Please sign in to post.

Within Belgium and The Netherlands - Train Connections

Posted by on

We are a family of three have booked round trip tickets to/from Brussels Airport BRU to visit Belgium and The Netherlands for the upcoming June 2025. Part of our trip is to attend our nephew's wedding in small town of Deventer, Netherlands. We plan to take the NS International train going back to Brussels Airport-Zaventem from Deventer to catch our flights back to the U.S. next day.

Going from Antwerp, BE to Rotterdam, NL, then to Deventer is not so stressful using Belgium train. However, from reading the Trip Report posted by our helpful traveler in San Diego, CA., I am concern about Belgium train tends to run 5-10 minutes late, which can cause us missing our train connection in Breda, NL.

The train from Deventer to Brussels airport Zaventem is 3.5 - 4 hours, depending on the connection. This route does have a connection in Breda changing from Track 8 to Track 5 and the time allows to switch between platforms is 32 minutes.
(Eurostar high speed train is sold out for this date, Sunday June 29th).

Given the 32 minutes time allowed, will we be able to make our connection at Breda? Do we have alternative option(s)?
Much appreciate any advice or comments anyone may have.
Pam

Posted by
21869 posts

32 minutes is forever. You arrive on track 8, walk downstairs to the crossing passage, walk about 50 ft and up the stairs to Track 5. Should take about 5 minutes. So now what to do for the 27 minutes before your connecting train arrives?

BTW I think they also have escalators.

Posted by
2801 posts

You are overthinking this. Trains in Belgium and the Netherlands are commuter rail. In the Netherlands some lines run higher frequencies than most US Subway systems. So if you miss a connection you take the next train. In the Netherlands there is a train at least every half hour on every route, and on some routes every 15 or even every 8 minutes.

On the way back to Belgium you have 32 minutes in Breda. That is actually the railways wasting your time. They really should coordinate that better and bring the connection to under 15 minutes.

But again, if you miss that connection you take the next train. Unfortunately on Breda - Brussel the trains run only every hour. So do not plan your arrival at BRU to tight.

Note that Eurostar is most certainly not sold out for Sunday Jun 29th. Trains do not sell out months in advance. Most probably bookings have not opened yet.

Posted by
2 posts

Wengen and Sam,

Thank you so very much for your responses. Your points are well taken, and your further comments have boosted my travel confidence big time!
Thanks again. Pam

Add Reply

Please do not reply to violations of our Community Guidelines.