Going to France with an Interrail Pass

[varkman]

What are SNCF staff like with people getting on an Intercity service without a reservation? Not TGV!

Cheers for any help.

Richard

 

[CC 72100]

Not all Intercités services are 'reservation obligatoire' mind - whilst certain trains are (are they treated like the TGV services as a result?), a good proportion aren't. Think Le Havre, Cherbourg, Caen -> Paris line, as well as the old 'line 4' from Paris Est -> Belfort, which is worth a few trips, trust me

 

[Gordon]

.

Like all professional railwaymen, SNCF on board staff will generally invoke the rules - always politely in my experience. If a service is reservation obligatory you should obtain a reservation otherwise you could be fined. However as has already been said, only a few key non-TGV routes 'Intercites' are reservation obligatory.

That said:

The situation has been muddied since SNCF Intercites sector abolished the TEOZ brand which had been created a few years ago to be the 'quasi TGV' top link trains on the lines to France's main cities that were not up to that point served by TGV. At the time this equated to Paris - Strasbourg, Paris - Clermont Ferrand and Paris - Toulouse

Best way is to look at the timetable leaflets which are listed under each route. The list of routes is on this SNCF Intercites page:

http://www.intercites.sncf.com/reseau-intercites/carte-reseau-intercites-lunea-teoz


The timetable fiches now seem to be the only way to discover which Intercites trains are reservation obligatory

eg Paris - Limoges fiche horaire where you can see the main intercites services are marked with the reservation obligatory symbol

http://www.intercites.sncf.com/resources/LigneFiche/315/FichePdf.pdf

compare with the trains to Bourges/Montlucon where there is no symbol on the timetable:
http://www.intercites.sncf.com/resources/LigneFiche/311/FichePdf.pdf

or Paris - Cherbourg which is non reservation:

http://www.intercites.sncf.com/resources/LigneFiche/309/FichePdf.pdf

ps
The wikipedia blurb gives a decent explanation of what Teoz was, and is correct about them being irritating as reservation obligatory like TGV but without the speed of TGV. However it fails to note that former Teoz services are still reservation-obligatory


.

 

[varkman]

Adam/Gordon,

Thank you very much for all the information. Helps out a lot with my plan.

Cheers

Richard

 

[Ze Random One]

One of the easier ways to determine is to use the DB journey planner at http://www.bahn.de/i/view/GBR/en/index.shtml

Search for your journey
It will show a R in a circle symbol in the Products column where reservation is compulsory.

If you use the advanced search, excluding the ICE "means of transport" will also exclude TGVs (since they are equivalent product types).
Unfortunately DB don't recognise Intercités as being equivalent to IC/EC, so they are all classed as "D" (schnellzug, or fast train), as opposed to "NV" (Nahverkehr, or local train).

 

[dutchflyer]

Besides the routes mentioned by gordon, also the main southern line: Bordeaux-Toulouse-Montpellier-Marseille-(Nice) was formerly TEOZ and still RES-needed IC now.
The forum aimed at cheap interrailing is www.raildude.com, run by a German and Austrian. They have set up alternative non-RES connections for many populair routes. However, in FR these are mostly very sparse.

 

[Gordon]

Besides the routes mentioned by gordon, also the main southern line: Bordeaux-Toulouse-Montpellier-Marseille-(Nice) was formerly TEOZ and still RES-needed IC now.
. However, in FR these are mostly very sparse.

I had planned to double check all the routes but ran out of time yesterday, hence not mentioning the Grand Sud route.


for non res Marseille - Nice has alternatives to ex-Teoz trains.

In terms of non-res in general, the distances in FRance are of course very large, so many people are happy to do res journeys on the main longer routes simply to benefit from the shorter journey.

Paris - north eastern France is IMO one of the most difficult to do non-res (non-TGV) as trad services on the old line have not been maintained.

This is NOT the case on Paris - Lyon - Marseille, which can all be done on slower hauled trains via the old line - albeit at the 'cost' of the traditional length of journey.

 

[CC 72100]

Adam/Gordon,

Thank you very much for all the information. Helps out a lot with my plan.

Cheers

Richard

Hi Richard,

Also, you could take a look at the booklet about the Intercités services available on the SNCF Intercités website: http://www.intercites.sncf.com/

About half way through (if only the cover has changed compared to the paper version on my desk!), there are a few pages showing some example prices on example journeys, broken up into reservation obligatory and 'open to all' trains.

It effectively shows the lowest possible 'Prems' price (Effectively an Advance ticket) on around 30 popular journeys for each type of train.

This may help you to quickly identify if a route - or at least, certain trains on the route - are free from reservation.

 

[Gordon]

Hi Richard,

Also, you could take a look at the booklet about the Intercités services
About half way through there are a few pages showing some example prices on example journeys, broken up into reservation obligatory and 'open to all' trains.

It effectively shows the lowest possible 'Prems' price (Effectively an Advance ticket) on around 30 popular journeys for each type of train.

This may help you to quickly identify if a route - or at least, certain trains on the route - are free from reservation.

If you mean the booklet here:
http://83.169.83.154/resources/MediaManager/guide2014.pdf
, the map on page 7 actually shows clearly (well it would if the two colours used weren't almost the same shade!) which routes have res and non res.




.

 

[CC 72100]

If you mean the booklet here:
http://83.169.83.154/resources/MediaManager/guide2014.pdf
, the map on page 7 actually shows clearly (well it would if the two colours used weren't almost the same shade!) which routes have res and non res.
.

That's the one! Also the page

Prix sur 36 relations Intercités sans réservation obligatoire

(40-43)

may be of some use - essentially showing the same information but without that unsuccessful colour scheme!