The Thalys high-speed trains have been connecting West Germany with Brussels and Paris for more than 25 years. Now travelers have to get used to it: The Eurostar Group announced in Brussels on Tuesday that the “Thalys” brand name will disappear from autumn.
The trains will also operate under the name "Eurostar" from October.
The Eurostar Group has operated the high-speed trains between the European continent and London, which travel through the Channel Tunnel, since 1994.
Thalys has been offering connections between Paris and Brussels since 1995, as well as Cologne and Essen as well as other European cities such as Amsterdam.
The two companies merged in May last year.
The Eurostar name is better known than Thalys, said Eurostar Group CEO Gwendoline Cazenave.
She also presented the new joint logo: in the future, the trademark will be a star in an open circle.
At the presentation, the new logo flaunted on a purple background.
However, the dark red Thalys trains will retain their distinctive color, as Cazenave assured.
The merged company expects 30 million passengers by 2030.
That seems ambitious, because the number of users had collapsed due to the corona pandemic and Brexit.
Last year, Eurostar and Thalys together transported almost 15 million people, which is only half as many.
Before the health crisis, there were 19 million travelers in 2019.