[LuganoPirate]

PS. If you have some knowledge of German, look directly at the German site. They have some good offers there as well as cards offering discounts for more regular travel.

Bahn.de

[LuganoPirate]

I just looked at the bahn.de site and saw an offer to London from €59.
I then went on to make a dummy booking in First Class at € 348 return with the fastest journey at just 5 hours 26 minutes. I’m already registered and could have paid with my Swiss issued Amex.

So one website, one booking. It can be done. Why is it so difficult from the UK end I wonder?

[MartynSinclair]

Morning LP – thanks… seen the €59 fare on the DB website which also had the train times, but couldn’t book it.

Eurostar site only gave me half the info

Will call Eurostar in the morning…

€59 economy is a bargain… but imagine the fastest journey time, will also be the busiest…

I have done city centre to city centre in 4 hours before…. so anything between 5 and 6 hour journey time is acceptable by train…

[LuganoPirate]

There’s a UK number published. +44 8718 80 80 66

The UK website allows you to book online as well. I wonder why it’s giving you problems?

[flier74]

Martyn, if you have no luck on Eurostar.com, have you tried the Deutsche Bahn website? They already sell tickets through to London from Frankfurt and Cologne (for a long time now) and if you are lucky, you might get the 1st saver fare (more worth it on eurostar obciously) as a bargain. Also note that eurostar tickets do not include seat reservations for the ICE train, which I would recommend and they can be done seperately on the DB website if you buy your ticket through Eurostar. Let us know how you get on
edit: *Sorry just seen you already tried*

[MartynSinclair]

Just spoke to a very helpful guy from DB (thanks LP for the number)..

Basically on the 11th, the latest practical service leaves FRA at 14.29 and gets in LON at 19.57. This has 1 stop (BRU).. and cost £144.

There is a later train but there are 3 changes, including a local train from Koln Messe, to the hbf.. this isn’t for me.

Via Paris, there are no fast options leaving later than 2.30pm.

If I am reading this right, a 2.30pm FRA departure, (3.30pm UK time) means a journey of 5 and 1/2 hours city centre to city centre… + 30 minutes to get home from St Pancras, for £144 + Oyster payment for the final part.

No parking at Heathrow, no hanging about at airports…no rush to FRA airport, no security hassles with bags either side,…. its very tempting. However, I need to have finished my meeting, which is very close to the hbf in FRA..

Am very tempted to give it a go………. will finalise my meeting agenda first…

[MartynSinclair]

disappointingly, the train I will be taking next Tuesday, will be heading for Stuttgart and not BRU-LON. 2.30ppm is a little too early for me to leave FRA and with no avios availability from FRA, will head to Stuttgart to get back to London.

I hope over the year, there will be more “suitable” connection options in both directions, created… for train travel to give air travel some hot competition… for destination Europe / Germany.

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