Thursday, April 12, 2012

Spa-Francorchamps F1 transportation to the track

I have a ticket for the F1 race on September 5-7, 2008. I will be taking a train daily from Cologne. I can get as far as Verviers or Liege by train. Which city destination is better. Is there bus transportation from either Verviers or Liege to the track?





Thank you,



Mike




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Verviers. This says they are running a free shuttle on those dates - http://www.belgiumtheplaceto.be/



book_your_belgium_f1_grand_prix_in_spa.php



Otherwise TEC bus 395 goes from Verviers to Francorchamps.




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Thank you for the information. The Verviers bus connection is perfect.





Mike




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I have tickets to the F1 race as well. We%26#39;re staying in Brussels at the Hotel Silken Berlaymont Brussels · 11-19, Boulevard Charlemagne, 1000 Brussels Belgium





We%26#39;re coming from the US and we need to know if there are buses or trains to the race. Any help would be greatly appreciated.





Thanks.



Emaan






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Postings indicate the best thing to do is take a train from Brussels to Verviers, Belgium and a bus from there to the track.





Mike




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Just to add that the Silken Berlaymont is near Schuman railway station which is at the Charlemagne end of Schuman metro station: when you enter by the metro entrance on the corner of Bd. Charlemagne and rue de la Loi, under a corner of the Berlaymont, turn right instead of left at the bottom of the escalator, following the %26quot;B%26quot; (Belgian Railways) signs.



You can therefore start your train journey from there: on a Saturday there are trains at 41 minutes past each hour to Gare du Nord (final destination Bruxelles-Midi) where you would change onto a train to Verviers-Central (final destination Eupen) at 6 minutes past each hour, e.g. dep. 09:41, arr. 09:48, dep. 10:06 arr. 11:25, total journey time 1h44 (without the bus of course). Cost for a 2nd class return ticket is €31.60 on a weekday, €16.60 on a Saturday or Sunday (if you go on the Friday, ask for the ticket %26quot;A Day in the Ardennes%26quot;, which also costs €16.60 - hoping that they still sell this in September).



Alternatively, you can take the metro from Schuman to Gare centrale and change there onto exactly the same train as you would have caught at Gare du Nord, but a few minutes earlier (i.e. 01 minutes past each hour instead of 06).



You can check times for your date of travel on http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en indicating as station of departure either Bruxelles-Schuman or Bruxelles-central, depending on where you want to leave from, and as station of destination Verviers-central.




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Hi,





I just thought I%26#39;d post on here for any futrure race goers!! I have just returned from Spa and had an amazing weekend, appart from the shuttle buses!!!!!!





Please be aware that there is absolutely NO organisation at the track for your returning shuttles, no one, not even the Police, have any information and don%26#39;t give a damn about you. On sunday we got to the area that we had been dropped off, at about 1630hrs (an hour after the race had finished, quite acceptable, I think??). We waited and waited for what felt like eternity, in the pouring rain, along with about another 100 or so people for the shuttles and they simply did not turn up. At about 1830hrs we asked Police who informed us that they knew nothing about the shuttle buses, but told us that there were no taxis available as they were already pre-booked by %26quot;important%26quot; people and we%26#39;d simply have to wait!! I think you need to know that the track really is in the middle of nowhere and you simply are stranded.





Eventually, at about 1900hrs we managed to hail a taxi, which took us to Verviers station, for 82 euros, and in a fraction of the time the buses take (they get routed a strange way and take an hour!!).





I think it may be worth bearing this in mind for any future trips. I%26#39;d definately go to Spa again, the track is amazing, but I%26#39;d hire a car and be in charge of my own destiny, rather than at the whim of a bus company that clearly doesn%26#39;t care.





It didn%26#39;t ruin my weekend, but it certainly dampened (ha ha!!) my spirit on sunday night!




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Just to confirm what stefiow said above - there was no problem getting a free shuttle bus from Verviers train station to the track, but after the race we were left stranded as well. We also got a taxi eventually, but it was not easy to find one.




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