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Traintickets in France (self.france)

submitted 1 year ago by kozel to c/france

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Hi,
I'm going to travel through France at the end of July (cca. from Strasbourg to Perpignan) and I wonder if it's possible to get a lower price than what is calculated by sncf-connect.com.
Would going by lower-category trains pay of? (In such case, could you recommend me some points-in-middle, as the site wouldn't find a connection from Str. to Per. without TGV.)
Is it possible to buy regional tickets?

Thank you for any advice.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

If you have time (and want to see small/middle-sized french cities), you can try to use only regional train (TER). They are not very fast, but doesn't require reservation !

For instance, July 26th, you can make :

Strasbourg (6h21) -> Mulhouse (7h14)
Mulhouse (7h46) -> Besançon (8h59)
Besançon (9h14) -> Dijon (10h18)
Dijon (10h41) -> Lyon (12h43)
Lyon (13h20) -> Avignon (15h52)
Avignon (16h31) -> Perpignan (19h48)

Each of this travel would cost about 20€-30€. You will always be able to buy a ticket in the station (I don't recommend buying them in advance : they sometimes cost more online). If a train is late or you want to have more time somewhere, on those liaison each train is every 1h - 2h.

I'm only half joking... This could be a beautiful travel !

[–] kozel 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Do I need a place reservation for TERs? (I've found some article about introducing of reservations from 2020, but I cannot find the current state.) And how much crowded TERs usually are?

[–] DniMam 3 points 1 year ago

There is no place reservation on TER. You paid the ticket and have to find your place among the free one.

Bicycle are usualy free and limited to 6 per TER.

As stated above, avoid late friday and week-end.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

@kozel @remi_pan

Monday mornings and Friday evenings are crowded (because of students going home for the weekend). Otherwise it is quite OK.

If you plan any sequence of trips in TERs for more than ~60€ ask if there are regional cards. In my region the card is 30€ and lowers the price of tickets by up to 50% for any TER or IC train departing from my region, so I can do Pau -> Niort for around 40€ on a good day instead of +80€

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

The general rule is you don't need reservation on TER. It might be possible to have a reservation, but in many trains this is not even doable (seats are not numbered).

The crowd in trains depends mainly on the travel and time of the day: those trains are mainly used by people commuting to work, students, people going to see their familly... I would say that you will usually find a seat.