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Hi Everyone,

 

Looking for some insight on the below:

I’m trying to book reservation from Amsterdam to Antwerp for 22nd April 2024. We have got a 7 day Eurail pass. While I was searching for train times, I never got an error and since I’ve purchased the pass and I’m going into the reservation tool, I’m getting the errors.

I’m getting the following error for 8:15 train.
 



But train at 10:11 is available:
 

 

B-Europe:

It doesn’t even show 8:15 since I have a 2nd class pass.

If I choose that I have 1st class pass, it shows that there is a train.
 

With Second Class Pass:


With 1st class pass(which I don’t have):
 



 

And below is what I see on trainline:

 



So I can get a ticket on trainline but then i won’t be using the pass for that journey.



Questions:

  1. Is it possible that all the eurail passholder tickets are already sold out for 8:15 train ? From today it’s 117 days untill 22nd April.
  2. Is it possible that 2nd class bucket is not yet released only for 8:15 train? Since I can see 1st class tickets available in b-europe.


Any guidance would be appreciated. 

Thanks

There is a small passholder quota on the Eurostar Red services unfortunately.

 

In general the advice for passholders on that route is to use the hourly IC direct service which has no reservations required. A note shows on the planner about a supplement being required for these but that is not correct, there is no additional charge on top of the pass.

Times for Amsterdam - Antwerp are 07.28-09.16, 08.28-10.16 and hourly.

The passholder quota on Eurostar trains is indeed very limited. For Amsterdam - Antwerp there might never have been one (they deter people from making such short journeys and prefer full-fare paying customers to Paris).

In any case it is not worth at all to pay the 27€ reservation fee.

As Al said use the reservation-free hourly IC train. Feel free to decide on the day which train you'd like to take :)

Thanks for the guidance.

Our plan is to go from Amsterdam to Brugge while having a stopover at Antwerp(as suggested by Seat61).

And I think you are right @thibcabe . I can see it is allowing me to book 2nd class from Amsterdam to Paris.

I think we’ll have to reply on IC direct trains(from Amsterdam to Antwerp and from Antwerp to Brugge) on that day which are already included in the pass.

How busy are those IC direct trains ?

 

Thanks!

I'll let @BrendanDB or someone else familiar with this route answer :)

All I can say is that nobody will have reservations so as long as you go a little bit early you shouldn't have an issue finding a seat.

Those trains can get fairly busy, though usually not on a random Monday morning after the usual commuting peak (up to about 9 AM), and even that should be okay as there is a train to Rotterdam 3 minutes earlier. If you're boarding in Amsterdam Centraal, where they start, you'll most certainly find a pair of seats.

Yes indeed, these trains can be busy during weekends, holidays and school holidays in either Belgium or the Netherlands. Between Rotterdam and Antwerp usually the busiest. But as @Schelte said, no problem at all feom A'dam at that time. 

Same counts for the IC Antwerp Bruges, busy during rush hour in the morning (7-9) and evening peak.(16-18), otherwise plenty of seats and you shouldn't have an issue finding seats. 

Thank you everyone. This helps! We’ll take the IC trains then! ;)

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