Pages tagged: Thalys

European Rail News
Practical Info
published on 5 July 2023
by Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries
We unravel here the mysteries surrounding travel classes on trains and explain which class you can choose with your Interrail or Eurail pass. While most European trains offer only one or two classes of service, there are a number of important exceptions.
News
published on 11 October 2021
by Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries
Each year in early autumn, rail operators across Europe unveil details of new services, and then release tickets for beyond the date of the timetable change in mid-December. We take a look at ticket release dates for train services from mid-December 2021 on into early 2022.
Notes
published on 1 May 2021
by Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries
We count it as a great privilege to have been allowed to publish each monthly Newslines column from the European Rail Timetable (ERT) on this website. It was ten years ago today that we received that permission from the then publishers of the timetable. We take a moment to delve back into ERT history.
Opinion
published on 30 October 2020
by Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries
Would it not, in these difficult times, be so much better if operators initially open sales only for those trains which would run in the most skeleton timetable? If the pandemic abates, everyone will be delighted to then see operators responding quickly by adding in extra trains to meet renewed demand. We look at the offer of two operators: Eurostar and Thalys.
Practical Info
published on 29 June 2020
by Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries
Although some summer-season trains will not be running this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, there are still plenty of services which will operate. Here we give an overniew of some of the summer specials which this year are running to Catalonia, the Alps, the North Sea and Baltic coasts and to Italian resorts.
Opinion
published on 29 March 2020
by Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries
Perhaps a future generation of travellers will look back at the international rail timetables for early April 2020, barely able to believe that Europe could have become so fragmented. But will they even be able to find out what the timetables were? In this digital age, we do just wonder whether scholars a century hence will be able to find copies of the railway timetables which were applicable in this difficult period.
News
published on 2 March 2016
by Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries
Two new train services from Brussels to France will commence operation next month. And they are as different as chalk and cheese. Here’s the gen on a new fast link to Strasbourg and a slow train to Paris.
News
published on 18 September 2015
by Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries
For many years, Thalys trains never crossed the River Rhine. Trains from Paris all terminated at Cologne Hauptbahnhof on the west bank of the river. But from December 2015 Thalys will extend its network to Dortmund.
Practical Info
published on 16 April 2015
by Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries
Sometimes a temporary alteration in timetables can have repercussions on travel itineraries across a wide area. And that’s just what will happen this summer when engineering work between Aachen and Cologne will mean extended travel times on journeys crossing the Belgian-German border at Aachen.
News
published on 26 March 2015
by Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries
It looks like all change at Thalys as the international rail operator trims its network. Thalys presently serves ten stations in Belgium. With next week’s cuts, that number drops to just four.
News
published on 16 March 2014
by Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries
Here in Berlin there is a real sense of spring in the air, and we are well aware that travellers’ thoughts are turning to summer journeys. It’ll be no surprise that we tend to favour the train for most of our trips across Europe. So, for those of our readers who have not spent the long winter nights tracking changes in train timetables, here’s a run-down on headline changes over recent months.