Indeed - there are no through trains from London to Cologne. You will still need to change in Brussels.
Fortunately, that can be a very quick change.
The through fare I got seemed reasonable, but it might have been two reasonable advance fares!
Very quick on the last time I did it. I had to run.
Wouldn’t it be also better if they actively encouraged through fares for the great unwashed amongst us who don’t live near London and have to add on cost of a peak fare, if there are not any advances available. For this reason, I’m out or interrailing.
Why would 'they' want to do that?
Commercially, I know the reason why, although Eurostar quietly dropped its through fares, I think either pre pandemic or during pandemic. I guess I’m part of the minority who would like this to be re thought. An inclusive railway should be thinking outside of the box but I guess keeping everything London centric is appealing to both Eurostar and British Government.
I understand that you want to pay less (who doesn't?), but still why would 'they' want to do that? Presumably the domestic rail companies (i.e. British Government) doesn't want to give away peak tickets cheaper and E* doesn't want to discount their tickets for provincial passengers when they can sell the seats at higher prices, and neither want the cost of through ticketing liabilities when things go wrong. Quite aside from the incompatibility of booking systems (the interface of which will cost lots of money) and the different booking horizons.
What about CIV tickets to London international, can still get good value advances and have your trains protected. Worked well for me when doing north of England to Europe tickets.
I didnt know you could get CIV tickets for advance tickets, how do you set about it? Journey planners routinely refuse to recognise them, and if they do only offer anytime or possibly offpeak tickets.
TrainSplit (and the forum's booking site) offers them. Not aware of any other retailer that does.
If you're serious about committing to net zero carbon targets, then it comes at a cost. Eurostar is a beneficiary of the whole of the UK contributing towards the Channel Tunnel . You mention a number of reasons why it shouldn't happen and your comment
is rather flippant, to say the least. I'm under no illusion that the easy way forward is to do nothing. Booking systems are currently complex but much of this is a symptom of our current railway. I was on a Eurostar recently which was 50 mins late in arriving at St Pancras. They were handing out delay forms, so they have experience in this field.
I was about to mention CIV tickets. The first time I learned about CIV was when I booked Birmingham to Brussels through Ffestiniog Travel who had also arranged my travel arrangements for a solo tour of Germany which I had planned. My tickets were made out to London International CIV and were advance tickets. I had never previously heard of this station London International.
I got mine at York ticket office! Didn't know you could get CIV online.
Thanks for the heads up. Just had a quick look and it is quite simple. The only thing is you have to collect paper tickets, not a problem, just need to aware. Other than the change of destination to London International doesn't affect fares offered on the route we would use which is Hull - KGX as the onward travel is a 5 min walk.
As I understand it the only real benefits of CIV tickets these days are (1) guaranteed connections - though all reports are that reasonable connections are honored even with London tickets - and (2) more generous time restrictions on flexible tickets.
The booking engine here is, for all intents and purposes, TrainSplit.
For the sake of going to the ticket office, when planning a large group trip for which I was responsible, I felt the extra reassurance was worth it. I also work near York station ticket office and commute through it so it wasn't a hardship!
If we are serious about committing to net zero carbon targets, we would be discouraging travel more widely, certainly for leisure purposes. This should be by raising airfares, rather than pricing that may well encourage more discretionary journeys by rail, without necessarily much movement from air travel to rail. Has the whole of the UK contributed (much) towards the Channel Tunnel? I thought it was effectively a private venture, without UK public money, which is why it is saddled with so much debt which needs servicing by high access charges.
And I expect that experience underlies why they do not wish to increase their financial risks with more through ticketing, or incurring those liabilities at a discounted rate.
A couple of years ago, I travelled from Orpington to Nice (Orp - St Pancras - Gare de Nord - Metro -Gare de Lyons - Nice), and had CIV tickets or Orpington to St Pancras. What I wasn't sure about (although I did not have need of it) was if my Eurostar to Gare de Nord was late, could I apply 'CIV' for the Gare de Lyons - Nice leg.
If you buy a CIV ticket to/from London from a regional destination who actually picks up the cost if it goes wrong, is it the TOC causing the delay, how does that work?
Seat61.com says:
That is via Rail Team isn't it? With guaranteed next available seat?
Not sure that it actually works like that, and the next available seat might not be for some time.....