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SNCF Ends all International Ticket Sales

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Austriantrain

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OSDM has existed for a few years now. It's a standard, so you can't really say it starts.
Edit: there's no reason to wait for September if they're implementing OSDM. In Sweden, they've already gone live with it. For SNCF it sounds to me like they've missed their deadline for implementing whatever new system they're working on and now their old system has to go offline without having a new one in place yet.

Well, it wasn’t from a very reputable paper. They might have meant an updated version.
 

Starmill

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My understanding is that sncf recently sold Rail Europe.

Trainline now retails Westbahn and Ouigo services, which Rail Europe cannot. There may be a handful of other minor differences.
 

signed

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13 May 2024
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Paris, France
SNCF IT as a whole is absolutely abysmal, especially the customer-facing one (and even the agent one is very very bad, an agent litterally spent 15min to get me an Interrail passholder reservation while fighting with IT).

The puzzling thing is that trainline and SNCF seem to be very close to each other, like TL being the only other outlet that can sell discount cards, OUIGO retail when noone else can...

I wouldn't be surprised, especially after RailEurope sale that TL would be bought by SNCF sometimes soon, or at least something will happen.
 

TheSmiths82

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29 Jun 2023
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I try and avoid Trainline (I use it as a journey planner only) but I managed to buy my SNCF tickets for France and Spain on the SNCF website but I noticed that services involving RENEFE were no longer showing. This would explain it.
 

signed

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Paris, France
but I noticed that services involving RENEFE were no longer showing
I suspect this is absolutely not the reason.

The partnership between Renfe and SNCF (which used to operate the TGVs from France to Spain) fell apart nuclearly a ~2y ago after SNCF opened OUIGO España, which then lead to RENFE operating as open-access in France.

They're not in good terms at all and I would be surprised if something like that isn't intentional.
 

TheSmiths82

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I suspect this is absolutely not the reason.

The partnership between Renfe and SNCF (which used to operate the TGVs from France to Spain) fell apart nuclearly a ~2y ago after SNCF opened OUIGO España, which then lead to RENFE operating as open-access in France.

They're not in good terms at all and I would be surprised if something like that isn't intentional.

Could SNCF Réseau make things difficult for Renfe too? While legally I am sure they are separate entities (as per EU rules) but there does seem to be a conflict of interest there. I suppose they can't really do much because that would effect their own SNCF services too. Interestly at some of the routes I was looking at for Lyon Renfe were more expensive than SNCF but the cheaper SNCF tickets might have been their budget Ryan air style OUIGO services.
 

Austriantrain

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Could SNCF Réseau make things difficult for Renfe too? While legally I am sure they are separate entities (as per EU rules) but there does seem to be a conflict of interest there. I suppose they can't really do much because that would effect their own SNCF services too. Interestly at some of the routes I was looking at for Lyon Renfe were more expensive than SNCF but the cheaper SNCF tickets might have been their budget Ryan air style OUIGO services.

Well, Trenitalia was allowed to run on the holy grail LGV Sud-Est, so a precedent has been set. France will never be the easiest place to run open-access, but it is now an accepted practice; RENFE does of course now run OA services in France itself and there is no doubt in my mind that they will reach Paris once they have sorted their rolling stock situation.
 

U-Bahnfreund

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Germany
Likewise Saarbruecken to Forbach. Deutsche Bahn will only sell you an ICE ticket (at around €17 IIRC for a 9 minute trip). You CAN buy a ticket to Forbach at Saarbrucken Hbf, usually not from the machines, who try and sell you a bus ticket. Often you have to queue up behind someone planning a lengthy trip to the Nordseekuste to buy this ticket.
Not sure what you mean here, the DB Navigator offers me a fare on the RE train for €5.40
 

Gag Halfrunt

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23 Jul 2019
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606
Jon Worth has written a blog post.

SNCF is stopping sales of most international tickets – a decision rooted in incompetence, and communicated with malevolence
 

DeverseSam

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Reading West
Jon Worth has written a blog post.

Thank you. Not sure if I’m allowed to paste it here but there is a map on there which he says is done using MS Paint which is useful in seeing which destinations can now be booked. (Is MS Paint frowned on?!)
 

bspahh

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peteb

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As of today 19/5/24 SNCF are still selling tickets Paris to Brussels via its own App, so when does the no international ticket sales rule come into effect?
 

Gaelan

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St Andrews
As of today 19/5/24 SNCF are still selling tickets Paris to Brussels via its own App, so when does the no international ticket sales rule come into effect?
They are still selling tickets to stations served by direct TGV/Eurostar services from France - but you can no longer buy a ticket that involves a connecting train beyond Brussels.
 

Fragezeichnen

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14 Jun 2021
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Somewhere
Thank you. Not sure if I’m allowed to paste it here but there is a map on there which he says is done using MS Paint which is useful in seeing which destinations can now be booked. (Is MS Paint frowned on?!)

The map doesn't tell the full story. For instance, it claims Munich as a destination still bookable, however today you can book via any combination of trains e.g. TGV Paris - Stuttgart, ICE Stuttgart - Munich. As of Thursday the only bookable train will be the single daily Paris - Munich TGV.
 

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