On our way back from Paris to Antwerp we ‘lucked’ out on travelling on a newly refurbished Thalys train. The interior does indeed look much fresher and brighter than its predecessor.

They also expanded storage capabilities by adding a second smaller baggage rack for smaller items like coats to the side under the main baggage racks.

In Comfort and Premium the new seats offer a power plug and USB plug to power your devices.

The new seats also offer two fold-down tables. A small one to put your phone or tablet on and a large one in case you need more space. When folding down the big table. A built-in reading light lightens up.

The seats also have a coat hanger incorporated into the design now.

The seat itself is slimmer and harder than the previous seat. While it gives a few centimetres of extra leg space, I do miss the softness of the previous seat.

I also took a small look at standard class, which also looks brighter than the old one.

The bar is the place that got the biggest hit, it’s vastly reduced in size and isn’t a nice space to be in anymore. Two vending machines sell hot and cold drinks as well as some snacks. Other items you can order with the attendant that is just standing in the bar area as there is no counter anymore. My boyfriend tried to order something hot but this wasn’t possible as the attendant wasn’t able to heat anything up. Is this because the oven on this set was broken or they just haven’t got one anymore in the refurbished sets?

All in all the newly refurbished set looks more modern but there was already wear and tear showing. Hopefully with the merger with Eurostar they’ll elect to replace these sets in the coming years as they are getting old.