With a "simple change of platform" in Brussels, the shortest journeys are between London and Aachen (3 hours, 32 minutes) and Cologne (4 hours 22 minutes). Itineraries on those routes, as well as services between London and Bonn, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich, can be purchased on the Eurostar website. Through tickets between London and Berlin, Bremen, Duisburg, Essen, Hamburg and Hannover are on sale only through Eurostar contact centers. A Eurostar spokesperson confirmed that none of the through tickets are bookable in global distribution systems and said that it is "too early to say" whether the arrangement will be maintained when Deutsche Bahn launches its own direct London-Cologne service,
currently expected in 2016.