train service l'Étoile du Nord. By the 1970s, the conventional service connecting the two cities had a journey time of around two hours and 30 minutes. In the following decade, interest in an international high-speed train service along a similar route was gaining traction amongst various governments. During October 1987, the political decision to create an network of high-speed services between the cities of Paris, Brussels, Cologne, and Amsterdam was made in Brussels. However, in 1991, the Dutch parliament initially rejected the project; continued discussions led to an agreement being reached with Belgium for a route via Breda instead of Roosendaal. The building of the HSL-Zuid high speed line in the Netherlands was finally approved in 1996. Meanwhile, Germany decided against the construction of a new railway between Aachen and Cologne, instead opting to renovate the existing track between Duren and Cologne, which resulted in a top speed of 250 kilometres per hour along this section. On 28 January 1993, SNCF, SNCB/NMBS, and (which became part of in 1994) signed an agreement to operate the axis on a joint basis. During January 1995, Westrail International was created by the French and Belgian national railways to operate the new international services. That same month, both the logo and brand of Thalys were also created; the word deliberately lacked any particular meaning, save for being pronounceable in the languages of all the countries served. It was decided to procure Alstom-built TGV trains, similar to those already used by SNCF on the French national railways, as these were the only suitable rolling stock available at the time. Another key decision was to launch the service in advance of many of the planned high speed lines, being initially reliant upon slower conventional lines until these were eventually completed; the existing international services that used conventional rolling stock were deliberately withdrawn in preparation for the running of Thalys trains in early June 1996. On 4 June 1996, the first Thalys-branded train departed Paris, this maiden journey took two hours and seven minutes to reach to Brussels, and four hours and 47 minutes to arrive in Amsterdam. Initially, Thalys services only operated four times per day between Amsterdam and Cologne, while a far greater volume were run between Paris and Belgium. While quite restricted early on, the number of Thalys services would be gradually expanded over time, as would the high speed network that supported it.