Question about Thalys stop in Antwerp?

Question

My question is about the Thalys train station in Antwerp (Belgium). If you are looking online at the schedule and want to take the train from Antwerp to the Paris Nord station, which one would you use? There are two listed: Antwerpen Centraal and Antwerpen Centraal ABS. What is the difference between the two?

Any information anyone would have about this would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

I'm not sure what your budget is [how much inconvenience you are willing to put up with to save money], but one-way Thalys tickets are pretty expensive [82 Euros].

Last year, we took the same trip. However, we could not find any discounted one-way Thalys fares [only discounted round-trip fares], and did this as an alternative [it's worthwhile if you can get a Prem's discounted fare on the TGV train]

1

local train, Antwerp->Brussels Midi  

~€6, bought same day

2

TGV, Brussels Midi-> Paris CDG airport  

€30  sale price bought ahead of time on sncf.fr, ticket downloaded as .pdf file

3

RER A, Paris CDG airport->Sant Michel-Notre Dame [two stops past Gare du Nord, closer to our hotel] and we walked to our hotel from there

€8, bought same day

Savings vs. Thalys:

€38 [$57 ] each, €76 [$114 ] for two people

More, if you consider we didn't have to pay for the bus, metro or taxi from Gare du Nord to our hotel

The savings paid for all but €7 of our 4-day Paris Museum Passes

[€45 -€38 = €7], so we considered the inconvenience of getting on/off three trains, and about an extra hour for the journey, to be well worth it.

Answer 2

ABS = Any Belgium Station

You can either book a ticket to or from Antwerpen Centraal, means that is your start/final destination; or you can book the ticket from/to Antwerpen Centraal ABS, means your travel may start at/be continued to any local Belgium trainstation.

There is however, only one train station Antwerpen Centraal.