International travel to Brussels by train (day trip)

Hi,

There are many threads about traveling to Brussels by train. All international trains arrive at Gare du Midi. To get to the major sites in Brussels, you would hop on a local train to Gare Centrale.

For everyone who is planning a day trip to Brussels, I came across a useful link that highlights the major sites around Gare Centrale.

brusselsinternational.be/wabxlint/…

Can someone comment on how to transfer from international train to the local train. There are numerous threads about safety near the Gare du Midi area. I would like to minimize my time at the station as much as possible.

Thanks!

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All you have to do is change platforms: usually one flight of stairs down and one up again. You don%26#39;t even need to get out of the station.

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It is not all international trains that terminate at Gare du Midi, but only the high-speed ones, namely Eurostar from London, at platforms 1 and 2, and Thalys/TGV from Paris/CDG, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, etc. at platforms 3-5. Local and InterCity trains use all the other platforms up to no. 20 which is at the Avenue Fonsny side of the station.

INTERCITY trains from the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany stop at Gare du Nord, Gare centrale and Gare du Midi; from Luxembourg and Strasbourg they stop at Gare du Luxembourg and Schuman as well.

If your train terminates at Gare du Midi, you will automatically come out into the main area of the station. Here you can find monitors and a departure board from which you can identify a convenient train for Gare centrale or Gare du Nord, there must be one every 5 or 10 minutes so it is not going to be a problem (airport trains go that way, so do trains to Antwerp, coastal destinations like Knokke, Blankenberge, Oostende and of course Luxembourg as already mentioned). The monitors/boards will also show the platform number so all you need to do then is go to the platform and take the escalator up to the train.

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Thanks amboseli and qaminari!

Since the train info will be listed on the departure board when going from Gare du Midi to Gare du Centrale, will that be the same when I leave Gare du Centrale back to Gare du Midi?

What are the trains I should look for in the direction from Centrale to Midi? :)

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Yes, at Gare centrale there is a big departure board above the ticket desks showing all departures, as well as the yellow timetable %26quot;pages%26quot; (Gare centrale is undergoing renovation so I%26#39;m not quite sure where these are located now). In that direction, you will see a great many trains terminating at Gare du Midi anyway, other destinations with a stop at Midi include Charleroi and Liège.

At any station, be careful of your things when you are standing gawping at boards etc.. If possible, call by when unencumbered to identify the train you want to take and the platform it leaves from, then you can go straight down (at Gare centrale trains are underground) to the platform.

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