TGV | PEAK PERIOD - Problem of getting a reservation for a TGV train traveling with InterRail / Eurail


NEW: since 2011 you can purchase the TGV reservations online at our Raildude shop:
http://www.raildude.com/en/shop-buy-tra ... tions.html


In peak travel times, it is often a problem to get a seat reservation for a French TGV train.
The problem is: on the main and long routes, there are only TGV trains running. Sometimes you can use slower Regional trains, sometimes there is one normal train per day left, but in most cases a TGV is the only and best solution.



UPDATE: http://www.raildude.com/en/train-type-c ... ncf-tgv/42



Read the information of sidhamo2 bellow which should be the solution for you to get a seat even if no more seats are left for Rail Pass travelers.

RESERVATIONS ON TGV
The peak period price only applies if you are traveling on a part of high speed track. For example if you go from Lyon to Toulouse(High speed track from Lyon to Nimes)it will be 10€ or more. But if you only go from Nimes to Toulouse, on the same TGV, even though it's a "TGV pointe", your reservation will only be 3€ or even less.



GET A SEAT IN A TGV EVEN IF THERE ARE NO MORE LEFT FOR RAIL PASS TRAVELERS
THE MAIN TROUBLE for Interrail pass holders with the French train reservation system, is that half of the TGV don't even have seats for Interrail pass holders!
So, the only way, if the TGV you want to take has no seats for interrail (they may tell you at the counter:"there are no more seats available on this train for interrail passes") is to go in a French train station, to the machine that sells tickets: select you train and when it comes to selecting the type of client you are, press on "abonnement forfait 2e classe".
You will then get a reservation (1,50€ only) for the TGV you want. Then, 99% of contrôleurs will not make a fuss, because they know about the problem.If you happen to meet one of those 1% that do make a fuss, just tell them that the ticket machine doesn't deliver reservations for Interrail pass holders, therefore, this was the only solution left for you!
(Anyway, lack of reservation or having the wrong type is max 20€ fine)

That's very interesting and useful information, thank you!


Flo

This has been a real pain for me in the past.

You can also get the "Abot. Forfait 2e" over the web and pick it up at a SNCF train station. If you goto http://sncf.raildude.com (and on the relevant country site) you can select "More Criteria" in the booking section and then select "2nd class daily" in the box stating "your season ticket". This is a reservation only (1,50euro) - for use with 'season tickets' and not necessarily for interrail tickets, but I've never had problems. As pointed-out above even in the ticket inspector catches you out you can 'play the dumb tourist' which may get you off the hook or pay the 20euro fine (much less than the full fare in most cases).

I would always advise you to try and get the interrail reservation, but in my case, 2 times out of 3 these tickets are unavailable with no alternative routes. This is really not friendly of SNCF and makes me jealous of interrailers in the UK who don't need to buy any reservations and their being few, if not any, controls on the use of interrail tickets.

You can always try just boarding the TGV without a reservation. Ask the controleur on the platform first and this generally seems to work if the train isn't too full. There is a 'tarif a bord' and they seem to charge about €10-20 extra for this, so the best route is to get a reservation before boarding. The number of seats open to Interrail travel seems to be very, very low and the difficulty in obtaining reservations, particularly if buying outside France, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium (whose computer reservation systems seem to be able to cope with IR whereas others can't) is very, very high. This means that IR (unfortunately) is very hard to use in France and I think the official IR website should make this clear!

I've just made a reservation for a TGV for Nice Ville at the Paris St.Lazare station - 18 eur ! The attendant told me there is no difference in the price if I go at 9,45 (=peak) or 11,45 (not peak). On the ticket it says it's valid with IR, so i guess it must be the right thing. But 18 eur...

Hmm...I'm gonna check tomorrow at my station in Graz, Austria what they charge for a TGV reservation.

UPDATE (14.06.2010)
I found at the FAQ of the Corail Lunea website (the French night trains - which also belong to SNCF like the TGV trains) this information:

Q : Je possède un Pass Interrail, existe-t-il un supplément pour voyager à bord de Lunéa ?
R : Pour les possesseurs de Pass Interrail, un supplément forfaitaire est appliqué en fonction de la classe de confort choisie.
http://lunea.voyages-sncf.com/lunea/La_foire_aux_questions_lunea

So it seems that you do not need a special kind of InterRail reservation (at least for the CORAIL night trains), the normal "supplément forfaitaire" option should be fine as well - and it is the official way for Corail night trains.
I suppose it might be the case as well for TGV trains!?!?
If you want to buy it online, visit the website voyages-sncf.com and buy your ticket choosing the option "Abo Forfait 2e".

Peter

Hi there,
What kind of ticket vending machine actually sells these reservations "abonnement forfait 2e classe" for the whole country? I understand that not the one for Ile-de-France (parisbytrain.com/paris-train-ticket-machine/) because it only works for the area in and around Paris.
Thanks ahead!

Hi!

Usually there are two kinds of ticket machines at the SNCF stations:

- Blue ones which sell only tickets for regional services (TER branded)
- Yellow ones which sell also long distance tickets (Grandes Lignes)


Flo

Please tell somebody if i board a TGV at Bruxelles is this 18 euro stuff is still working?

I can only tell you this:

I was going Praha - Barcelona in July and due to some construction works in Germany I missed my booked TGV so I had to go via Basel and Geneve to Lyon to catch another TGV there. I had no reservation so I wanted to explain my situation to the conductor but she only told me to get on the train (to the bar carriage) and wait there.
Quite some time later (after Valence) she finally came to me and I got a "bulletin" which cost me 15€. Since I had no change and also nobody else of the train crew did I got away paying only 12€...

