Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Amsterdam to Paris- High Spd. Train

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Mezzo fare for two from Paris to Ams departing May 2nd and Returning May 3rd is $316us on thalys.com. Smilys fare on raileurope.com is $203us with shipping and handling. I like the feature of printing your ticket online at thalys.com however raileurope has them beat with the price.

Robespierre's Parisian friend is suffering from a severe case of exaggeration. Perhaps a mild case.

For five years, I used the Belgian train system to go all over the country and also to commute to a job. I found the trains for the most part quite reliable (reliability near ZERO? Oh come on. What rubbish. Another way of saying your anecdotal evidence disagrees with his.

For crying out loud, that Parisian ought to try commuting in the UK! I don't follow. Exactly what does that have to do with Belgian trains?

And the Thalys has not been running for 32 years, of course. No one said it has. Why do you mention it?

My husband commutes between London and Brussels every week and takes a local train to Brussels Midi. The trains he takes are more than 90% on time. He's lucky to be on a well-managed route.

This seems the cheapest: using Budget Europe, last week I purchased Smilys fare Paris-Amsterdam in June for $82/adult plus $15 handling fee = $179 for two. See post above for phone numbers.

I booked 2 Smilys Paris-Amsterdam for April directly through Thalys. With the exchange posted to my MC, it was just under $175.

Just prior to ordering through Thalys, I tried to book the same routes through raileurope. They offered a comparable rate but then notified me that Smilys tickets for those routes were not available. What they offered as the 'next best' availabilty in tickets was much higher in cost.

"And the Thalys has not been running for 32 years, of course. No one said it has. Why do you mention it?"

Because his pre-Thalys commuting experience is COMPLETELY irrelevant. The Thalys is virtually the only train you can take now between Brussels and Paris, except for the occasional "milk train." Some of the TGVs may stop in Paris as well, but the default train is the Thalys.

Show us ONE shred of evidence that the Thalys has an ontime record of anything CLOSE to "near zero." In fact, if you had checked at all into your friend's wild assertion before posting here, you would have seen how off base he was.

Thalys trains had a 2004 ontime rate of 85.6% (% of trains on-time or less than 5 minutes late). Source: The Commission for Integrated Transport, also USAToday and Business Week. FYI, Eurostar ontime rates were 81%.

What math class did your friend take that teaches 85% reliability equals "near zero" ?

Your friend's case of exaggeration isn't mild, it's closer to terminal! He's also proven himself to be inaccurate--"no high speed service" in Belgium. Wrong. There is no "anecodotal" slant on that point. He is just plain wrong.

This unnamed anonymous friend of an anonymous poster is clearly talking through his hat. A 2004 survey found overall, more than 85% of customers were satisfied with Thalys. My anecdotal experience tallies more with the collected data than your friend's ever will.

When I commuted from Brussels to the burbs to work at a pharma company, I went by regular Belgian rail. I had to be at work by 9 am. Mass transit was reliable enough to get me--and many of my co-workers--there on time every day.

a note about advance purchase of Thalys tickets -- once we got stuck in SMOKING, Paris-Amsterdam, because we waited too late - -for second class seats-- if we'd had a clue how bad it would be, we'd have paid the 1st class difference 10 times over...

Peregryn, you're so right, weren't those smoking cars positively TOXIC? Just walking through them used to make my chest hurt, I can't imagine being stuck in one from Amsterdam to Paris! But you can breathe easy, all Thalys passenger cars are now nonsmoking. Although I think you can still smoke in the bar/cafe car.

93.7% of statistics are made up on the spot.

right now if you travel thru Aug 28 it's significantly cheaper to buy your Thalys tickets thru RailEurope than for pick up in Europe (actually on www.thalys.com site you can print out your own ticket) but due to RailEurope's 50% off full price Thalys tickets currently you'll save lots by buying here:
Brussels-Paris sale price 2nd class $45; 1st class, meal and wine included at your seat, $70 one way
prices on www.thalys.com
1st class one way 112 euros or about $145! 2nd class 71.50 euros or about $95 - RailEurope does charge a $15 fee per order for mandatory reservations.

If anyone can find a cheaper fare on www.thalys.com that i'm missing let me know. similar savings on Amsterdam-Brussels-Paris route or Paris-Cologne. Plus with the ABS All Belgian Station fare you can take a free connection train (with RE tickets, this fare costs a few extra euros on www.thalys.com from the day before or until the day after your international Thalys arrival in Belgium.
The Thalys youth fare (under 26) at thalys.com is 39 euros or about $50 - RailEurope's is $45 (no sale price, constant fare; similarly senior fare (60 and over of 54 euros or $70 is more than RE's $59 regular senior fare.
So the advice that it's cheaper to buy Thalys tickets in Euros is not true as of now - even without the 50% off sale RE's corresponding fares are about $5 cheaper than those on thalys.com.
For the best service on Thalys tickets i always recommend BETS in the US - they are experts and don't charge RE's $15 mailing fee (800-441-9413) - i've dealt with them for years - they're a RailEurope agent.