France: Eurail/Interrail's problem child

  • 29 December 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 183 views

It has been many years now that France has limited Eurail/Interail access on TGVs. TGVs require a reservation. Unless you can plan way ahead--which defeats much of the beauty of the Eurail--it is often cheaper to buy tickets online than to use a pass. Not only do you have to get your reservation, too, which increases the cost of each individual trip, but the SNCF limits the number of Eurail-pass-holder seats quite a bit. As a result, I have  been caught more than once holding a pass but having to buy a regular internet ticket when I wanted to take a train 6 or 7 days out (not knowing when I would want to travel in advance).

This is exacerbated by the fact that France has, for over 10 years now, poured resources into money-making TGVs at the expense of slower regional trains. Sometimes it is impossible to avoid a TGV or at least extremely difficult to travel by train other than TGV or a night train (which requires also getting a couchette, another expense and you don’t get to see the countryside).  Marseille-Paris, for example.

Travel in countries further to the east also often requite a reservation, but they are much easier to obtain (Germany, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, etc.).

Are there any workarounds here? Any chance that Eurail will negotiate some new initiatives with the SNCF to make “spontaneous” travel in France more pass-friendly and therefore more affordable?


3 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Depending on the exact trip, there may be useful regional trains available, some of which also are quite long-distance. In the app's planner options, you can switch off trains that require a seat reservation, although you should still check this with the operator's website (the app is not too reliable because it doesn't get enough updates).

If you have questions about a particular journey, ask in this community.

Userlevel 7
Badge +5

SPAIN-RENFE is even worse-here you cannot in general use alternative slower trains!

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

SPAIN-RENFE is even worse-here you cannot in general use alternative slower trains!

It depends. But it's difficult to find out because RENFE do not send their complete timetable to the European Timetable Centre. If you're lucky, they send all long distance trains but at the moment they haven't even done that. E.g. there's currently only 1 train between Barcelona and Valencia (even when you as the DB planner) whereas there should be about 15 in each direction.

Reply