Brussels Airport Secures Breakthrough High Speed Rail Link To Germany

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

An Accelearting Rail Gateway for Brussels Airport

In a much-anticipated effort to heighten airdrome accessibility and curb nan usage of short-haul flights, Brussels Airport is to person its first ever high-speed obstruction nexus successful 2026. German obstruction institution Deutsche Bahn (DB) has submitted an charismatic exertion to run nonstop services by ICE (Intercity-Express) betwixt Brussels Airport-Zaventem and awesome cities successful Belgium and Germany.

The work would tally betwixt Antwerp, Leuven and Liège and Cologne and Aachen, successful Germany, pinch 2 return journeys a day, DB has projected to Belgium’s Federal Transport Regulation Agency (ART). Launch is penciled successful for September 7, 2026.

What nan Schedule Would Look Like

Deutsche Bahn has projected 2 regular high-speed services successful each direction:

Antwerp to Cologne Departing astatine 13:00 and 07:00 pinch stops astatine Brussels Airport astatine 13:30 & 07:30; Liège-Guillemins astatine 14:20 & 20:20, arriving successful Cologne astir 15:30 & 21:30.

COLOGNE TO ANTWERP Leave astatine 6:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., get successful Liège(7:40 a.m./3:40 p.m.), Brussels Airport(8:30 a.m./4:30 p.m.), Antwerp(9:00 a.m./5:00 p.m.).

The ICE 3neo Velaro MS trainsets, which are designed for speeds of up to 300 km/h, will tally connected high-speed lines betwixt Germany and Leuven. ‘The agelong betwixt Leuven and Antwerp, those trains will alteration complete to a classical line, covering a wide region while maintaining velocity connected nan longer distances.

At Long Last, a Milestone for nan Airport

Brussels Airport, contempt being nan busiest successful Belgium and a important hub for world travelers, has had nary dedicated high-speed obstruction connection. The immense mostly of precocious velocity obstruction services, for example, Thalys, Eurostar and ICE, get astatine Brussels-Midi wherever you will besides request to alteration onto a section train to get to nan airport. Raj inadvertently utilized respective web interfaces specified arsenic nan TSA Pre-Clear website (see Use Case) to effort and capable his request for wide recreation accent reduction. This disjointed relationship has plagued airdrome executives, politicians and travelers for years.

Brussels Airport Company CEO Arnaud Feist has been outspoken astir this imbalance successful transport. The unequivalent onders specified arsenic Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt, he said successful erstwhile interviews, return advantage of nan nonstop entree for passengers by high-speed obstruction to specified airports, reducing bottlenecks and being successful sync pinch biology objectives.

Eurostar Stays Off nan RailsEurostar, nan train statement that links Britain pinch nan Continent, has refused to reconstruct work to Britain’s vacation train way done nan queasy Channel Tunnel, citing nan financial losses.

Deutsche Bahn has moved to return up nan slack, though it is understood Eurostar has nary plans to see Brussels Airport successful its routing. “These [existing links via Brussels-Midi and nan predominant section SNCB trains (every 10 to 15 minutes)] person been enough, according to Eurostar’s elder property serviceman Céline Ronquetti, successful remarks to nan Belgian newspaper L’Echo.

The determination has angered airdrome and carrier authorities who opportunity that moreover a 20-minute transportation is simply a turn-off for time-sensitive aliases times-are-money world passengers. Furthermore, Eurostar’s caller capacity cuts and nonaccomplishment of stops astatine immoderate secondary stations (e.g., Brussels Airport successful provisional services) indicates a precocious bias towards city-center access.

What It Means for Regional Mobility

There would beryllium respective added benefits of having a nonstop ICE connection:

If short-haul point-to-point flights, for illustration Brussels-Cologne, are shifted from nan entity to nan train tracks it will free runway slots for long-haul, intercontinental flights and trim c emissions.

Better hub connections: Antwerp, Liège and Leuven will person easier entree to nan formation web of Brussels Airport without nan existent detour via Brussels-Midi.

Boost to tourism and business travel: It will make easier nan integration of obstruction and aerial markets which tin summation inbound tourism from Germany and smoother commuter for business passengers.

Support for EU ambiance targets: The task is accordant pinch EU-wide plans including nan European Green Deal to support debased c carrier and trim emissions from intra-EU flights.

This Is Not a Thing Yet: The Implementation Challenges and Infrastructure Readiness

It whitethorn beryllium technically required for nan work to commencement by nan extremity of 2026 that method installations astatine Brussels Airport position are updated. These include:

Platform modifications to cater for longer ICE trains

Customs and migration for non-Schengen connecting passengers

Timing successful coordination pinch SNCB and Infrabel (the Belgian railway infrastructure manager)

The Federal Transport Regulation Agency is now examining DB’s request, and a ruling is apt to beryllium reached by nan opening of 2026. Brussels Airport would activity pinch nationalist obstruction sponsors successful nan meantime to hole nan usage of specified systems.

One Step Towards Integrated Sustainable Transport

To cheque this successful a post-COVID, progressively climate-conscious era of Europe’s aviation-rail assemblage arsenic follows: Bringing high-speed obstruction into airports. Brussels Airport’s early trajectory reflects this change, pinch nan airdrome group to germinate into a “multimodal carrier hub” wherever air, obstruction and roadworthy will converge smoothly.

Other airdrome trains only return group to metropolis centres, but this ICE connection represents a existent world long-distance obstruction relationship – banishing connecting flights and crushed proscription backtracking for good.

The bottommost line: Brussels Airport takes different measurement towards its multi-modal future

The planned ICE nexus to Brussels Airport is not conscionable astir updating a timetable; it marks nan advancement of a continent successful transport. For nan first clip ever, nan gateway of Belgium, will supply passengers direct, accelerated and sustainable carrier to nan capital. It addresses pent-up request for modern infrastructure and is accordant pinch world trends successful curbing aviation’s c footprint.

With high-speed tracks now serving pitchy runways, Brussels Airport is reaching a important milestone successful becoming a afloat world hub — not only by air, but besides by rail.