SN starts daily bus link between AMS, RTM and BRU

[tolipanebas]

On July 5th, Brussels Airlines started a daily bus service between Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Brussels Airport. To ensure timely connections with Brussels Airlines' long haul departures to Africa, the bus will leave Amsterdam at 04:15AM from the Stadionplein opposite the Olympic Stadium, make a short stop in Rotterdam at 05:15AM (subway station Capelsebrug) and arrive at 07:15AM at Brussels Airport.
Passengers travelling to The Netherlands benefit from a morning departure in Brussels at 09:15AM to arrive at 11:15AM in Rotterdam and 12:15AM in Amsterdam.
Tickets cost 30 euro for a one way trip or 50 euro for a return trip and can be purchased online at www.airportxpress.nl or at the Brussels Airlines ticketing desk in the departure hall at Brussels Airport.

[Acid-drop]

what an evolution !
we have now a 300km/h train between those cities but we use a bus.
Cheaper I guess

[tolipanebas]

what an evolution !
we have now a 300km/h train between those cities but we use a bus.
Cheaper I guess

Mind you, the high speed trains from Amsterdam don't come all the way to Brussels Airport, which is very inconvenient.

I suppose the day it does (i.e. when Diabolo will be finished), both this bus link as well as KLM's BRU-AMS route will be history.

[jan_olieslagers]

And perhaps more reliable; or they might even be able to ensure connections. Thalys trains presently have a bad reputation for delays.

[CTBke]

normally there will be a high speed train between the airport and AMS/PNO as soon as the works are finished.

there is already an agreement between KLM and Thalys for the flights leaving from AMS if you book through KLM.Be

And perhaps more reliable; or they might even be able to ensure connections. Thalys trains presently have a bad reputation for delays.

this is due to the FYRA service in the netherlands ...

[ThierryD]

Thalys trains are usually delayed, the connections are not very frequent, the staff is rude, although they stop at Schiphol and many travelers use them they hardly have space for luggage, if your plane is delayed you need to bye a new and expensive ticket if traveling on a cheap fare and for the rest I can't think of any more inconveniences! Do I need to say I am missing the old and crappy Benelux-trains?

[FlightMate]

So the bus ride is not integrated in the flight's price?

You'd have to pay 50 euros extra if traveling from AMS.
I'm not too sure that will attract a lot of passengers. Unless of course the price of the SN-flight is much cheaper than a KLM flight.

[LJ]

Mind you, the high speed trains from Amsterdam don't come all the way to Brussels Airport, which is very inconvenient.
I suppose the day it does (i.e. when Diabolo will be finished), both this bus link as well as KLM's BRU-AMS route will be history.

A high speed from Amsterdam will not call at BRU in the foreseeable future. KLM is part of the company (Fyra) running the high speed rail link from The Netherlands to Belgium (with the new Italian trains) and it will not allow good connections from Amsterdam to BRU as this wouldn't benefit KL (and only helps SN). The idea is that once the entire service is high speed, frequency on AMS-BRU can be "adjusted" (meaning reduced to zero when the full schedule is in place and KL has figured out a way to make the transfer from plane to train easier and more comfortable). However, this project is delayed a few years (as usual).

[LJ]

So the bus ride is not integrated in the flight's price?
You'd have to pay 50 euros extra if traveling from AMS.
I'm not too sure that will attract a lot of passengers. Unless of course the price of the SN-flight is much cheaper than a KLM flight.

The timings are very bad. Only if you live in Amsterdam or Rotterdam it's worthwhile. However, I reckon that SN realises that if it want to tap into the Amsterdam - Accra (and the rest of Africa) market is has to offer their pax a connection to/from Brussels. If I'm not mistaken SN tried this before from Eindhoven and (if I'm not mistaken also Rotterdam) in the past (without much success). Maybe flying to AMS again??

