Thalys Reviews 677

I took 5 Thalys trains in the last two months and honestly not once they were on time, they always had at least 25 mins of delay and it’s pretty annoying considering how overpriced the tickets are. I travel from Paris to Amsterdam and honestly the service isn’t worth the price, unfortunately it’s the only way to avoid the airplane, there is also a bus service which I think I will consider since it’s much cheaper, I don’t know if it would be reliable either though.

It was a good trip, the staff were kind and Samar was very nice, thank you very much !!

Uniformed guard threatened me with a 135 euro fine for not wearing a face mask, on a train between Brussels and Paris (3pm, 25th October). When I explained that I was drinking water, she objected and said that was not true. She had watched me from behind "playing on my computer".,,,,Really a bad approach to customers. Horrific bullying attitude. I was smartly dressed, not sitting near anyone, and quietly working on my laptop. I had done nothing to provoke. I was wearing my mask fully when not drinking water. Only explanation I can think of is that she wanted to feel important by inflicting discomfort on me. Really a terrible idea to tell train attendants they have some kind of right to inflict fines on people. Liberty is being dimmed by the day.

I had a very strange experience with Thalys. I tried to book a ticket from Rotterdam to Bourg st. Maurice but wasn't able to on the website. When I called I was told I could only book from Amsterdam or Antwerp. But the train stops at Rotterdam! No, I could not book a ticket from there. Because the cheaper tickets were going fast and I wanted to at least have tickets I booked from Antwerp. In the evening of the same day, it was possible to book tickets from Rotterdam via the website. Isn't that bizarre? And now they won't let me change my tickets. Do they just want to bully their customers?

They advertised with: book your tickets now. You can cancel untill 3 days before departure and get a full refund.
Due to corona we cancelled our tickets a week before our trip. Although we emailed around 10 times and we got promises that we would receive a refund within 4-6 weeks we still haven't received anything. It's 3 months later now and they stopped responding. It's bad service and even illegal.

When ttrain arrived they send me back and forth between 2 carriages because they claimed they didn't have space to put my bicycle, when eventually the main driver refused me because he said I was following his orders... His only duty is to get people on board safely and he is incapable bod doing just that. Such a bad experience. I did get q new ticket but had to wait for 2.5 hours, missing my appointments.

This was trying to get from Rotterdam CS to Paris.

Take the plane, much better.

Thalys Antwerp to Schiphol Amsterdam.
Very busy train with many holiday travellers. Then they decide to use one of the luggage compartments (which are to few in any case) as a “kitchen”.

The worst train ever. First off all my laptop was stolen and when I told the manager, she said "It's not my problem, go see the cops."And the worst thing was that my bag with the laptop inside was above me and I did see a random guy going in the train standing next to me for a while but I didn't think he would rob me. And, how did he even get in the train. Shouldn't there be a staff CHECKING your train tickets?? Some random people can just get on the train easily, rob from you and get off the train. What the hell? And that's not all. The thalys told everyone to get off the train due to technical problems SO half of the people got off and, 5 minutes later, the Thalys took off with the other half of the passengers. They didnt even take me to my destination! I had to walk 1h in the rain with 4 luggage and 2 dogs trying to find a way back home. I do NOT recommend AT ALL thalys.

Because of covid there is no catering. At all. No cafee, no water, nada. Hartless, not interested in the cliënt/ passengers. With a bit of fantasy they ould have done something...

This info is hardley to see when booking.

And please do something to make the toilets up- to- standard. It's not a campsite in the 1970-s, for goodness sake.

HORRIBLE

due to several train cancellations this morning, I accidentally took the Thalys train THA 9316 from Rotterdam at 8:20 to Antwerp.

When the ticket inspector came, I nicely and kindly told him that this is not my train, but that I took this train because the other lines were closed (at that time I didn't know that I need a ticket because the rules are different in Germany - I had a ticket from Deutsche Bahn)

BUT instead of listening to me and either saying 1) Miss, I'm sorry but you must pay for this train or 2) it's ok, you made a mistake, you know it for next time, the train manager started a big discussion, didn't listen to me, became disrespectful and condescending!!!! I felt like my father was yelling at me!!!
All he said was, "I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS TRAIN!!! YOU GOT ON THIS TRAIN WITHOUT ASKING ME?", "I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU SAY, LISTEN TO ME, I'LL TELL YOU HOW IT IS". “IF YOU DON’T STOP ILL MAKE YOU PAY!”
Terrible!

This is not how passengers should be treated! Anyone can make a mistake. Things could have been communicated in a friendly way. it's a shame to talk to others in such a disrespectful way.

