Paying twice for a reservation?

The TGV from Bruxelles to France does have a special passholder tariff of 20 € 2nd class or 30 € 1st class that is (AFAIK) implemented just to stations in the Paris area (or before like Lille). If you’d like to go any further the system can’t connect two different types of reservations and it doesn’t work at all.

The only workarounds I see: 1. Ask at the station. 2. Avoid the TGV from Bruxelles to Lille. 

What is the price you get for Brussels - Lille ? It might be the price of a regular ticket.

There is a very limited passholder quota on TGVs out of Brussels. But from Lille no quota and the usual 10-20€ fares apply.

2 other options :

Buy a regular ticket for Brussels - Lille : yes it's annoying but it saves you time, if not money.

Travel via Kortrijk and board the TGV only in Lille. Coming from NL it's better to change trains in Antwerp rather than in Brussels.

I'll have a look with your travel date, let me check first.

I dont think this is the case. If I try a different date (for example the 23th of april) it does allow me to make a direct reservation from Bruxelles to Valence.

Well it’s weird… I can get the 20€ fare as far as Marne-la-Vallée (Disneyland) but afterwards it doesn’t work. Through RailEurope at least.

What does interrail.eu show when you try booking this exact connection ? (I can’t check as I won’t have a pass valid by that date.)

You’re right, it’s not even Paris, it’s just Lille where the cross-border tariff is implemented. I thought it is Paris but that seems just because Lille to Paris has too few passholder seat reservations to verify this and so you’ll normally always get a reservation for Paris, too.

The system will give you a reservation for stations further than Lille just if the cheapest passholder quota for a journey in France is still available. Otherwise the system can’t connect the two different types of reservations and it doesn’t work at all. Yourself you can do this by splitting the journey.

But it stays the same; the only workarounds I see: 1. Ask at the station. 2. Avoid the TGV from Bruxelles to Lille. 

Interrail.eu says the following for the exact same train number on the 27th of april.

For Brussels - Valence: “Prices unavailable” No price results were found. Pass holder reservations may be sold out for this connection, but there are other ways to check for available seats - more info below our timetable”.

For Brussels - Lille: Tickets available €32 1st Class, €22 2nd Class

For Brussels - Marne-la-Vallée: Tickets available €32 1st Class, €22 2nd Class

For Lille - Valence: Tickets available €22 1st Class, €22 2nd Class

Ah that’s interesting to know but a shame at the same time…

Where would you be coming from @Joost26 ? I guess the Breda - Antwerpen - Kortrijk - Lille route is your best option, even if it takes some time.

I'm not sure if it really works like that. A few years ago, I wanted a reservation on a TGV from Brussels to Champagne-Ardenne but there was no availability anymore. Lille to Champagne-Ardenne was still available at €10 though. In the end I bought a single ticket Brussels-Lille (€19) and a Forfait reservation Lille-Champagne-Ardenne (€1.50 - this doesn't work anymore).

As far as I know, the TGV fares from/to Brussels are a completely separate system with their own quota.

But your example is exactly the same? Even if there’s no passholder fare left from Bruxelles you’ll get a ticket from any station in France as long as the french tariff is available (now: until the train is completely sold out). But here it seems to be a bug anyway; the system just can’t manage the more expensive passholder fare in France.

To verify you need to search for a train where there’s no cheap passholder fare in France is available but a cross border passholder fare from Bruxelles. If you are bored… 😉

Maybe we should rather put our efforts towards convincing SNCF to drop the last remaining TGV pass holder quota…

I chose to travel via Paris. Not ideal since it has the transfer from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon, but I will manage. Thank you for helping out.

You’re welcome! You can get paper RER/métro tickets in the Eurostar (ex-Thalys) dining car to save time too :)