[CTBke]

Thalys trains are usually delayed, the connections are not very frequent, the staff is rude, although they stop at Schiphol and many travelers use them they hardly have space for luggage, if your plane is delayed you need to bye a new and expensive ticket if traveling on a cheap fare and for the rest I can't think of any more inconveniences! Do I need to say I am missing the old and crappy Benelux-trains?

it is exactly the same with plane tickets ... the cheaper your fare the less flexibility .. which is normal ... about the luggage space it's true .. you don't have that much space especially not in 2nd class. It's more comfortable than the old crappy Benelux trains (airco, internet, power outlets even in 2nd class and of course the staff speaks at least french, dutch and english) I must say that they are very friendly .. take it every week between Antwerp and Schiphol (1st class and they are very friendly)

[regi]

will they put the luggage on a weighing scale in the middle of an Amsterdam square?
" Sorry sir, too heavy, but I can fix it for you if you help me a little bit "

[Air Key West]

I don' think that this Amsterdam-Rotterdam-BRU vv. bus service will be a success because of the schedule.
You have to leave very early from NL to arrive very early at BRU. I presume this bus service aims mainly at attracting pax on b.air's Africa flights. When you take into account that the first Africa flights usually leave at 10:50 am, it means waiting for more than three hours after having traveled two or three hours by bus. And that's only for the earliest Africa flights. Other flights leave after 11, 12 and even 1400 hours.
Same thing for the journey back to NL. If you arrive around 5 am, if your bus does not leave until 9:15 am, and you still have two or three hours to spend on the bus, it's not attractive (unless the fares are VERY attractive). But I doubt that a business passenger will ever use this bus service.

I think it just shows again that SN needs a fifty-seater-aircraft (or even a 30-seater). The EMB135/145 would be ideal, but they are said to be expensive to operate.

Which aircraft would be ideal (economical) to operate feeder services from/to AMS and perhaps also LUX, Nantes, Strasbourg, DUS (offering connexions to Africa from the Ruhr region), and why not LCY (it did not work out apparently for VLM, but with b.air in a large alliance, I would not discard LCY as an additional London destination). Any ideas about the aircraft which could operate these feeder services from cities for which even the small Avrojet (RJ85) is too big ? (I know it's a bit off topic ; if the webmaster wants to start a new thread, ok for me).

[RoMax]

Which aircraft would be ideal (economical) to operate feeder services from/to AMS and perhaps also LUX, Nantes, Strasbourg, DUS (offering connexions to Africa from the Ruhr region), and why not LCY (it did not work out apparently for VLM, but with b.air in a large alliance, I would not discard LCY as an additional London destination). Any ideas about the aircraft which could operate these feeder services from cities for which even the small Avrojet (RJ85) is too big ? (I know it's a bit off topic ; if the webmaster wants to start a new thread, ok for me).

LH (and OS) are fasing out their CR2's, because 50 seaters doesn't fit their strategy. There are several CR2's previous operated by LH stored (a big part is already sold). Couldn't this be a possibility for SN? I know that the CR2's aren't known for their comfort... but not any 50 seater is really comfortable anyway. I suppose they could use some for some new regional routes and to optimise some existing routes.

When SN orders the replacement for the RJ's, the E-jets make a lot of chance(the C-series of Bombardier are pretty big to replace the RJ85's and the first will only be deliverd in 2013-2014 while the lease contracts for the Avro's start to end in 2012). The smallest one is the E170 with around 70 seats. That's less than the currently RJ85's, but still too much for some routes I think... But where do you get efficient 50 seaters?

[Thomas_C]

On the SN website I don't find information on the new bus link, even if I change the country of preference in 'Netherlands'. If I can't find it, how are the Dutch passengers supposed to find it..

[sn26567]

I guess that the early departure is to beat the morning rush hour traffic. Suppose that the bus leaves AMS one hour later, I'm not sure that the passengers could connect with the first departure to Africa.

[airazurxtror]

On the SN website I don't find information on the new bus link, even if I change the country of preference in 'Netherlands'. If I can't find it, how are the Dutch passengers supposed to find it..

It's on the Brussels Airport website :

http://www.brusselsairport.be/en/parkin ... d-from/bus

[LJ]

On the SN website I don't find information on the new bus link, even if I change the country of preference in 'Netherlands'. If I can't find it, how are the Dutch passengers supposed to find it..

It's operated by a separate company and doesn't have anything to do with SN. This is very clever as it dismisses SN from any responsibility when not making the connection to/from the bus service.

[Thomas_C]

Very clever indeed. On the http://www.airportxpress.nl/ website they don't mension SN also, very clever again.

[MAM]

Also mind that the target group will be African travelers, and not (mainly) European travelers. African travelers are more interested in the total price of their journey rather than time spend.

[LJ]

Also mind that the target group will be African travelers, and not (mainly) European travelers. African travelers are more interested in the total price of their journey rather than time spend.

It depends on what you consider "African traveller". This bus service is clearly set up to tap into the Amsterdam - Africa (most notably Amsterdam - Accra) market. This bus service wouldn't be viable if SN wouldn't offer a connection to Accra.