I want to travel from Paris St Lazare to Bayeux on June 6 and return from Bayeux to St Lazare on June 8. Reservations are required for these trains. I have been successful in making reservations on all my other trains on the Eurail phone app, but for every train between Paris and Bayeux on these dates I receive the message, “No price results were found for this connection. It is possible that the train is fully booked for pass holders.” Amazingly, this same response is given for every Paris-Bayeux train, as many as 13 per day, on each of several dates; I can’t imagine that every single seat on dozens of trains is booked, so I suspect a systemic problem. Has anyone discovered an end-run around this problem, including not making a reservation at all? I know I can take slower regional trains on other dates, but this would greatly mess up my schedule. Please advise.
The trains you mentioned are regional trains. For these TER trains in Normandy, even SNCF (the operator) themselves are giving conflicting information, depending on where you look or ask:
According to this page, reservation is only needed on Friday/Saturday/Sunday and holidays on these KRONO/KRONO+ trains:
- Paris <> Caen <> Cherbourg
- Paris <> Trouville/Deauville
- Paris <> Argentan <> Granville
6 June is on Monday and 8 June is on Wednesday, so no reservations are needed. These TER reservations cannot be done (yet?) via Eurail and SNCF refuse to do pass reservations via the phone, so it's only possible at the station in France and possibly also at a ticket machine in France.
Thank you so much for your detailed and knowledgeable answer to my question. You have saved me a great deal of frustration in attempting to work this out myself. I am most grateful.
canNOT be done at automats of SNCF IN FR (though this may have changed since last autumn-just check). Or maybe only at local automats in Normandie. It was my first unknown stumbleblock last sept-going to Caen-then there were firm gates at St. Lazare, as there are now also at most TGV-stops. You can only open these with the code on the REServ.
As train left whithin 5 mins I just sneaked in with someone else-on board there were no questions at all about it. Apparently THIS REServation should even be free with a pass and only applies for trips to/fro Paris. Note that St Lazare is now more a giant shopping centre and the trains are well hidden, so take some extra time to find them!
Nice thing: brand new trains, there is now even a hole on the headrest before you to place fone in and to enjoy the free wifi!
canNOT be done at automats of SNCF IN FR (though this may have changed since last autumn-just check). Or maybe only at local automats in Normandie.
SNCF says: "Sur les bornes SNCF nationales (blanches)”. So there are different types of ticket machines and it could indeed be in Normandy only.
It was my first unknown stumbleblock last sept-going to Caen-then there were firm gates at St. Lazare, as there are now also at most TGV-stops. You can only open these with the code on the REServ.
Gates do not determine ticket validity. Since reservations are only required on some days, there must also be other ways to enter the platform. The newer pass covers (paper pass) say the bar code on the cover can also be used in France to open station gates. The mobile pass QR code ay also work (it did work for me in Milano Centrale).
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