Night train from Paris to Barcelona

[TheSmiths82]

I am hoping to go away in May to France and Spain, although the stupid Eurostar prices mean I might have to get a Flixbus to Paris from London. There is even a direct coach from Manchester, but I am not sure I will be able to handle that distance on a Flixbus!

I was thinking of getting the night train down to Barcelona or Girona. In the old days I used to do this by getting the night train to Perpignan then getting a train into Spain, apart from the long wait in Perpignan for the connection it was an OK experience, although the train could feel a tad dodgy at times as it stopped at some of the more dubious cities in the south of France. It is no longer possible to get a direct train to Perpignan so I was thinking of getting a direct night train to Latour de Carol instead. My concern is this is a very rural stop and I might get stranded as there doesn't seem to be anyway of booking a ticket in advance from here to Barcelona and my own experience of Renefe's local services is they can be hit and miss once you get out of the outer Barcelona region.

Can anybody suggest an alternative way of getting the train from Paris to Barcelona (region) cheaply? The main problem is I work term time so I can only go away in the half term/summer holidays.

 

[StephenHunter]

Details on the Paris to Barcelona routes can be found here:

Trains from Paris to other European cities | Times, fares, tickets

A guide to train travel from Paris to other European cities, including Paris to Amsterdam, Paris to Prague, Paris to Barcelona, Paris to Brussels & Luxembourg, Paris to Vienna & Berlin, Paris to Budapest, Paris to Copenhagen, Stockholm & Oslo, Paris to Warsaw & Moscow.

www.seat61.com

 

[TheSmiths82]

Details on the Paris to Barcelona routes can be found here:

Trains from Paris to other European cities | Times, fares, tickets

A guide to train travel from Paris to other European cities, including Paris to Amsterdam, Paris to Prague, Paris to Barcelona, Paris to Brussels & Luxembourg, Paris to Vienna & Berlin, Paris to Budapest, Paris to Copenhagen, Stockholm & Oslo, Paris to Warsaw & Moscow.

www.seat61.com

That is just where I got my information from, but I've had a few mixed results from Seat61 in the past and I am a bit worried about being stranded in a little village. It just puts me off that I can't buy a ticket in advance to Barcelona itself.

 

[biko]

The night train to Perpignan and Cerbère is back, so you could use that and connect in Cerbère for a Rodalies train to Barcelona. Cerbère is very small and I found the station a bit dodgy but it is staffed all day and the village seemed nice from a distance

 

[James H]

We did Paris to Barcelona via Latour de Carol last September. I’d recommend it.

Sadly we had to come back via a different route as SNCF went on strike and cancelled our return Intercites de Nuit train.

The train from Latour de Carol to Barcelona is just an extended working of a suburban route. Travelling from Latour de Carol you have to buy your ticket on board from the conductor as there are no Spanish ticketing facilities on the French side of the border, and it’s an anomalous service that doesn’t work with app based ticketing etc.

 

[coupwotcoup]

Cerbere used to have large hotel above one of the platforms but looking on
Google Earth, it seems to have gone into disrepair - which is a shame.

 

[30907]

That is just where I got my information from, but I've had a few mixed results from Seat61 in the past and I am a bit worried about being stranded in a little village. It just puts me off that I can't buy a ticket in advance to Barcelona itself.

You will not have much competition for the seat of your choice on the R3 to Barcelona
I'm not sure how you would be stranded - unless there's a general strike in Catalonia - though I suppose a 3-hour wait if the sleeper is seriously late would be tedious.

 

[Nunners]

That is just where I got my information from, but I've had a few mixed results from Seat61 in the past and I am a bit worried about being stranded in a little village. It just puts me off that I can't buy a ticket in advance to Barcelona itself.

The sleeper has 45 mins scheduled stop in Toulouse so unless there is something seriously wrong on the line through the Pyranees it'll be fine. The guards on the R3 take card and cash payment.

 

[nwales58]

... I am a bit worried about being stranded in a little village. It just puts me off that I can't buy a ticket in advance to Barcelona itself.

Relax. Relax. Relax.

Like Blaenau Ffestiniog, visitors worry about not being able to buy a ticket ahead and book a seat, but you wouldn't because you know it's pay on board and no reserved seats.

You could download the Renfe Cercanias app (not the main one) and try to buy a ticket but a) it will probably say no as it often does and b) it gains you absolutely nothing at all.

Yes, if you miss the 1037 LTdC-Barclona you have 3 hours until the next one.

If I needed to be in Barcelona at a fixed time or had a lot of luggage or the weather is bad I would not go that way.