So, I think you can just hop on the train in Bruxelles and pay the "on-board tariff" - if it is worth it forth you. The train I went on from Lyon to Perpignan was quite full, I cant say if it was fully booked but there were maybe 3, 4 others who also didnt have a reservation.
In the end I eventually got a seat for half part of the journey - but be prepared that it might happen that you have to stand the whole time in the bar carriage if you hop onto a booked train.


Flo

THX Flo!

Is the trick with "abo forfait 2e" still possible (after the change of the reservation fees for the TGV last year)?

I travelled with two friends Bordeaux - Paris on a TGV at the end of August 2010 and had no problems showing our reservations for "abo forfait 2eme".


Flo

flow wrote:I travelled with two friends Bordeaux - Paris on a TGV at the end of August 2010 and had no problems showing our reservations for "abo forfait 2eme".


Flo

Thanks for the quick answer! A second question: is it on international TGV trains to for e.g. Germany possible to pay the 18euro fee on the train (if I don't get the reservation the normal way - because for 90% of the trains I've aksed for at a ÖBB train station where "sold out")?

I dont know that, sorry. Only got this kind of on-board reservation once on a domestic TGV, as you can read above.

For what date did you try to get your reservation, and from where to where do you want to go?

flow wrote:For what date did you try to get your reservation, and from where to where do you want to go?

I tried to get reservations for the TGV from Geneva to Lyon (departure 12.41 on the 12th February), for the TGV from Lyon to Rennes (departure 9.xx on the 13th February), for the TGV from Paris to Rennes (departure 12.05 on the 13th February) for the TGV from St. Malo to Paris (departure 06.05 on the 15th February) yesterday. After that I've changed again my plans and tried today to get a reservation for the TGV from Paris to Irun (departure 15.50 on the 16th February), but also "sold out". And so now I bought online a reservation for 1,50 Euro how it is here described. The only useful reservation I got at the ticket office in Dornbirn was for the TGV from Lyon to Paris (departure 7.30 on the 13th February) and a reservation for a TGV from Rennes to Paris (departure 6.35 on the 15th February). So I'll try on Monday, if I can get a reservation for a TGV on the 20th February from Paris to Stuttgart (departure 15.24), from Paris to Geneva (departure 15.04), from Paris to Lausanne (departure 15.58) or, if I can't get any reservation for one of those trains a reservation on a TGV from Paris to Strasbourg. And I'll also try if I can get at least the TGV reservation from Hendaye to Paris (departure 8.00 on the 20th February).

A bit off-topic:
My old new plan is now, to get to Lisbon by train (you've already answered my question for the night train in the drehscheibe-forum) with a 5 days in 10 global pass. My rout is the following(only citys mentioned, where I start or stay at least for 1 day): Bregenz-St. Etienne-Paris-Amsterdam(without Interrail from Paris to Amsterdam)-Paris-Lissabon-Leiria(also not with Interrail)-Coimbra(also not with Interrail)-Pampilhosa(so that the 7pm-rule gets "active")-Paris-Bregenz/Dornbirn.

Hi,

I was at the station here in Graz and they couldnt give me reservations for the trains mentioned either... However, I got a reservation for the Paris - Irun TGV last February without problems, also about two weeks in advance. It's hard to imagine that there arent any InterRail reservations available for a TGV midweek in mid-february...

I would recommend to go with the online reservations if you cant get a regular one at the counter. And if a conductor complains try to explain your situation - that you needed that train etc...

The prices increased a lot, huh? When I search for tickets for the summer on the way from Paris to Bordeaux it tells that I have to pay 40€

Hi!

The current official prices for an InterRail reservation for a TGV are:

- 6€ if bought beforehand; limited availability, depending on route, time and date
- 18€ bought on board; not limited; last summer I got one of these on a Lyon - Perpignan TGV and it was 15€ (paid only 12€ due to lack of change...)

The "unoffical" reservations as described here are still 1,50€, you probably made some kind of mistake in selecting the correct option on the website. I just checked for Paris - Bordeaux and was quoted 1,50€ for the "Abo Forfait 2eme" option.


Flo

Raildude isnt coming up with any trains for 19th June at 12:00 from lille to perpignan when i know they exist.....

Just a short answer, I'm in a hurry.

This is a "Province - Province" connection, for which reservations are very limited. Maybe they are sold out already, or the contingent is only available via SNCF.


Flo

On Raileurope they are offering them for £32 for 2 which seems pretty extorionate to me....

Anyone got any ideas on how to get them cheaper - there is still a month till the train leaves

Well, best would be to get them directly in France at a SNCF station. But that probably isnt an option since time will be too short to do so I guess..

RailEurope seems to often has rather expensive prices in regard of rail pass reservations.

I'd think about this option tgv-reservation-peak-period-t2344.html

We get to lille about 1/2 an hour before this train departs (having started in brussels) but this is the first station that we visit on our trip.....

That almost certainly will be too late I think (at least to get the regular 6€ reservation, the 18€ on board fare should be always available but it's expensive and without a guarantee for a seat.

The price Raileurope offers seems to be exactly that of the on board reservation...

Seriously, if you want to take this train, I think it is the best option to use a reservation such as described in the link above.

Which soloution are you referring to?

Sorry.....

tgv-reservation-peak-period-t2344.html

An online reservation at voyages-sncf.com for "Abo forfait 2eme".

Thank you - that is now booked. The only thing we need to get i think now is the night train from toulouse to geneva