Eurostar from Rotterdam to London - changing at Brussels

[Borka]

We're traveling back from Rotterdam next week and there are no direct Eurostar running so we have to change at Brussels. Has anyone done this recently?

The train times have been changed since we booked and the connection time seems ridiculously tight, we have 6 minutes to get from the incoming train to the Channel Terminal check in before the gates close. Eurostar won't let me change the Rotterdam to Brussels train part of my booking because it's designed to be a connecting service apparently, but it looks like it might be possible to get an earlier slow train from Rotterdam.

Any advice on the likelihood of making the connection would be welcome!

I would get the earlier slow train from Rotterdam. Midi has a lot of platforms, and if you arrive at the other end of the station to the Eurostar, it could make a short connection challenging. It's probably feasible, but I'd consider it stress I don't need.

Following because DS has a similar connection from Amsterdam to London next week and is worried about it. His Dutch GF said that she'd heard it's something to do with them not having passport control facilities in Amsterdam station at the moment, but I don't see how they can check everyone's passport in such a short time.

My colleague does this trip a lot and recently ended up waiting for over 2 hours in Brussels midi due to a missed connection. She said Eurostar were absolutely useless and there’s hardly anything in the station once you are in the international departures. Probably not what you want to hear….

Thanks Crepuscular and Andywarhol - that's sort of what I was thinking! It's so stupid that Eurostar have timetable such short connection times.

A few years ago I was booked on a train that gave me 30mins at Brussels (but that was departure not check in). The train from Germany was late (arriving 21 minutes before departure)we had to leg it across Brussels Station, and made it with sevo ds to spare and the whole way through security it was rush rush rush and escorted onto the train, with doors shutting behind us and train moving as we found our seats.

The staff commented that DB shouldn't have created that ticket...

It isn't just Eurostar that timetables impractical short connection times. The Trainline does this all the time.

Last time I travelled to London I had a 9 minute connection in Sheffield to get to the other side of the station. Given that the Northern Rail service from where we live is often a few minutes late, it is silly to issue tickets for these times.

My train was late and I missed the London train and had to get the next one.

DD is off to London this week and she has bought a ticket from Sheffield and will buy a separate ticket for the earlier local service as you can't change the train times for each part of a split journey.

We did this route recently, with an hour between trains.

Train was half hour late coming into Midi, but moving between platforms and passport control took about 5 mins so we were through with plenty of time.

6 minutes is cutting it tight if train is on time, is impossible if you're late leaving Rotterdam.

I did this with two young children and got told off for cutting it so fine at Brussels... I pointed out that they sold this as one ticket but they just asked me to stop shouting (I wasn't, but I was annoyed)... I'd explore alternative options of getting to Brussels

Brussels Eurostar check in is a lot faster than either Paris GdN or London StP IME. I have certainly checked in in less than 10 minutes. Midi is a quick to get around if you use the south corridor short cut: https://www.seat61.com/stations/brussels-midi.htm#Short_cut

However, I would not want to try it in 6 minutes, unless it's some kind of link service and they hold the Eurostar, which I don't think they would. (The other way around, from Brussels to Frankfurt, for example, the Frankfurt train will be held if the Eurostar is delayed because it's a recognised connection.)

It is supposed to be a link service, but the Eurostar person I spoke to was quite vague about whether they would hold it.

How did you get on @Borka? My son ended up with 30 minutes to do the interchange so it worked out fine - partly because the Brussels to London leg was delayed. I don't know if it was held to ensure that everyone could board or whether it was just a general delay.

I'm glad it worked ok for your son @QueenOfToast .
We made the connection, but also only because it was delayed. It was a bit chaotic at Brussels, we had to queue for about an hour to even reach the check-in gates and then another half hour to get through security and passport checks! I think probably the delays were due to having to hold trains so everyone could get on.
We travelled on Thursday, is that the same day as your son? I wonder whether it's like that every day due to Eurostar not allowing enough time for connecting trains.