On Monday morning, the first Deutsche Bahn service left Cologne at 6h11, arriving in Zaventem at 8h29, after stopping at Aix-la-Chapelle, Liège and Louvain. The train then continues on to Antwerp.
A code-share agreement with Brussels Airlines
The big new feature for travellers is the code-share agreement signed with Brussels Airlines. In practical terms, the rail journey now carries a flight number from the Belgian carrier: one ticket, a single check-in, and a guaranteed connection in the event of delay.
The stated aim is clear: to attract travellers from western Germany, where a large African diaspora lives, and channel them on to Brussels Airlines’ long-haul network to Africa.
A comeback for Brussels Airport
Since the end of the Thalys Paris-Zaventem service in 2015, because there were not enough passengers, the Belgian airport had been left out of the high-speed rail network, unlike its rivals Schiphol and Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle, which continue to draw Belgian travellers.
Freeing up slots for long-haul flights
The economic case is first and foremost for the airlines themselves. Replacing unprofitable short-haul flights with rail transport makes it possible to free up take-off slots at Zaventem, which can be reused for more lucrative long-haul flights.
In Germany: Lufthansa, Brussels Airlines’ parent company, has been working for several years with Deutsche Bahn to bring travellers by train directly to Frankfurt and Munich airports.
For Brussels-National Airport, it also means a direct expansion of its catchment area into North Rhine-Westphalia, an economically important region.
A cross-border economic corridor between Germany and Belgium
The route is no coincidence: it links major economic and industrial hubs — Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle, Liège, and as far as Antwerp, Europe’s second-largest port. A better-connected cross-border corridor, with potential for business and leisure tourism in both directions.
European pressure to decarbonise aviation
This line fits into the objectives of the European Union’s trans-European transport network, which aims to connect major airports to high-speed rail by 2030. In European debate, short-haul flying has become one of the most contested symbols of aviation: for a journey that the train covers in two to three hours, the plane emits significantly more CO2 per passenger, not counting the time lost travelling to the airport and going through security checks.
Some countries, such as France, have already banned certain short domestic flights where a rail alternative exists in less than 2h30.
Not everything is won yet
Transport economist Wouter Dewulf (University of Antwerp) points out that Zaventem is not on the direct line between Amsterdam, Brussels-Midi and Paris, where the Eurostar already runs — and which has no project to connect the airport to that network.
For former SNCB CEO Marc Descheemaecker, failing to integrate Zaventem into the high-speed network by the end of the 1980s was a “historical mistake”: at the time, the airport itself feared rail competition, and policymakers had preferred to concentrate investment on Brussels-Midi.
For now, only two daily return journeys are planned between Cologne and Zaventem. For the model to work properly over time, that frequency will need to rise significantly.