With a rucsac I would because worst case is you fill the time by wandering the 2-3 miles to Puigcerda which is a normal spanish (catalan) town with bars and so on. From Puigcerda there are coaches to Barcelona as well as the train. The track more or less follows the railway.

If you fancy an all day adventure and are really really lucky the metre gauge 3rd rail Petit Train might be running and it might even get you down to Villefranch and a connection of less than an hour to Perpignan and then along the coast.

So: if you're worried go another way. If you're happy taking time experiencing the wilds of Cerdagne along the way, do it.

 

[TheSmiths82]

Relax. Relax. Relax.

Like Blaenau Ffestiniog, visitors worry about not being able to buy a ticket ahead and book a seat, but you wouldn't because you know it's pay on board and no reserved seats.

You could download the Renfe Cercanias app (not the main one) and try to buy a ticket but a) it will probably say no as it often does and b) it gains you absolutely nothing at all.

Yes, if you miss the 1037 LTdC-Barclona you have 3 hours until the next one.

If I needed to be in Barcelona at a fixed time or had a lot of luggage or the weather is bad I would not go that way.

With a rucsac I would because worst case is you fill the time by wandering the 2-3 miles to Puigcerda which is a normal spanish (catalan) town with bars and so on. From Puigcerda there are coaches to Barcelona as well as the train. The track more or less follows the railway.

If you fancy an all day adventure and are really really lucky the metre gauge 3rd rail Petit Train might be running and it might even get you down to Villefranch and a connection of less than an hour to Perpignan and then along the coast.

So: if you're worried go another way. If you're happy taking time experiencing the wilds of Cerdagne along the way, do it.

Brilliant thanks, and I feel a bit more relaxed knowing there is a decent sized town near by if I do get stranded. I am quite familiar with the ('R') Rodales? trains but I know they can be a bit unreliable but usually not gone much further than Blanes on it (towards France).

I will look into all this a bit more this evening, but I am now thinking May half term might be cutting things a bit fine, and I only have 10 days off which isn't a huge amount of time for such long distance trip by rain. The issue with summer is hotels are more expensive and I suspect the Olympics might make travelling through France trickier.

 

[AdamWW]

We did Paris to Barcelona via Latour de Carol last September. I’d recommend it.

Sadly we had to come back via a different route as SNCF went on strike and cancelled our return Intercites de Nuit train.

The train from Latour de Carol to Barcelona is just an extended working of a suburban route. Travelling from Latour de Carol you have to buy your ticket on board from the conductor as there are no Spanish ticketing facilities on the French side of the border, and it’s an anomalous service that doesn’t work with app based ticketing etc.

I'd highly recommend the route (assuming the sleeper is running - I have a vague memory of suggestions that it might be suspended for a while due to engineering work).

I did the French side in the dark and it looked as if would have been rather scenic in the light. The Spanish side was certainly impressive, and a huge contrast to the scenery further south in Spain.

And you get to change trains at one of the very few stations anywhere with three track guages (and while I don't suppose the narrow gauge trains would run if not for the tourist market, they are at least run by the national rail company).

 

[James H]

Some pics of the scenery on the French side from last September

 

[AdamWW]

Some pics of the scenery on the French side from last September

I wish I'd been able to do that bit in the light!

 

[AlastairFraser]

I am hoping to go away in May to France and Spain, although the stupid Eurostar prices mean I might have to get a Flixbus to Paris from London. There is even a direct coach from Manchester, but I am not sure I will be able to handle that distance on a Flixbus!

I was thinking of getting the night train down to Barcelona or Girona. In the old days I used to do this by getting the night train to Perpignan then getting a train into Spain, apart from the long wait in Perpignan for the connection it was an OK experience, although the train could feel a tad dodgy at times as it stopped at some of the more dubious cities in the south of France. It is no longer possible to get a direct train to Perpignan so I was thinking of getting a direct night train to Latour de Carol instead. My concern is this is a very rural stop and I might get stranded as there doesn't seem to be anyway of booking a ticket in advance from here to Barcelona and my own experience of Renefe's local services is they can be hit and miss once you get out of the outer Barcelona region.

Can anybody suggest an alternative way of getting the train from Paris to Barcelona (region) cheaply? The main problem is I work term time so I can only go away in the half term/summer holidays.

Why not do the overnight Flixbus to Lille instead and do a Ouigo low cost TGV into Paris, so you only then have 6/7 hours on a coach. Then maybe pick up the sleeper from Paris Austerlitz to Latour de Carol and the Rodalies as others have suggested.

