Here's my plan: 3/29 7:43am - 9:35am: Cologne-Brussels (ICE train; Any Belgium Station-ABS). 3/29 evening: Take the IC train from Brussels to Brugge. Senario A: Should I buy a Cologne-Brugge ticket that transfers in Brussels? When I do that, it gives me a 10:05am-11:01am IC ticket from Brussels-Brugge after I take the morning ICE train from Cologne-Brussels (ABS). Is the IC ticket valid all day on March 29? I assume I can still use the 10:05am-11:01am IC ticket on an evening train or does the ticket become invalid? Senario B:
Or should I buy a Cologne-Brussels ICE ticket (includes ABS) for 7:43am - 9:35am, and use the ABS portion for a free ride from Brussels-Brugge that evening? The ticket prices are both 44 euros so it costs the same either way. I'm just confused with the way ABS works and if IC tickets are valid all day, even if it's bought for a 10am journey. Do the ICE and IC train tickets prices vary like airline tickets or are the prices fixed no matter what time you buy the tickets? I've tried reading a lot of posts online and the ABS definition from the train website but it's just made me even more confused. It sounds like both of my plans should work, but I just want to make sure. I don't want to get stuck with an invalid ticket or one that wont' work as I had planned. Thanks!
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
Let's try to work this through. I'm guessing that the ticket you're seeing has two legs on two different rail companies. The first is most likely on the Deutsche Bahn Frankfurt to Brussels ICE route, which operates a couple of times a day. The second would be on a Belgian rail (NMBS) commuter train. For the price you quoted, it sounds like you're buying an advanced purchase discount ticket. This restricts you to riding a specific German ICE train, but not NMBS. Here's why: I'm not certain how the ABS ticket works, but on NMBS trains, a ticket between any two destinations doesn't restrict you to riding one train at a specific time. There are no reservations offered, so as long as your ticket shows the departure and arrival cities and the correct date, it doesn't matter what train you take that day. And there's usually two or more trains per hour between Brussels and Brugge. As noted, Deutsche Bahn does offer advanced purchase discounts, NMBS (which is generally pretty cheap anyway) does not. You can reserve a seat on Deutsche Bahn if you want, you can't on NMBS.