Brussels Travel Forum

Can someone please let me know what's the difference between BRUXELLES NORD BR and BRUXELLES MIDI?

I'm trying to get a train ticket from Luxembourg to London but the stations for Brussels seems to be different.

Thanks.

Yes, the Eurostar terminates at Brusselles Nord, one small stop away from Brussels Midi. There are many trains going between the two stations and it only takes maybe 5 or 10 minutes? Also, the Eurostar ticket typically includes that portion of the journey, so you don't need to buy an extra ticket. Brussels Midi is the station closer to the tourist centre Brussels.

The Brussels Nord is Brussels North, Brussels Centraal is Brussels Central and Brussels Midi (also known as Brussels Zuid) is Brussels South. I think the international trains go from Brussels Midi.

According to Belgian Rail website (http://www.b-rail.be/main/E/) trains from Luxembourg arrive at Bruxelles Midi and Eurostar trains depart from Bruxelles Midi Eurostar.

Eurostar does not go to Brussel Nord as some other poster mentioned, so beware.

Basically Brussels has two major train stations:

Brussel Noord / Bruxelles Nord is the "North" station.
Brussel Zuid / Bruxelles Midi is the "South" station.
(Brussels is bilingual, so the stations have two names. They are both used on station signs).
These stations were once terminal stations, but the Belgian connected them with a large railway tunnel in the 50ies (demolishing large parts of the old town in the process), so they are now connected. In between those is "Brussel Centraal/Bruxelles Central".
In the east there is another major station, called "Brussel Luxemburg/Bruxelles Luxembourg".

All Belgian domestic IC trains which call at Brussels call at both the North, Central and South stations. Trains from the Southeast (from Luxembourg, Namur and Arlon) also call at Brussel Luxemburg/Bruxelles Luxembourg.
International trains usually only call at the South station.

The Eurostar and Thalys trains all leave from the South station, so you get them at "Brussel Zuid/Bruxelles Midi". The eurostar trains have their own seperate area within the South railway station, that is what the train planners call "Brussels South/Midi EST". The EST stands for Eurostar. The reason this station has a seperate designation in the online trip planners is because this way they can take in to account that a transfer from a domestic IC to a Eurostar takes longer than between two domestic ICs. The only way to get this longer transfer time in the database was to pretend that Brussel South/Midi EST is a seperate station at 20 minutes from the rest of the South station...

If you're comming from Luxembuorg the first station in Brussels this train will call at is Brussel Luxemburg. Don't get out there (unless you want to visit the European parliamant). Stay on the train till you get to Brussel Zuid/Bruxelles midi. That will usually be the fifth stop in Brussel. (The others being Schuman, Noord, and Centraal).
Once in Zuid/Midi just follow the signs for the Eurostar terminal.

When it comes to buying train tickets however you don't need to worry much as for pricing purposes all 30 odd railway stations in Brussel are considered the same.

Yes, sorry about that, I was thinking of Gare Du Nord, Paris. I remember transiting between stations from Eurostar to the station next to Grand Place, etc.

Thanks all for responding... :)

Coming from Luxembourg, your train will call in Brussels at the following stations: Luxembourg (formerly Quartier Léopold), Schuman, Nord, Central and Midi. Change at Midi for the Eurostar since it only leaves from there (and remember to leave 30 minutes to check in as you have to go through passport and security conrols).
In trains you would look for Bruxelles-Nord, Bruxelles-Midi etc.

That was supposed to be "in train timetables"!.