In October, I booked a Eurolines bus ticket from Paris to Brussels. In Paris, there was an actual station and organization to be placed on the bus. However, even though my ticket said the bus stop in Brussels was at Gare du Midi, it took us to Gard du Nord, with the driver telling us (once we arrived!) that buses aren’t allowed to park at Gare du Midi. Not a major inconvenience, except for those who had people expecting them at Midi, as well as Midi being a major travel hub with connections as well as luggage storage. For those expecting to go to Midi, we first had to get on the tram from Nord. Again, not a major issue… however, to buy tram passes in a kiosk, none of my American credit cards were accepted due to the PIN vs magnetic strip. And the machine only took coins, not bills, and I didn’t have enough coins to get the multi-day pass as I had intended. Since it was a Sunday, there was NO ONE working in the Nord station to help. There was full staff at Midi with open info desks. Also, when we arrived in Brussels, the bus pulled over on the side of the road (we were not yet at the station), and the driver got off the bus. The passengers just assumed he’d be right back. HE WAS GONE FOR AN HOUR. Never any explanation as to why the bus was stopped. So already I was disliking Eurolines. But I had already purchased a ticket to go from Antwerp to The Hague in a few days so I did have to take another trip with them.

I arrived at the bus stop in Antwerp 30 minutes early: 7:00pm for a 7:30pm departure. We were requested to arrive 15 minutes early to board. At 7:15pm, there was no bus yet. At 7:30pm, still no bus. Other people were also waited for even earlier buses (one woman was still waiting for her 6pm bus at 7:30 and soon people started telling me to expect this from Eurolines). 8:00pm came and went. Other Eurolines buses were arriving, but going to different destinations – none were The Hague buses, nor making a stop there – I asked the driver each time. I tried calling the Eurolines # but no one answered. I begged the various drivers to call for me as well (I had limited minutes on my international phone, plus I thought maybe they had a direct #) or use the radio to other drivers to see if they’re on their way. The first 3 drivers I asked told, “I can’t help you, I don’t work for Eurolines.” WHAT?! Eventually, a driver called for me and he told me no one answered the phone when he called either. It was a bit after 9:00pm when everyone I had been waiting with had boarded their buses and it did not feel safe at all to be on the street corner (in addition to the fact that it was cold and raining), so I walked back to Central Station and bought a train ticket that finally got me to The Hague around midnight. I contacted Eurolines by email to complain – never received a response. My next step is to contest my bus ticket with my credit card company, showing them proof that I bought a train ticket as well – which I would not have done had I taken the bus and already been out of Belgium. I don’t care if I don’t get my money back in the end – but I’ll be happy to know that credit card companies may look into this and either Eurolines will get their act together some time in the future, or be shut down. In the meantime, BEWARE! I chose them because they seemed cheaper than alternative methods of transit. In the end, it cost me even more.

they had sold a lot of tickets and too many checked in for the bus

no problem , they grabbed a spanish coach that was up from madrid and off we went …ok 20 minutes late but so what , the driver made it up