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Buy Train Tickets France
Buying train tickets in France can be challenging for a variety of reasons. If you don't know how to buy your ticket, in the time it takes you to learn, you may miss your train.
buy train tickets france
France's SNCF railway network operates 15,000 departures daily carrying 10 million passengers to 3000 stations. The service offers a variety of trains, services, and fares: RER, Transilien, TGV, inOui, idTGV, TER, Intercité, Thalys, Eurostar, Ouigo.
This is best, if it's possible for you. No language barrier, no worry that your credit or debit card won't be accepted, no ticket-machine learning curve, no search for a ticket office with only minutes to catch your train.
SNCF train tickets go on sale three months in advance. Fares offered early in the three-month period can be substantially lower than those offered close to the travel date.
Download the SNCF Connect App to your smartphone and you'll have your e-tickets with QR codes right in the app along with complete train itineraries, alerts to changes/delays, and other useful information. You'll show your e-ticket on the app before boarding and/or while on the train.
Large urban stations and most city and large-town train stations have human ticket agents from whom you can purchase tickets with cash euros (notes/bills and coins), with chip credit cards and such smartphone payment apps.
At large stations, your train's track/platform will be announced 10 to 20 minutes before the scheduled departure time. At smaller and originating stations, you may be able to board up to 30 minutes in advance. In any case, be on the platform ready to board more than five minutes before departure time. The train doors may close a minute or two before departure time.
If you do not see computerized turnstiles, and if you have a paper ticket bought from an SNCF machine or agent and valid for any train, you must follow the older procedure of validating your ticket before entering the platform.
If the station does not have computerized turnstiles, if you don't have an Interrail Pass, and if you have a paper ticket bought from an SNCF machine or agent, look for the yellow compostage machines near the entrance to the train platforms. Insert your paper ticket into the machine (barcode/QR code end first). The composteur will read the barcode or QR code and thus your ticket will be validated. (On the larger paper tickets it may also print the date and time on the end of your ticket.)
If you bought your ticket for a particular train on a particular date and time, it is probably précomposté (pre-validated). Most tickets bought online, including those you have printed yourself, and many bought from ticket machines and ticket agents for specific trains, are pre-validated, especially tickets for discounted fares available only on that particular train. Read your ticket. If you see a specific train number, date and time, your ticket is pre-validated. You need do nothing else for validation, but you may have to scan its QR or barcode at a turnstile to enter the train platform.
If you have an open ticket on paper and you've neglected to validate your ticket before boarding and the train has departed, find the conductor (Chef de Bord), show him or her your ticket, and the conductor will validate it, saving you from legal and financial embarassment. Conductors usually begin their inspections at the rear of the train and work their way forward, so walk toward the rear of the train to find them.
After its merger with CaptainTrain in 2016, Trainline became the leading portal offering European train tickets. This means it has more data, experience, and resources to help ensure the best routes, and to make order out of the ensnared and often conflicting European train systems.
GoPili.com, GoPili.co.uk and GoPili.ca are English-language versions of the French travel portal KelBillet.com. The user interface is simple but a bit clunky, and just sends you back to SNCF Connect to actually purchase your tickets, with all of its associated problems.
A RER Ticket is known in Paris as a Billet Origine-Destination, a small paper coupon like train ticket for Paris and surrounding Ile-de-France region priced for the length of the trip, calculated from departure station to arrival station.
You can buy RER tickets from ticket windows and ticket vending machines (Billetterie Ile-de-France) at any Paris Metro station, at large train stations (such as Gare de Lyon, Gare du Nord), at RER train stations and Transilien train stations (suburban trains to destinations like Versailles & Fontainebleau).
At train stations there may be several types of ticket windows, one selling RER ticket / Billets Ile-de-France, and others selling tickets for the Grandes Lignes, tickets for TGV and other types of intercity trains. Grandes Lignes ticket windows cannot sell you billets Ile-de-France, so keep this in mind before queuing up to buy train tickets.
The greener way to go*The analysis of Eurostar versus air emissions has been calculated in an independent analysis by Paul Watkiss Associates Ltd in 2020, based on 2019 CO2e emissions. Comparison between Eurostar and aviation is made based on the kg of greenhouse gas emissions [CO2(e)] per passenger on the same one-way journey. The calculation is based on aviation CO2e emissions from the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) calculator, and train CO2e emissions calculated using Defra methodology for the UK, and the IEA (International Energy Agency) for France, Belgium and the Netherlands. More information on eurostar.com.
You need to activate your Eurail Pass within 11 months of the issue date. You can do this online using our free activation service at checkout, or once you've received your Pass at a European train station.
In the RER, as long as you remain within the city limits, tickets and prices are identical to the metro (RER stations also have their own ticket offices and machines). If you are travelling beyond the city limits, you need to ensure that you are in possession of a ticket or a pass which covers your whole journey up to your destination in the Ile-de-France region. If not, you will not be able to go through the automatic barriers on arrival and you may be liable to a fine. The RER ticket also covers your journey and any connections within Paris (zones 1 and 2), on your outward and return journeys.
On the buses, you use the same tickets as in the metro, with no limit of distance (including suburbs), except on the Balabus, Noctilien and routes 221, 297, 299, 350 and 351. The bus driver can sell single tickets, be sure to have the correct change.
These travel passes can be purchased in main metro and RER stations, in SNCF train stations in Ile-de-France and in Paris airports. Certain passes are also available at the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The SNCF will reimburse your ticket in case of a strike or long delays that force you to take a different train. If you get your ticket from Rail Europe or whatever, they will make you jump through hoops to get your money back.
TGV = Train à grande vitesse. This train can take you to your destination in France faster than an airplane, especially when you consider the time spent at the airport. You must book your TGV tickets in advance, they do sell out!
Thalys is a high speed train between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Cologne. With this train, you can get between Paris and Brussels in 1 h 22 minutes, making it extremely popular with business travelers.
Giverny is the bucolic and beautiful Claude Monet garden an hour away from Paris. A popular way to get to Giverny is by train, as explained in this episode: A Day Trip to Giverny from Paris, Episode 167
A seat reservation is mandatory on Thalys trains (see below on how to purchase tickets). For the cheapest tickets, book your tickets well in advance rather than on the day of travel. Tickets are usually available for purchase around three months before the day of travel.
Generally, most rail passes are still paper-based and require you to write the date of your travel before the first trip of each day. You then simply board the train. If you have made a seat reservation (remember this is mandatory for some trains), you need to find this seat and sit there for the duration of your train trip.
TGV Lyria has always striven to offer a service that combines convenience and speed and respects the environment.Incidentally, the environmental factor takes second place in your choice of train over other means of transport between France and Switzerland.
Trenitalia is the primary train operator in Italy and is owned by the Italian government. ItaliaRail is a private agency that sells Trenitalia tickets. Both companies sell online tickets to the general public.
We like to use the Trainline to book train tickets in France. Trainline shows all of the different types of trains and fares in one place at the same prices as SNCF, OUIGO and the like. Otherwise, when searching for train tickets from Paris to Bordeaux for example, you might have to jump around to various sites like SNCF and OUIGO. When looking for the cheapest Paris to Bordeaux TGV tickets, Trainline just makes it simple to find the best fare.
Children aged from infant to 3 years of age are free on all French trains, but only if they sit on your lap. If you want a seat for the child aged 0-3 years of age, there is usually a small and very reasonable fee for the seat of just a few Euros.
SNCF is the French National Railway company and is state-owned. It operates nearly all trains the trains in France, including the TGV and OUIGO high-speed trains. You can see a map of the French rail network with all the destinations served in France. 041b061a72