This happened to me about a year and a half ago but I've been meaning to write this review for so long because the event that happened is typical of the type of scams these big companies do in order to make an extra buck.

I was a student then and had to go from Antwerp to Brussels to attend classes. I always bought the cheepest train tickets because I had no money back then. In Antwerp, often times, the trains change platforms at the last minute or are canceled very abruptly. After such a change a train arrived and I got on it. It seemed nicer than the usual trains I got on but I couldn't be sure if I could get on it or not with the ticket I had. As I was contemplating asking someone (trying to find an employee to ask) the doors closed and there I was with my foreign girlfriend on a Thalys train.

The ticket inspectors arrived after twenty minutes and said that our tickets were not valid. I told them that the change of trains had not been signaled on the screens at the station and that no announcement had been made to signal the change of trains arriving at the Antwerp station. They told me that in that case I should have asked a train employee before getting on it (we all knew you were only able to do so if the said train employee was near your wagon - in our case the train employee was at the other end of the train and it would take five minutes getting there). We were very sorry and my girlfriend started crying when she heard the amount of the fine we were getting. And since we weren't able to pay right away they said they were actually giving us an infraction together with the fine (which would be even larger than the initial fine).

This sad scene ended with the two ticket inspectors leaving us with more than 300€ of fine, oblivious to the fact that I was a student, that my girlfriend was a foreigner, that we had two valid tickets for another train. I just thought they were cruel.

Then as we headed towards the exit door of the wagon a little early we saw that there were three other (separate) people being fined (most likely for the same reason): regular people who try to live their lives honestly and get up to go to work on a daily basis. I then understood that the train inspectors were not cruel, this was a scheme. They profit from any problem that may occur at any station and act as if they cannot use common sense. We were all punished for the same technical problem and anybody could see this.

Thalys is and will remain a threat to western civilization. A company needs ethical values and robbing workers and students from their belongings just because the law empowers them to do so is clearly unethical. How those train inspectors can live with themselves is a mystery that I will probably never solve...

Wish I could give 0 stars.

I found out yesterday by chance that our train from Paris to Amsterdam for Jan 2nd has been cancelled. I never received any notification from you UNTIL TODAY (Dec. 14th). This is unacceptable in all circumstances but even more so at this time of the year when reorganising travel is IMPOSSIBLE. We take the train from Paris to Amsterdam as we need to take the ferry to be able to enter the UK with our dog. The cancellation 2 weeks before the trip, WITHOUT GIVING ANY ALTERNATIVE, means that we could not find any other mean to get back and we will have to cancel our entire trip.

Unfortunately for us, there are not many more options to get from Amsterdam to Paris. Next time, I will try the plane.

First of all, completely unsafe! My bag was stolen, there were no staff members around! And when I needed to report my stolen bag, there was no train manager! He just left! Also no one checks if the passengers are wearing face masks.

No flexibility even in extraordinary situations. Would advise to use another form of transport. Really disappointed at the service!

Paris-Brussels is a ripoff. Paris-Montpellier can often be bought for 20 or 30 euros. Thalys is ALWAYS expensive. Horrible result of the lack of competition. Can’t wait for competition on that line. and not from buses, but trains.

There are no social distancing measures on board. Staff was either ignorant or uninterested in any questions asked about this. The train is comfortable as always but many people were seated right next to each other, eg maybe 20 centimeters distance between you and the person next to you. I would not recommend travelling with the Thalys during this period.

There are no social distancing measures being taken onboard Thalys trains. Boarded at Brussels Midi heading to Amsterdam and train is packed, people sitting shoulder to shoulder. Very disappointing. Every other train company I have used in the last month has strict social distancing measures in place to ensure passengers are seated at least 1.5 metres apart. Very unfortunate that Thalys did not deem it necessary to also do this.

I had a ticket from paris to brussels and an hour before parture the train was suddenly cancelled and we had no further information about what to do. We then realized other people were trying to catch the train that was already leaving and the staff at the gate made sure we would have our seats assigned as soon as everybody else sat. So if we were not aware or didnt came a bit early we would have to wait hours for the next train, since ours was cancelled.

So after everybody sat there were no seats available in the economy and the man checking the tickets must be the most rude and awful worker i have ever seen. He kept smirking saying there was nothing he could do, that it was not his problem and that i could solve it online and when i asked if there was any seats available in premium class he laughed and left without responding and didnt answer back. just plain awful

I won't really mention the delays or the terrible wifi, but during pandemic times, one would expect to have some measures taken when travelling.

Thalys is still assigning seats next to other people without any safety measure. UNACCEPTABLE.