Thalys

Thalys is a mark indicating at the same time:

The principal relation (50% of the turnovers) connects Paris and Brussels by using a line at high speed (LGV), with prolongations in particular towards Amsterdam and Cologne.

On these lines, the Thalys trains coexist:

  • with the oars Eurostar which connect Brussels and Paris in London
  • with the oars TGV network which connect Paris to the north of France
  • with the oars ICE which connect Brussels to Germany.

The company

International Thalys is a Belgian cooperative society of right whose seat is located at Brussels.

The capital of the company is held to 62% by the SNCF, to 28% by SNCB and to 10% by the Deutsche Bahn.

The service is carried out jointly with the railroads Dutch (NS).

The company was founded in May 1999 by transformation of Westrail International, joint venture of the SNCF and SNCB founded in 1995.

The Thalys oars

The oars are derived from TGV, conceived to adapt to the electric characteristics different from the network in the countries crossed (Germany, Belgium, France and Netherlands) like to the various systems of indication met.

The oars are of 2 different types, according to their characteristics and thus their service:

  • the oars PBA are tricourant and function on Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam
  • the oars PBKA are quadricourant and serve in more Cologne (from where their name Paris-Brussels-Köln-Amsterdam).

The park exploited by Thalys International includes/understands 27 oars thus distributed:

Service

The principal stations served by Thalys are:

Moreover the Thalys network is inter-connected in France with the traditional network TGV. That makes it possible to propose seasonal connections towards cities like Avignon, Marseilles, and Bourg Saint-Maurice. The time of voyage from the Station of North (Paris) at the Station of the South (Brussels) is 1:22 for a distance of approximately 300 km. Between Paris and Brussels, the trains exceed Lille non-stop. Some services circulate in double unit of a PBA and a PBKA between Paris and Brussels, to be divided or combined with Brussels for the antennas towards Amsterdam and Cologne.

The connection Thalys Paris (Charles de Gaulle) - Brussels encouraged the company Air France to remove its air link and to hold in the place seats on board Thalys for its customers.

The service road of the stations Paris (Charles de Gaulle) and Marne-The-Valley was stopped on March 31st, 2007, so as to allow the restoration of the oars and the installation of the system of indication ERTMS.

The connection Paris (Charles de Gaulle) - Brussels remains assured by traditional TGV.

In 2007, installations of the station of Brussels-Midday made it possible to gain 3 minutes on the Paris-Brussels service road, making spend the journey time of 1:25 to 1:22.

In spring 2008, a direct connection Brussels Strasbourg in 3:20 should be born at the time of the French presidency of the European Union.

Outlines

At the end of 2008, Thalys will circulate on a new line at high speed between Antwerp and Amsterdam and Liege and the German border. Speed on the existing lines between Brussels and Antwerp and Brussels and Leuwen will be also increased. Moreover, the building work of the news Gare of Liege-Guillemins will still allow a profit of a few minutes because the entry and the exit of station will be done with 100km/h.

These improvements will make it possible to connect Amsterdam and Cologne in Brussels in 1:30 and Paris in 3:00 approximately.

Work is in hand on the section Liege - Aachen (LGV 3) with in particular construction - finished - larger tunnel of Belgium (6,5 km).

See too

Since 2007, the Thalys mark is represented in the network game Second Life in the shape of the virtual terminal Thalys Teleport Station.

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Sources

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