Related Content
Content
London to Köln / Cologne / Koeln by train
How to take a thrilling high speed rail journey from London to Cologne/Köln
How to buy tickets, what's on board the trains, how to use the stations, plus tips for making the most of the journey
Share
Routes
From London St Pancras International to Köln/Cologne Hbf
Journey Summary
from 4hr 17min
Daily
Travel Information
Eurostar is the sole provider of the train service between London and Bruxelles/Brussels, but the high speed train service between Bruxelles/Brussels and Koln/Cologne/Koeln is split between ICE and Thalys trains.
The fastest end-to-end journeys from London to Koln usually involve connecting into the ICE trains at Bruxelles Midi/Brussel Zuid station.
On the journeys with an end-to-end timing of around 4hr 15min, the transfer time at Bruxelles Midi/Zuid station, between the arrival of the Eurostar and the departure of the ICE train, is usually around 20mins.
Even with the 20 min (ish) connection between a Eurostar and an ICE train, you shouldn't need to be concerned about losing out financially - in the fairly unlikely event of the delayed arrival of the Eurostar.
Tickets can now be theoretically transferred to a subsequent departure on from Brussels in such circumstances.
However, the journey options with an end-to-end timing of 5hr to 5hr 15min allow more than hour to make the connection.
These longer end-to-end journey options, due to to the extended period of time between trains, involve taking a Thalys train services on from Bruxelles and not an ICE service.
Rail Pass Users:
if you take ICE trains on from Bruxelles, you can avoid the reservation fees/supplements on the Thalys trains.
If you have a rail pass you don't have to reserve a seat on the ICE train - so no additional charges have to be incurred.
IF the Eurostar arrives too late to make the connection, then leave your bags in the left-luggage at Midi/Zuid station, explore Bruxelles and then take a later ICE train.
Monday to Friday: 6 x connections per day
Sat/Sun: 4 x connections per day
Changing trains in: Bruxelles/Brussels
Tickets
Worth knowing before booking London to Cologne/Köln train journey tickets online:
Eurostar is now seemingly only offering tickets for journey options which allow more than an hour to make the connection in Bruxelles.
A big plus of booking the Eurostar direct on Eurostar.com is that you can access a 'Manage Your Booking' facility - which enables you to change the seat that you will have been initially assigned when making a booking.
Click on the 'train details' for more information.
Also worth knowing is that when travelling by Eurostar you can choose between three classes of service, and this also impacts on the exchanges and refunds of what Eurostar refers to as 'Flexible tickets'
If you book Standard or Standard Premier tickets, you can exchange them if need be, to an alternative departure on your booked route; but if you want to transfer your ticket to a new departure less than 7 days before your travel date, you will need to pay an admin fee of £30 for Standard Class tickets, £40 for Standard Premier tickets PLUS the price difference with the new ticket you will be booking.
What's new, in response to the pandemic, is that these £30/40 charges aren't applied if you want to transfer to an alternative departure more than seven days before your travel date.
Business Premier tickets are less restrictive, in response to the pandemic they can now be refunded and they can be exchanged to alternative departures without paying the admin fee, or the price difference.
Eurostar's full ticket terms and conditions are here
Seat Reservations:
Reservations are optional in 2nd class on the ICE trains from Bruxelles/Brussels on to Cologne/Köln - when booking First class, the reservation fee is included in the ticket price
The prices you will initially see on Eurostar, for a 2nd class journey, include this reservation fee, so if you book with Eurostar and don't want to reserve, you can be proactive and remove it from your booking; by clicking on the green ticket you will see on the booking page.
The ticket prices on Trainline and B-Europe, for a 2nd class journey, do not include the price of opting to reserve a seat on the ICE train; though on both sites you can add opt to add a reservation to your booking.
Hence the initial price you will see for 2nd class travel, will be cheaper on Trainline and B-Europe.
So if you want to reserve seats on the ICE when travelling 2nd class, it's simpler to book with Eurostar because it will automatically include the reservation on its booking path.
Though it charges around €1.50 more for the seat reservations than the other booking services.
Reservations are compulsory on the Eurostar and this is included when booking point2point journey tickets – your Eurostar seats will be automatically assigned irrespective of whether you book 1st class or 2nd class tickets.
Saving money
The German national rail operator, DB has withdrawn its 'Europa Sparpreis Spezial' and no longer sells that type of tickets on this route.
However, DB has retained its offer of 'Europa Sparpreis Spezial' tickets on the Bruxelles >Cologne/Köln part of the journey when travelling by the ICE trains (and not the Thalys trains)
As a result it's now often possible to save money by booking separate tickets for the London > Bruxelles journey with Eurostar and then booking the Bruxelles >Cologne/Köln journey by ICE train with DB.
Though if you do, it's likely that you will have to re-book tickets for the journey on to Cologne/Köln in the event of a delay to a Eurostar causing a missed connection in Bruxelles.
Which can be an issue when the connecting time between Eurostar arrivals and ICE departures is only around 20 mins.
So an option is to book the tickets, so that you'll be taking a later ICE train on from Bruxelles
What if you do miss the connection in Bruxelles/Brussels?
