How to take a thrilling high speed rail journey from Berlin to London

When looking up a Berlin to London train journey, it's likely that you will also see options for travelling an alternative route via Mannheim or Frankfurt and Paris, particularly on Saturdays.

Though the key advantage of taking this route via Bruxelles is that it avoids the need to make a transfer between stations in Paris, which is why is has been singled out.
Though the connecting time between trains in Koln hbf will be around 35mins, but these connections cannot be guaranteed.

On this journey option, when the end-to-end journey times is more than 11hrs, the connecting time in Bruxelles-Midi/Zuid station between the arrival of the ICE train and departure of the Eurostar trains will be from around 1hr 10 mins - 1hr 20 mins.
The transfer of 1hr 10 mins allow sufficient time to check-in for the Eurostar even if the ICE train from Koln/Cologne arrives in Bruxelles/Brussels more than 45 mins late.
This guide has more information re: making the connection into the Eurostar train at Bruxellles-Midi station.

Departing From Berlin:

These trains commence their journey at Berlin Gesunbrunnen station which is to the north of the city centre.
They also usually depart from the lower level (tief) in Berlin Hbf.

If your journey is commencing in West Berlin, the quickest option is to take a Regio or S-Bahn train from Berlin Zoologischer Garten station to Berlin-Spandau station and join these trains to Koln there.

Check your connections in Berlin on this public transport map.

Book Early And Save: Yes

Online bookings open: usually open around 6 months ahead of the travel date.

Eurostar does not sell tickets for this journey.

Eurostar train ticket terms summary

The only ticket type are the Flexible tickets, but it is the class of service you opt to travel by, which impacts on the terms and conditions of travel.

*Exchanges

Book to travel in Standard and Standard Premier class:
The booked date and time can be exchanged to a different departure to the same destination up to one hour* before departure time.

• If the cost of your new ticket is more than the cost of your original ticket, you will be required to pay the difference;
• If the cost of your new ticket is less than the cost of your original ticket, you will not receive a refund of the difference.

Book to travel in Premier class:
The booked date and time can be exchanged to a different departure up until the end of the previous day, without having to pay any price differences on any other charges.

The Eurostar ticket terms summary is here

Refunds

Book to travel in Standard and Standard Premier class:

• Up to seven days or more before the date of departure you will need to pay a fee of £25 per person for a one-way / single ticket and £50 per person for a two-way / return ticket - So you will only receive any sum you paid in excess of these sums.
• Less than seven days before the date of departure, tickets are non-refundable - Also applies if you exchanged a ticket to an alternative departure, under seven days ahead.

Book to travel in Premier class:
Up until the end of the day before departure date, tickets can be refunded at no additional cost

Seat Reservations on the Eurostar

Reservations are mandatory so seats are assigned when booking - But after a booking has been completed, you use the ‘Manage Your Booking’ facility, which can be easily found on the Eurostar website and select specific seats within the travel class you have chosen.

You will need to enter a Booking Reference number - but other booking agents such as Trainline, Rail Europe, SNCF Connect, B-Europe and NS International, will also include this number on the communication sent to you.

Making the connections

SMTJ's recommendation is take the combination of trains via Bruxelles which have an end-to-end journey time of around 12 hours, because the connecting time into the Eurostar will then be around two hours.
That's because there is E.U. legislation which protects travellers against financial loss in the event of missed connections due to train delays, but it only applies to 'through tickets'.
However, Eurostar classifies journeys involving ICE + Eurostar trains as being booked as a ticketing bundle.

There is also an Agreement of Journey Continuation Policy, the AJC, which DB the operator of the ICE trains has signed up to, and applies to 'ticket bundles' - but Eurostar has not signed up to the AJC.

Though Eurostar is a member of Railteam and it has a Hop on the next available train (HOTNAT) policy.
It 'allows travelers to take the next high-speed service leaving from the same station as originally planned when a delay on or cancellation of a preceding Railteam member’s high-speed service prevents them from making their originally-planned connection.* This service is free of charge and is subject to the following conditions: the connection that was missed must be between two high-speed trains of the Railteam Alliance. HOTNAT only applies *at the station at which the passenger originally planned to change trains and in cases of train delays and train cancellations. The approval of HOTNAT is subject to the available capacity on board each train. Seats are not guaranteed'.

So if a delay in Berlin or Koln causes the final Eurostar of the day to be missed in Bruxelles HOTNAT won't apply.

Much more info is available on this ticketing guide.

Three options which can make the going easier:

1: Avoid journeys which involve connecting into the final Eurostar of the day on to London.

2: Choose end-to-end journey options which have a combination of

• ICE train to Koln
• Thalys train to Bruxelles
• Eurostar to London.
  Because Eurostar does classify Thalys + Eurostar as a 'through ticket'.

3: An option is to book separate tickets for the Berlin to Bruxelles journey with DB, and then book separate tickets for the Eurostar to London, but with an extended period of time between trains.
Then if the ICE trains on the journey to Bruxelles are cancelled or delayed, DB will issue alternative tickets to enable a later arrival into Bruxelles, as this part of the journey has AJC protection.
Similarly if the booked Eurostar train is cancelled, it will transfer tickets to a later departure.
If the journey to Bruxelles is so delayed that you miss the booked connection on to London, you will have to re-book the Eurostar - but this also applies if you book the end-to-end journey.

Seat Reservations:

The tickets will be train specific, but seat reservations are OPTIONAL on both the ICE train between Berlin and Koln/Cologne AND the ICE train between Koln/Cologne and Bruxelles/Brussel.

The reservation fee is 2nd class = €4.90 1st class = €5.90; but the reservation charges cover BOTH of the ICE trains on this journey.
When making a booking with DB or Trainline, you will have to add the reservations.

In contrast seat reservations are mandatory on the Thalys trains, so the ticket prices on all of the agents automatically include this reservation fee,

Reservations are also compulsory on the Eurostar and this is included when booking point2point journey tickets; your Eurostar seats will be automatically assigned.

The alternative route:

When looking up the rail journey from Berlin to London, you MAY also see options for travelling an alternative route via Mannheim or Frankfurt and Paris.
This route is slower and more awkward, due to the need to make a transfer between stations in Paris.

Depart on Mon, Weds, Fri

This train is usually scheduled to depart from Berlin Hbf at around 19:30, though this can be dependent on the travel date - Due to the length of the journey, the schedule often has to be altered due to works on the lines.

The train is typically scheduled to arrive in Bruxelles / Brussels at around 07:20am.
The train on to London will usually be departing shortly before 09:00 and arriving into London shortly before 10:00am.

Depart on Tues, Thus and Sun

This train is usually scheduled to depart from Berlin Hbf at around 23:00, though this can be dependent on the travel date - Due to the length of the journey, the schedule often has to be altered due to works on the lines.

The train is typically scheduled to arrive in Bruxelles / Brussels at around 09:30am.
The train on to London will usually be departing shortly before 11 00 and arriving into London shortly before 12:00am (noon).

The Eurostar on to London

Note that these trains will no longer be calling at Ashford International or Ebbsfleet International,

Note that London is in a different time zone to mainland Europe, it is one hour behind; hence what can seem like a discrepancy between the journey time and the interval between the departure and arrival times.

Our guide to arriving by Eurostar in London is here.

Online bookings open from up to 6 months ahead

You will need to book each journey separately; the details of how to do this are included on each of the respective journey guides:

Berlin to Amsterdam

Amsterdam to London