Thalys services between Brussels and Paris severely disrupted
Thalys is forced to cancel a host of planned trains between Brussels and Paris on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, the high-speed operator announced on Friday. Earlier that day, the 09:15 from Amsterdam to Paris had to be cancelled as well. Due to unexpected maintenance, Thalys has a shortage of train sets. Track works are also hindering the operator.
The number of cancelled services due to train maintenance amounts to 19 over the four-day-period. Due to track maintenance in the Netherlands, another 6 planned services are cancelled over the weekend.
Next week, strikes in Belgium and track maintenance work will also pose challenges to planned Thalys services, the company said. Infrastructure maintenance work will continue to affect services until the end of the year, particularly in Germany. From November 18 until December 10, travellers between Paris and Dusseldorf are encouraged to check how services are affected.
For those travellers affected by the shortages of rolling stock, Thalys is offering refund of a rebooking without extra costs.
Long, hot summer
Over the past summer, Thalys services between the Netherlands, Belgium and France were also plagued by “operational incidents”, with fewer services as a result. In July, a Thalys train ground to a halt just outside Gare du Nord in Paris, with travellers stuck inside amidst scorching temperatures for hours. A video of a passenger breaking a window went viral. Thalys later said that the problem was heat related and caused by a failed compressor.
A few days later, a train with 270 passengers on board came to a standstill due to a loss of power in the north of France. It reportedly took 2,5 hours before travellers were allowed to disembark the train.
This article was originally published on RailTech.com the organiser of RailTech Belgium.
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