I had time to do two things. One was to take an excursion to get some lunch and the other was to see if I could get a ticket on the InterCity train to The Hague.
I tried the Information, and the guy there said that the train had been discontinued. He did offer me a local train, that went via changes at Antwerp and Rosendaal, but I didn’t want to go on a mystery tour of the Low Countries. There were no machines to try out, so I decided to stop being a nuisance and use my ticket on the Fyra high-speed train to Rotterdam. Incidentally, there does seem to be a few teething problems with the organisation at Brussels, with Eurostar and Thalys up one end of the station and the Fyra at the other. They also changed the platform about fifteen or so minutes before the train departed. The carriage numbers are a bit confusing too, if you’ve been used to the old British Rail system of A-K and First generally towards London. Sometimes, I think the EU should lay down a few standards that would help us all.
Fyra Arrives At Rotterdam
The picture shows the train after arrival at Rotterdam.
The train is a typical boring train, where in Standard Class, you get comfortable seats with only minimal leg-room. It was no more comfortable than the Mk 3 coach, I ride in to Ipswich. But one thing that was disconcerting was that there were quite a few thumps coming from the suspension. My neighbour on the train; a Greek physicist, said that that was common. Incidentally, she’d paid the same €22, that I had for my ticket. It was just a sheet of A4 paper. More on this later.
I then took the local train to Den Haag HS station. I stood all the way, as I was talking to a Swiss lady with a Canadian accent, who worked for Rotterdam police.
I actually arrived earlier than I’d expected, as the Den Haag train I got was an earlier connection, so I had a look round the station, as the next day, I would be getting a ticket from there to Schipol for my flight home. I did find an automatic ticket machine, but it only took debit cards and not even cash. I couldn’t find the ticket office either.
Going home, I was dropped at Den Haag Centraal station and the machines were the same; debit card only. After a twenty minute queue at the ticket office, I eventually used cash to buy a ticket to Schipol to take my flight to the jewel of the Essex coast; Southend. If the Dutch are serious about attracting visitors, they need to look at their ticket machines.
The take-off time was 18:00, but we left early and at 18:05 or sixty-five minutes later because of the time difference, I was on the train towards Liverpool Street. I was sitting watching the television with a cup of tea soon soon after seven.
That six o’clock easyJet flight is certainly the fastest way to get back from Schipol to East and Central London, if you have no baggage, as they always seem to be early at Southend. It also cost me less than forty pounds for the ticket and I had a nourishing gluten-free tomato soup on the journey. Not to Eurostar’s standard but who could serve a meal properly in less than forty minutes. I even got an apology from the stewardess about the soup, as she couldn’t give it enough of a stir. But there were other passengers to serve!
Booking A Train Ticket To The Hague From London
The last time, I went to The Hague, I just went to the Eurostar site and booked one ticket to Any Dutch Station.
But now, this simple system has been discontinued at the behest of the Dutch government. For what reason, I will not speculate although, I have had various opinions given to me by my Dutch friends. I’ll give my view after I return from The Netherlands.
So this time, I’ve booked a single ticket to Brussels on Eurostar.
The train I shall be riding on Tuesday, will get me to Brussels just after mid-day. I shall be trying to buy a ticket to The Hague on the convenient 13:18 departure between the two capitals, when I arrive in Brussels.
It’s a real downgrade from the previous service, in that I shall have to change trains at Rotterdam as well. The direct train has been discontinued. I’ve taken that train several times and the standard is similar to what I you get on the fast London to Ipswich and Norwich trains.
So I’ll be getting a quicker high-speed train, but I’d prefer a direct train. In the UK, when I go say from London to Liverpool, I always book direct trains for convenience. I also don’t want to have to wait on a cold platform for a train to arrive. The connection in Rotterdam might be easy, but I’ve only been to the station there, some years ago and can’t remember it.
I thought for safety, I would book a later train in case, I couldn’t fathom out how to buy the ticket in Brussels.
So I went to the SNCB web site to book one. Incidentally, Eurostar allows you to enter Rotterdam into their site, but doesn’t allow you to book tickets, just telling you that there are no tickets available. To find where to book, I looked up how on Seat 61, which gave me the address of the SNCB web site to book the ticket from Brussels to The Hague.
Just imagine someone having to book a ticket urgently, for either business or family reasons and wanting to get to say Utrecht. They would give up or just book to Brussels knowing or even just thinking that they could get a train from there.
So I looked up the SNCB web site and found these trains from Brussels to Den Haag.
13:18 – Dutch high speed train – 15:02 – £21.42
13:52 – Thalys – 15:26 – £38.47
13:56 – Local Train – 2 changes – 16:41 – £24.35
15:18 – Dutch high speed train – 17:02 – £21.42
So by travelling on the slow Dutch train, you have two changes and pay more.
