hotelmedicis
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Thanks for the advance notice. I will start looking at bookings for the end of April.Hello all,
The French Railways (SNCF) has purchased new high-speed (TGV) trains capable of 320 km/h (200 mph) as opposed to the current trains (300 km/h or 186 mph) thus reducing the time from Paris to Bordeaux from 3 hours 14 minutes to 2 hours 4 minutes. The current fastest time to Bayonne from Paris on the TGV is 5 hours and 10 minutes. This time will be reduced to 3 hours and 47 minutes with an arrival in Hendaye in 4 hours 30 minutes. South of Bordeaux the railway line is not high-speed and consequently the TGV travels at a much slower pace.
Bookings can be made six months in advance on the SNCF website and the new times will be shown as the new TGV trains are gradually put into service.
You should also bear in mind that all other non-TGV French rail timetables are changed only once a year from something like the second week of December - and that Eurostar trains from the UK to France can typically be booked 90 days or so in advance - so six months might be too optimistic (particularly on a new service)
Hola - Just a note about advanced bookings. I have tried to book a seat from Paris to Bayonne for late April. The SNCF direct website is still telling me that bookings for this time-frame are still not available. They did offer the use of their registration facility (journey and date/time/email) and will let me know when the bookings open. So the 6 months advance booking function is not operating (at this time). But thanks @hotelmedicis. Cheers
I have just been on to one of the various Eurorail Train booking sights - but was not successful. So have just (carefully) reread the original post . It appears that I am still outside of the 6 months window. DAH!!!
I checked the SNCF website and it seems that there are several days in April when booking tickets is not possible.
April - Probably around Easter?
I checked the SNCF website and it seems that there are several days in April when booking tickets is not possible. However, many days are and in fact I'm able to book tickets right through June and up until 1 July but not after that date. If you choose "my dates are flexible" it should give you an overview of the entire month and then you can flip from month to month and see which days are available. Unfortunately, it looks like bookings on many days in April are not possible for whatever reason. I will have a look and see what's up. Let me know if you are having trouble, send me a direct message and I can try to help you sort it out. But in any event, you can book six months in advance on the SNCF rail network. This is standard in France unlike other rail services in other countries or private enterprises.
The U.K version of the Voyages SNCF states that tix can be purchased three months in advance; six months en advance for the Eurostar only (Belgium etc.).
Also the idtgv only offers tix from/for certain destinations; doesn't seem to include CDG/Roissy airport, for one.
You cannot get a reliable and complete schedule from SNCF more than 90 days in advance. Sure, the schedule may be populated by some trains and you may be able to purchase tickets for those routes ... but, if you want to avoid frustration ... wait for the 90 day window.
This is incorrect. On the French and European versions of the Voyages SNCF website complete schedules are available six months in advance. The Paris - Hendaye line is undergoing a major overhaul and many trains are not available. Some services have been canceled completely. A more complete population of trains on the website does not occur the closer one gets to the departure date.
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