News

Exchange and refund of Thalys tickets in Germany from 9 June

From Sunday 9 June 2013, Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) will no longer be able to send out Thalys tickets by post. From this date too, it will no longer be possible to change or cancel Thalys tickets at Deutsche Bahn points of sale.

Customers wanting to change or cancel Thalys tickets (purchased via SNCB) are advised to call the SNCB Europe Contact Centre on Tel: 0900 552 0900 (30p/min), or from outside the UK on Tel: +32 (0)70 79 79 79 (€0.30/min).

For customers in Cologne, after sales assistance for Thalys tickets is also available at the Thalys Store&More, directly opposite the main entrance to Cologne Central Station (Köln Hauptbahnhof).

New: One single app for international train ticket purchase

For the first time, booking tickets for a range of high-speed European train services with just one app has just become a reality, thanks to SNCB Europe.

Ideal when on the move in Europe, the free SNCB Europe app means travellers can buy and receive tickets with a scannable barcode on a smartphone or tablet. Eurostar tickets to Paris, Brussels and Lille are bookable, as well as those for key Belgian, German and Dutch destinations served by Thalys, ICE and Fyra. Without having access to a computer, passengers on holiday or business now have the option to flex travel plans, any time and anywhere.

SNCB Europe's free app for iPhone and Android enables passengers to:  

• Purchase international, scannable mobile train tickets quickly and easily, for additional time-savings at check-in and en route
• Book Eurostar destinations Paris, Brussels, Lille and, when travelling in Europe, journeys on main Thalys, ICE and Fyra routes (Schiphol to Paris or Frankfurt to Brussels, for example)
• Receive and store mobile train tickets on a smartphone or tablet as a 2D barcode
• Manage all mobile bookings easily within the MyTickets function

• Access useful destination information (station details, weather forecast, restaurants etc)

• Obtain personalised advice from the SNCB Europe Call Centre via ‘click to call’ integration.

New “Train World” – not just a railway museum

Brussels’ future train museum was given the green flag on 14 September with the laying of the first stone of a modern exhibition hall. Due to open in 2014, “Train World” will be located within a complex incorporating Schaerbeek Station’s renovated buildings, which date back to 1887 and 1920. Suitably for a city that witnessed the opening of Continental Europe’s first railway line in 1835, visitors can expect to see the first Belgian locomotive. But this project harbours ambitions to go beyond being just a locomotive shed.

Belgian and European railway history will be portrayed (using resources from Belgian National Railway’s archives) and its impact on society and economic activities. As in the UK, it was the train that accelerated the development of communications and the use of a country-wide time zone, for instance. A scenography team led by François Schuiten (the Brussels born train enthusiast and comic book artist) aims to let visitors touch, feel, watch and totally immerse themselves in a vibrant railway spectacular via installations, displays, films, sound, special effects, artefacts, and unmissable real live railway engines.