On 30 September last, a small ceremony was held at Brussels-Midi station to celebrate the last TGV to run under the Thalys brand, bringing to a close the last Thalys high-speed train. a railway adventure that began in 1996. The Thalys.com site was closed in the wake of this, and users are now referred to the Eurostar.com site as part of the the merger of the two companies SNCF subsidiaries. " This merger will be very beneficial for business customers making it easier to book, increasing the offer and standardising the loyalty programme so that more points can be earned "says Guillaume Confais-Morieux, Director of Travel Agencies at SNCF. The Thalys World programme has thus become Club Eurostar. " It will also be easier to communicate on a single brand, with a strong reputation to boot. "he adds.
The merger process accelerated on 1 January.er Last June, the Thalys inventory was migrated to the Eurostar inventory to enable booking of the continental offer (ex-Thalys) and Eurostar's cross-Channel offer. The new Eurostar logo is not yet present on all the red trains of the now-defunct Thalys, just like the new look signature, which has not been changed on all the trains running to London. On board the red trains, the Thalysnet portal for working and surfing during the journey has become Eurostar OnBoard.
A network in five countries
The new Eurostar will operate up to 14 Paris-London connections, 19 Brussels-Paris and 9 Brussels-London, 15 Brussels-Amsterdam, 5 Paris-Dortmund, 4 Paris-Amsterdam and London-Amsterdam (continuing from Brussels) daily. Although the TGVs in Thalys colours are unlikely to reach the British capital due to severe technical constraints, it is not out of the question that Eurostar's blue trains will be running on the former Thalys network tomorrow to take advantage of these ultra-capacity trains (up to 894 seats). A new website, Eurostarforagents.com, has recently been launched to help you make the most of these new trains. present all these new products and practical information (timetables, fares, train maps, Eurostar Club, etc.) to travel agents and TMC. A new website for the general public and a new application are also planned.
Note that the Thalys brand is still displayed on the SNCF booking siteSNCFConnect, when you want to buy a Paris-Brussels or Paris-Amsterdam ticket. Our Belgian and Dutch neighbours, on the other hand, seem to have a head start, as the new Eurostar logo is already present on the SNCB and NS booking sites when you make a reservation.
