Thalys (French: [talis]) was a brand name used for high-speed train services between Paris Gare du Nord and both Amsterdam Centraal and German cities in the Rhein-Ruhr, including Aachen, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Essen and Dortmund, both via Brussels-South.

Thalys was created out of a political ambition formalised in October 1987 to establish a network of international high-speed railway services between the cities of Paris, Brussels, Cologne and Amsterdam.

The company procured a fleet of Alstom-built TGV trains to operate its services as they were viewed as the only existing rolling stock suitable to the task.

In February 2022, Thalys International was integrated into THI Factory,[3] which in turn was acquired by the holding company Eurostar Group during the following month.

[citation needed] In the following decade, interest in an international high-speed train service along a similar route was gaining traction amongst various governments.

[4] However, in 1991, the Dutch parliament initially rejected the project; continued discussions led to an agreement being reached with Belgium for a route via Breda instead of Roosendaal.

That same month, both the logo and brand of Thalys were also created; the word deliberately lacked any particular meaning, save for being pronounceable in the languages of all the countries served.

[4] It was decided to procure Alstom-built TGV trains, similar to those already used by SNCF on the French national railways, as these were the only suitable rolling stock available at the time.

Another key decision was to launch the service in advance of many of the planned high speed lines, being initially reliant upon slower conventional lines until these were eventually completed; the existing international services that used conventional rolling stock were deliberately withdrawn in preparation for the running of Thalys trains in early June 1996.

[6] Initially, Thalys services only operated four times per day to Amsterdam and Cologne, while a far greater volume were run between Paris and Belgium.

At the same time, service commenced to Cologne and Aachen in Germany, and Bruges, Charleroi, Ghent, Mons, Namur and Ostend in Belgium.

With its Thalys Soleil (French for 'Thalys Sun'), it started offering direct connections to Provence, initially to Valence, and extended to Avignon and Marseille in 2002.

These changes were promoted as making Thalys a truly independent company, reducing its interactions with both SNCF and SNCB; headquarters were established in Brussels, with a branch office in Paris.

[19] In March 2018, Thalys ceased all its operations from Lille-Europe, citing disappointing demand (despite lower-than-average ticket prices) and financial results.

The project was promoted as reducing costs and providing a more seamless experience to passengers via the use of a single ticketing system and loyalty program.

Journeys from Brussels (Brussels-South) to Paris (Gare du Nord) are normally 1 hour and 22 minutes, for a distance of approximately 300 kilometres (190 mi).

The peak service speed is 300 km/h (186 mph) while travelling a dedicated high-speed railway track, which is typically electrified at 25 kV AC by an overhead line.

The airline alliance SkyTeam also has a code-sharing agreement with Thalys for rail service connecting its hub Amsterdam Schiphol Airport with Antwerp-Centraal and Bruxelles Midi/Brussel Zuid.

Children onboard Thalys services must be accompanied and possess appropriate travel documents as required by the relevant national authorities pertaining to the journey being made.