Lots of the Ouigos use Tourcoing in Lille, rather than Lille Europe/ Flanders, but that shouldn't be a huge issue as Tourcoing's
Gare is about 25 mins on the metro from Lille Europe (where the Flixbus drops off) and the Metro operates from 5am onwards, first Ouigo is at 6.02 to Charles De Gaulle/Marne-le-Vallee/Massy TGVs - all of which are a reasonable RER ride away from central Paris.

 

[dmncf]

If you're getting Flixbus across the Channel to Lille or Paris, I think you can look at each journey's intermediate stops to decipher if it uses the Dover ferry or the Channel Tunnel LeShuttle train. Personally, I would avoid the Dover ferry after the severe passport control delays at Port of Dover last Easter, when the Port gave lowest priority to coaches and my Flixbus had to give up and return to London due to driver hours limit being reached.

 

[peteb]

I've done both La Tour de Carol and Cerbère. The Tour de Carol route is very scenic indeed,
but if you do have concerns about being stranded, then take the train to Cerbère. It has cafes overlooking the harbour: there's worse places to while away a couple of hours.

Would a 4 day global inter-rail be worth considering?

 

[AlastairFraser]

If you're getting Flixbus across the Channel to Lille or Paris, I think you can look at each journey's intermediate stops to decipher if it uses the Dover ferry or the Channel Tunnel LeShuttle train. Personally, I would avoid the Dover ferry after the severe passport control delays at Port of Dover last Easter, when the Port gave lowest priority to coaches and my Flixbus had to give up and return to London due to driver hours limit being reached.

That's a fair point, although I must caution that the overnight coach uses Irish Ferries, and that's the best placed for doing Barcelona by train.
Probably small border queues at that time though, my friend did it last October coming to meet me in Brussels and it was fine.

 

[37201xoIM]

Worth saying perhaps that for the Cerbere / Port Bou alternative route, the RENFE Cercanias / Rodalies trains to Barcelona are pretty awful - really basic, austere EMUs (somewhere between Pacer and EN57 in passenger ambience!), only 3 cars so grossly overloaded to/from a long way out of Barcelona (at least mine was), unpunctual / unreliable, and driver-only operated so nobody to ask if there is a problem. Wildly unsuitable for a journey of ca. 3 hours.

To be fair, the Latour de Carol line is not dissimilar, just less crowded generally...

I was on the Barcelona - Cerbere line the other day, trying to get to Nimes, but ended up having to get off at Girona and pay extra to go on the AVE because the Rodalies had lost so much time it would not have made the connection into SNCF, so I would have had a 2-hour wait at the border. After the chaotic experiences at Barcelona Sants (a very user-unfriendly station even by RENFE standards - and I am used to Sants!), all in all a very awful experience!

 

[AdamWW]

To be fair, the Latour de Carol line is not dissimilar, just less crowded generally...

The scenery goes a long way to making up for its deficiencies.

Though I found boarding to head North a little stressful given that it was just one of frequent, similar, trains passing through and it would have been a bit awkward if I'd got on the wrong one given that the next one would have missed my connection onto the sleeper.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Unless it's the middle of winter there are worse places to be stranded for a few hours than Latour-de-Carol, though I'll readily admit there isn't much to do there!
When I did the route in 2018 there was an issue with the Spanish unit on the return journey, and I was worried I'd miss the connection with the sleeper... luckily the driver managed to get the unit working again!

As far as comfort is concerned, the units are used across the Rodalies system, but some have a more 'austere' interior. There seemed to be some thought given to allocating the units with nicer interiors (and less graffiti) to the longer-distance services, though it could have been more luck than judgement. Whilst they aren't sumptuous by any stretch, calling them awful is a bit of an exaggeration. They're certainly no worse than the refurbished 156s on the West Highland or the refurbished 158s on the Settle & Carlisle, other than the lack of tables.

 

[biko]

Worth saying perhaps that for the Cerbere / Port Bou alternative route, the RENFE Cercanias / Rodalies trains to Barcelona are pretty awful - really basic, austere EMUs (somewhere between Pacer and EN57 in passenger ambience!), only 3 cars so grossly overloaded to/from a long way out of Barcelona (at least mine was), unpunctual / unreliable, and driver-only operated so nobody to ask if there is a problem. Wildly unsuitable for a journey of ca. 3 hours.

To be fair, the Latour de Carol line is not dissimilar, just less crowded generally...

I was on the Barcelona - Cerbere line the other day, trying to get to Nimes, but ended up having to get off at Girona and pay extra to go on the AVE because the Rodalies had lost so much time it would not have made the connection into SNCF, so I would have had a 2-hour wait at the border. After the chaotic experiences at Barcelona Sants (a very user-unfriendly station even by RENFE standards - and I am used to Sants!), all in all a very awful experience!