In the end I bought a ticket on the 13:56.
But I had to pay an extra booking fee, just like you don’t do on any British train booked on the train company’s web site. Although I had to pay a similar amount on Eurostar.
The ticket is two sheets of A4 paper, one for each leg of the journey. We may go on about the old British Rail-era orange tickets, but they fit nicely in a wallet.
What do you do incidentally, if you’re booking these tickets on a laptop on a train coming to London to get the Eurostar? Or you’re doing it late at night, and the printer runs out of paper?
I don’t think the SNCB web site gave you an alternative.
Booking To Geneva And Rotterdam On Eurostar
As an experiment, I just wanted to see if I could book direct to Rotterdam on the Eurostar web site.
You can’t, but you can book direct to several Swiss cities in one go on the Eurostar web site.
I was also able to get a ticket to Brussels for just £38 on the day I wanted. To get to Rotterdam using another site, adds another £21. But I want to go to The Hague. That cost £76 or twice the London-Brussels fare.
I suspect tourists, who after spending a few days in London, who perhaps wanted to see Europe by rail, wouldn’t start by going to The Netherlands. But they might go and look at the pleasures of Switzerland.
An E-Mail To Eurostar
The fuss about getting to The Netherlands by train seems to be escalating. I’ve had an e-mail which is very critical of the withdrawal of the local service from The Netherlands.
Although I had some unofficial feedback from a Eurostar employee, I thought it would be an idea to get the corporate view. So I sent this e-mail to the company.
I have bought a ticket to Any Dutch Station a couple of times, and find it is the easiest way to get to see my friend in The Hague.
I now see that this ticket has been discontinued and that there is no direct link to The Hague from Brussels.
I went in to your ticket office in St. Pancras last week and talked to one of your excellent sales staff. She felt that this is not best for Eurostar, as she told me, that she used to sell quite a few of these tickets.
I shall probably fly to Schipol in future, as it is the easiest way to get to anywhere other than Rotterdam or Amsterdam in The Netherlands.
I write for various publications and shall be writing a hard hitting article about this fiasco, which is obviously not of Eurostar’s doing.
I shall be going to The Netherlands via Brussels some time next week to see how the Dutch deal with a stroppy tourist, who wants to get a direct train from Brussels to The Hague.
The other great thing about the Any Dutch Station ticket was that you booked it in one, from your excellent web site.
I’ll post their reply when I get it.
The Dutch And The Belgians Create A Mess
I have read in Modern Railways that because there is now a high speed rail line from Rotterdam to Brussels, that the Inter City service from Den Haag to Brussels has been withdrawn.
I’ve used this a couple of times, by buying a Eurostar ticket from London to Any Dutch Station. This ticket has been withdrawn as well.
I also looked up how to get from Brussels to Den Haag and you either have to use the high speed line or go halfway round the Netherlands to places you don’t want to visit. Apparently, Dutch who commute into Brussels aren’t pleased either!
The high speed tickets aren’t cheap!
I think next time I go to Den Haag, I’ll fly to Schipol and get a train from there.
A pity that, as Eurostar does a rather nice gluten-free meal with wine and easyJet doesn’t.
It all seems a bit like making passengers arriving on Eurostar at St. Pancras, who want to go to Scotland, always go via Newcastle and change trains there.
I just wonder how many tickets, Eurostar will sell to The Netherlands in the next few years. Not many, I’d venture.
I’ve also found this report on a Dutch news web site.
By Eurostar To The Netherlands
On Thursday I took the Eurostar to visit a friend in The Hague. I travelled in Standard Premier to get a comfortable seat with a table and a meal.
My route was to take the Eurostar to Brussels, where I would change to the Dutch Inter City train to Den Haag HS. The weather wasn’t good as this picture shows.
To Brussels In The Mist
Not that you get to see much on a trip to Brussels. But at least the gluten-free breakfast is worth having.
Eurostar’s Gluten-Free Breakfast
Note the Dove’s Farm biscuits, which seem to have disappeared from the shops.
Coming back, I got a rather nice gluten-free chicken for supper, with as much wine as I wanted.
It is a bit of a pain having to change trains in Brussels, but it isn’t too far to walk. It would be nice though if I could have got a train right the way through to The Hague or Rotterdam from St. Pancras.
The main reason is that Eurostar trains can’t run on the Dutch train network, although they can run on ours. Most modern trains like the East and West Coast Main Lines in the UK, the French TGV and the Channel Tunnel are electrified to the same standard of 25kV A.C. But the Dutch railway for some reason is electrified at 1.5kV D.C. Although the High Speed Line to Amsterdam is at the higher voltage.
This entry in Wikipedia talks about the future of high speed trains from London to the Netherlands. When Eurostar get their new trains, they may even call at The Hague.
The Anonymous Widower 