Thread by @jonworth

So @costhermanin asked me today about booking Eurostar trains on the Brussels-Amsterdam route

That called for a little investigation, that I have blogged about here
jonworth.eu/how-to-book-br…

Summary in the thread

I tried the sites of 3 incumbent rail firms:
🇧🇪 SNCB's @SNCB_Int
🇳🇱 NS's @NS_Int
🇫🇷 SNCF's @ouisncf

And also:
🚅 @eurostar's own site
SNCF's international arm, @raileurope
Rail booking platform @thetrainline
Multimodal platform @OmioGlobal

The results are interesting

Best of the lot was @thetrainline, with @NS_Int and @SNCB_Int also performing well.

@ouisncf did not list InterCity trains
@eurostar only listed its own trains
@OmioGlobal did not list Eurostar trains, and has a horrid interface

But worst of all was @raileurope - it has all the three types of train in its system, but failed (by error or by malevolence?) to show the most convenient cheap train on the route!

The wider problem is that while @thetrainline @NS_Int and @SNCB_Int did well on this test, it was only @ouisncf that did OK on my previous test about Belgium to France cross border rail - blogged here:
jonworth.eu/how-a-little-o…

⚠️ The basic conclusion is this: even for cross border services from Belgium to its neighbours, no site does it all right in all cases! ⚠️

This little tale might be of interest to @AdinaValean @AnnaDeparnay @elba013 @seatsixtyone @jamieandrews @McWhirterAlex @CarfreeNetwork @ibuscke