20,000 low-cost Thalys train fares on sale in France

The tickets are on sale online from today until November 18, or until they sell out.

A single Thalys journey from Ile-de-France to Belgium will cost €25; Germany €30; and the Netherlands €35; regardless of the departure and arrival stations used or the journey time.

The low-cost fares are available for journeys taking place between December 9 2019, and March 5 2020. Buyers must specify which service and at which time they want to travel to buy a ticket.

The fares are for “standard class” seats (the equivalent of “second class”), and represent a saving of €5 compared to the usual lowest prices for journeys to Belgium and Germany.

This price for a ticket to the Netherlands is actually the same as the usual lowest fare, but the sale means that there are more tickets available at this price than normal.

The low prices come with conditions attached: once purchased, the tickets are non-refundable, non-exchangeable, and cannot be modified, and their sale is dependent on availability on each train.

International Thalys services run from three train stations in Ile-de-France: Paris-Nord, Marne-la-Vallée, and Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle.

They run to Brussels, Anvers, and Liège in Belgium; to Rotterdam, Schiphol, and Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and to Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen), Cologne, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Essen, and Dortmund in Germany.

A Thalys train ticket - even at normal price - also offers its holder reductions at local attractions, galleries and museums in destination cities.

In 2018, Thalys trains carried 7.5 million passengers; a record for the service.