If you have NOT reserved on the ICE train on to Cologne/Köln you can indeed hop on the next* ICE train departing from Bruxelles Midi/Zuid station, IF you have booked and end-to-end journey; though It will departing at least two hours after the ICE train that you were booked on to.
If you HAVE opted to make reservations on the ICE train you can swap your reservations to the later ICE train (free of charge), at the international ticket deck at Bruxelles-Midi/Zuid station – located near to the entrance to the platforms/voie that the trains on to Cologne/Köln will depart from.
Using Rail Passes on Eurostar:
Rail pass users can now pay reservation fees to travel on Eurostar trains, in a similar manner to other international European high speed trains.
The new rail pass reservation fees are similar to the cheapest single journey ticket prices, but as those cheapest tickets can sell out quickly, it's likely that the rail pass reservation fees will save money.
You can purchase these online with no booking fees via B-Europe - or they ARE now available on the Eurostar website.
Booking in advance is recommended as it's not unknown for rail pass reservations on Eurostar services to sell out days or weeks in advance, there is evidently limited availability per departure.
You can obtain a rail pass reservations without paying a booking fee at Eurostar stations.
However, if you want to do this on the day of travel be prepared to be flexible re: the train you will take.
If you are a UK resident, your rail pass + reservation is only valid if you take a train from the UK on the first day that your pass is valid for and return to the UK on the final day that you will be using a pass.
Where to book
| Ticket Provider | Approximate Cost | |
|---|---|---|
| Eurostar | from £55 (approx) | |
| Trainline | from €59 (approx) | |
| B-Europe | from €59 (approx) |
Train 1
Travelling On
Journey Features
Good to Know
Note that London is in a different time zone to mainland Europe, it is one hour behind - so when looking at a timetable the journey will look as though it's an hour longer.
Most of the departures between London and Bruxelles will be by the e320 trains, but the e3300 trains are usually used on some departures.
The usual calls at either Ebbsfleet or Ashford International stations, have been been temporarily suspended until further notice.
Eurostar requests that holders of Standard Class And Standard Premier tickets check-in a minimum of 30mins before departure; though this time increases to 45mins before departure on weekends and holidays.
If you have a Business Premier ticket, Eurostar recommends that you only have to check-in 10 mins before departure.
It's not a scenic journey, but it is a journey with six distinct phases and highlights:
1: For most of the first 8 mins of the journey the trains use tunnels to exit London (Stratford International station is located between the tunnels).
2: Then from the right of the train, there are views of the River Thames marshes and of the Queen Elizabeth II road bridge.
3: The third tunnel that the train will pass through is the tunnel under the River Thames.
4: Shortly after Ebbsfleet International station (can only be seen from the right of the train) is the scenic highlight of the journey - the crossing of the River Medway.
5: The train will slow down as it approaches The Channel Tunnel.
Announcements are no longer made that the train is about to enter the tunnel.
The journey through the tunnel will take around 22 mins.
6: There is little of note to be seen from the high speed lines in France and Belgium.
Please support ShowMeTheJourney
This second version of ShowMeTheJourney is exciting and new, so we are genuinely thrilled that you are here and reading this, but we also need your help.
We’re striving not to let anything get in the way of providing the most useful service possible, hence a facility has been set up with DonorBox which can be used to support the running costs and make improvements.
Instead of advertising or paywalls, your financial support will make a positive difference to delivering an enhanced service, as there’s a lot of ideas which we want to make happen.
So if you have found the info provided here to be useful, please go here to say thank you.
Train 2
Travelling On
Journey Features
Good to Know
Final Destination: Frankfurt (Main) or Essen
Departing from Bruxelles-Midi/Brussel-Zuid station:
You will usually* have to pass through security checks before boarding these trains and queues can build up at busy times.
*The security checks are at the entrance to platforms/tracks/voies 3 -6 and these ICE and Thalys trains to Koln are usually scheduled to depart from this part of the station.
But check the departure screens before heading for the security checks, these trains can occasionally be scheduled to leave from platforms/tracks/voies 7 or 8.
For virtually the entire train journey from Bruxelles to Koln the trains, will either be travelling at up to 290 km/h on a purpose built high speed line, or up to 220km/h on a section of line, that has been re-engineered to allow trains to travel faster.
The high speed part of the route comes between Leuven and Aachen.
This second version of ShowMeTheJourney is exciting and new, so we are genuinely thrilled that you are here and reading this, but we also need your help.
We’re striving not to let anything get in the way of providing the most useful service possible, hence a facility has been set up with DonorBox which can be used to support the running costs and make improvements.
Instead of advertising or paywalls, your financial support will make a positive difference to delivering an enhanced service, as there’s a lot of ideas which we want to make happen.
So if you have found the info provided here to be useful, please consider saying thank you.
See if there’s a unique journey guide for your trip, featuring info on the trains, tickets & stations.
This is one of more than 100 train travel guides available on ShowMeTheJourney, which will make it easier to take the train journeys you want or need to make. As always, all images were captured on trips taken by ShowMeTheJourney.