The Rodalies trains are bad indeed, but there are also MD trains between Portbou and Barcelona which use way more comfortable stock and stop a lot less. I would advise to use the MD trains if possible. I believe they sort of alternate Rodalies and MD trains (both once every 2 hours).

 

[Nunners]

Unless it's the middle of winter there are worse places to be stranded for a few hours than Latour-de-Carol, though I'll readily admit there isn't much to do there!
When I did the route in 2018 there was an issue with the Spanish unit on the return journey, and I was worried I'd miss the connection with the sleeper... luckily the driver managed to get the unit working again!

As far as comfort is concerned, the units are used across the Rodalies system, but some have a more 'austere' interior. There seemed to be some thought given to allocating the units with nicer interiors (and less graffiti) to the longer-distance services, though it could have been more luck than judgement. Whilst they aren't sumptuous by any stretch, calling them awful is a bit of an exaggeration. They're certainly no worse than the refurbished 156s on the West Highland or the refurbished 158s on the Settle & Carlisle, other than the lack of tables.

I went a couple of weeks ago and the unit I went on had IET seats (Fainsa Sophia I think?)

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I went a couple of weeks ago and the unit I went on had IET seats (Fainsa Sophia I think?)

I've not got the various seat types memorised, so I've no idea what type the "comfier" seats were. The ones I referred to that looked less comfortable had hard plastic seats. I didn't have to put up with those but saw several units fitted with them also running R3 services pass through Sants before the one for Latour-de-Carol arrived from Llobregat.
The unit for my return journey was (IIRC) the front of a nine car formation when boarding at Sants, and dropped off one unit at Vic and another at Ripoll. The set for Vic had the plastic seats, the one for Ripoll had the nicer seats but lacked the ski-racks that the unit for Latour-de-Carol had. The Latour unit was also the only unit I saw during my trip that had no graffiti on it!

The seats looked quite old though, and as this was 2018 it's entirely possible that the fleet has been refurbished since then.

 

[reb0118]

I believe that there is more to do at Latour now. When I was last there there was a bar doing pizzas right outside the station.

I didn't fancy the connection at Latour station going north so I just walked from Puicerda into Latour-de-Carol itself and had a few beers before heading to the station.

It was a pleasant walk.

 

[endecotp]

I didn't fancy the connection at Latour station going north so I just walked from Puicerda into Latour-de-Carol itself and had a few beers before heading to the station.

It was a pleasant walk.

Yes, I also walked from Puicerda to Latpur-de-Carol, for some reason that I now forget. I recall a very pleasant friendly restaurant, which I think was on that route though I could be mistaken. (I’ve just had a look for it on Google Earth but can’t find anything. This was nearly 20 years ago!)

 

[37201xoIM]

The Rodalies trains are bad indeed, but there are also MD trains between Portbou and Barcelona which use way more comfortable stock and stop a lot less. I would advise to use the MD trains if possible. I believe they sort of alternate Rodalies and MD trains (both once every 2 hours).

That's a good point - though presumably the MD trains are compulsory res, which may be an issue if you are on Interrail for example.

 

[rvdborgt]

That's a good point - though presumably the MD trains are compulsory res, which may be an issue if you are on Interrail for example.

MD trains in Catalonia don't have compulsory reservations. The DB planner shows this correctly (although it calls them IR).

 

[biko]

MD trains in Catalonia don't have compulsory reservations. The DB planner shows this correctly (although it calls them IR).

Yes, indeed. Just to reassure anyone else reading this, I used this service with Interrail a few weeks ago and it wasn’t any problem at all. The only difficulty is passing the gate line, but eventually I was let through.

 

[rvdborgt]

Yes, indeed. Just to reassure anyone else reading this, I used this service with Interrail a few weeks ago and it wasn’t any problem at all. The only difficulty is passing the gate line, but eventually I was let through.

The mobile pass QR code is supposed to work on the barcode readers in Catalonia. It did work for us for a few days, but then it changed to "Server error". Next thing is to ask any staff present, next use the intercom ("Tenemos Interrail" actually worked once for us...), walk behind someone else and finally, if all else fails, climb over (we didn't need to resort to that fortunately).

 

[biko]

The mobile pass QR code is supposed to work on the barcode readers in Catalonia. It did work for us for a few days, but then it changed to "Server error". Next thing is to ask any staff present, next use the intercom ("Tenemos Interrail" actually worked once for us...), walk behind someone else and finally, if all else fails, climb over (we didn't need to resort to that fortunately).

Interesting, my QR code and the QR code of my travel companion both did not work in Barcelona. After a few tries, a gate line assistent let us through.