Business travellers flying into Belgium will soon have the option of stepping straight from the arrivals hall onto a German InterCity Express. In an agreement finalised over the weekend, Deutsche Bahn (DB) and Belgian rail infrastructure manager Infrabel confirmed that a new twice-daily ICE service will operate the Brussels Airport–Leuven–Liège–Aachen–Cologne route from the September 2026 timetable change (brusselstimes.com).
Although the launch is still six months away, the deal is strategically important for corporate mobility planners that straddle the Benelux–Rhine corridor. Today, travellers landing at Brussels Airport must first take a 17-minute local train to Brussels-Midi before boarding a Thalys or ICE for Germany, adding at least an hour and one connection to the journey. The planned non-stop pattern will cover the 212 kilometres to Cologne Hbf in just two hours and offer same-platform transfers at Messe/Deutz to DB’s ICE Sprinter network for Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich, shaving door-to-door times and carbon emissions compared with short-haul flights.
Business travelers unfamiliar with Belgium’s entry requirements may find it useful to consult VisaHQ, which offers up-to-date visa and travel documentation advice for more than 200 nationalities; their dedicated Belgium page (https://www.visahq.com/belgium/) streamlines e-visa applications and can coordinate courier services for urgent business trips, making the paperwork as swift as the new rail connection.
![Brussels Airport to gain direct ICE high-speed rail link with Cologne from September 2026]()
For Belgium, the service is a flagship example of the government’s push for “green intermodality” at national gateways. Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company, called the link “an essential step in strengthening Belgium’s international connectivity”, noting that 18 per cent of the airport’s origin-and-destination passengers already use rail and that the new ICE could lift the share past 25 per cent. DB, for its part, is expanding its airport portfolio after similar ventures at Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Amsterdam-Schiphol proved popular with multinational firms seeking to reduce their aviation footprint.
Practical details are still being finalised. Early timetables show morning and late-afternoon departures in both directions timed to connect with trans-Atlantic banks at Brussels and with long-distance ICE Sprinter departures in Cologne. Standard DB business-class fares are expected to apply (currently €89 flexible one-way in first class), and tickets will be open for sale when the European Rail Timetable is published in June.
For mobility managers, the implication is clear: duty-of-care policies and travel-time calculators should be updated to include the new rail option when advising travellers between Belgium and western Germany. Companies with sustainability targets may also wish to steer employees toward the train, which DB estimates will save roughly 75 kg of CO₂ per passenger compared with a connecting flight via Brussels or Düsseldorf.
Although the launch is still six months away, the deal is strategically important for corporate mobility planners that straddle the Benelux–Rhine corridor. Today, travellers landing at Brussels Airport must first take a 17-minute local train to Brussels-Midi before boarding a Thalys or ICE for Germany, adding at least an hour and one connection to the journey. The planned non-stop pattern will cover the 212 kilometres to Cologne Hbf in just two hours and offer same-platform transfers at Messe/Deutz to DB’s ICE Sprinter network for Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich, shaving door-to-door times and carbon emissions compared with short-haul flights.
Business travelers unfamiliar with Belgium’s entry requirements may find it useful to consult VisaHQ, which offers up-to-date visa and travel documentation advice for more than 200 nationalities; their dedicated Belgium page (https://www.visahq.com/belgium/) streamlines e-visa applications and can coordinate courier services for urgent business trips, making the paperwork as swift as the new rail connection.
For Belgium, the service is a flagship example of the government’s push for “green intermodality” at national gateways. Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company, called the link “an essential step in strengthening Belgium’s international connectivity”, noting that 18 per cent of the airport’s origin-and-destination passengers already use rail and that the new ICE could lift the share past 25 per cent. DB, for its part, is expanding its airport portfolio after similar ventures at Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Amsterdam-Schiphol proved popular with multinational firms seeking to reduce their aviation footprint.
Practical details are still being finalised. Early timetables show morning and late-afternoon departures in both directions timed to connect with trans-Atlantic banks at Brussels and with long-distance ICE Sprinter departures in Cologne. Standard DB business-class fares are expected to apply (currently €89 flexible one-way in first class), and tickets will be open for sale when the European Rail Timetable is published in June.
For mobility managers, the implication is clear: duty-of-care policies and travel-time calculators should be updated to include the new rail option when advising travellers between Belgium and western Germany. Companies with sustainability targets may also wish to steer employees toward the train, which DB estimates will save roughly 75 kg of CO₂ per passenger compared with a connecting flight via Brussels or Düsseldorf.
