Trip from Ghent St Pieters, Belgium to Paris du Nord. Train itinerary in eurail has me just making a 15 min transfer to take train from Brussels Midi to Paris Nord but also states that I should allow extra time for boarding. Does this mean I should not book this in one go, and consider making this two separate train routes in the itinerary. One from Ghent to Brussels Midi and a separate one from Midi to Paris to allow more transfer time? How early I should be there before train departs?
Answer
Time for Boarding
Best answer by BrendanDB
I live in Ghent, I always add a bit of extra time for a change in Brussel-Zuid/Midi for international trains, taking one or two trains earlier. They’re plenty of trains ( at least 4 fast trains to Brussels every hour on weekdays, more during rush hour).
15 min is plenty of time in Brussel-Zuid/Midi to change. But the problem is that when you travel in rush hour trains tend to clog a bit up before entering Brussels, often resulting in a 5 or 10 min delay. Avoid the stress of a possible tight connection, and take a train earlier in Ghent.
I always log every train seperately, not the entire journey with changes. Makes it more flexible for spontaneous decisions, like adding a bit of extra time between changes for a lunch break, or replanning because of problems.
+6While 15 minutes might be enough (as the Eurostars from Brussels to Paris don't require a check-in), for your peace of mind I'd take an earlier train and allow about half an hour to switch trains. That way if your initial train is a bit delayed you don't have to run.
If the connection is shown in the app it is a valid connection. However, assuming you are taking the Eurostar from Brussels to Paris, I would normally take an earlier train from Ghent to Brussels because eurostar has compulsory seat reservations and a limited amount of seats available for Eurail. This means that if you miss it you cannot just take a later train. In this case I think that I would take just one train earlier from Ghent to Brussels, but you should do what’s comfortable for you
+8I live in Ghent, I always add a bit of extra time for a change in Brussel-Zuid/Midi for international trains, taking one or two trains earlier. They’re plenty of trains ( at least 4 fast trains to Brussels every hour on weekdays, more during rush hour).
15 min is plenty of time in Brussel-Zuid/Midi to change. But the problem is that when you travel in rush hour trains tend to clog a bit up before entering Brussels, often resulting in a 5 or 10 min delay. Avoid the stress of a possible tight connection, and take a train earlier in Ghent.
I always log every train seperately, not the entire journey with changes. Makes it more flexible for spontaneous decisions, like adding a bit of extra time between changes for a lunch break, or replanning because of problems.
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