Buying French train tickets online

[jamesgilbert]

In the past I, and others on the forum, have often recommended Captain Train as a very straightforward way of buying train tickets in France, including booking bike spaces (which was not possible on the 'official' SNCF website).

As a result of their success, Captain Train has recently been bought by the Trainline and will be changing in September: https://blog.captaintrain.com/12625-becomes-trainline

This might be bad news, it will be interesting to see if they start applying the booking fees that the Trainline does in the UK.

[robgul]

Having been a frequent customer and great fan of Captain Train I read about the acquisition with disappointment - HOPEFULLY as the SNCF booking system and "tickets at station" pickup is so much more efficient (TGV seats all bookable and allocated, no walking on .... or sitting on the floor if you're pulling a dodgy publicity stunt like Corbyn) the Captain Train mechanism will stay pretty much as it is.

Rob

[andymiller]

Yes but they do say in that blog post:

Our site and our application will change name and colour, but soon you will see that Captain Train is just getting a mint green paint job. We have no plans to move a single pixel, it’s just a simple coat of paint, so that the appearance of Trainline services are the same on both sides of the Channel

(My emphasis).

OK I know that the history of takeovers is often that the company that does the taking over then screws things up, but hopefully the people running trainline will realise that they are taking over a successful and will faff about with the branding but leave the rest alone.

There's an email address at the end of their post if anyone fancies emailing them.

PS I'd also definitely go to Captain Trainline, but IIRC I think you can book bike spaces on the official SNCF site but you have to go to:

http://en.voyages-sncf.com/en/ (EU other languages)

and not

https://uk.voyages-sncf.com/en/

the dumbed down version of the website for the poor rosbifs.

[Mick F]

Having recently been to Marseille via Eurostar and TGV, we booked it all through Eurostar.

We are "Seniors" and paid £59 per person each way all the way from St Pancras to Marseille and back.
That was £236 all-in for the two of us.

Could we have got it cheaper?

[jamesgilbert]

@andymiller Yep, the SNCF travel agency website does now let you book bike spaces, but it wasn't the case when Captain Train first launched.

@Mick F Sounds very good value to me, and the advantage of booking it all through Eurostar rather than separate tickets is that you should be okay if, for example, the TGV was delayed and you missed the Eurostar back. Or maybe it was the direct London to Marseille train anyway?

[Mick F]

Outwards, it was from St Pancras to Lille Eurostar. It went on to Brussels I understand.
Then Lille to Marseille on TGV.

Home, it was Marseille to Paris Lyon on TGV ............. cross Paris on le Metro.
Then Paris Nord to St Pancras on Eurostar.

We had to pay for the Metro separately.

[robgul]

Outwards, it was from St Pancras to Lille Eurostar. It went on to Brussels I understand.
Then Lille to Marseille on TGV.

Home, it was Marseille to Paris Lyon on TGV ............. cross Paris on le Metro.
Then Paris Nord to St Pancras on Eurostar.

We had to pay for the Metro separately.

Depending how far ahead you are able to decide/book it could have been cheaper to take the direct (no changes) Eurostar London - Marseille service both ways. (it's also quicker) - and last time I looked, rather strangely, probably exchange rate related, it was a whisker cheaper to book Eurostar tickets through Captain Train??

Rob

[buryman]

We've used Loco2.com for French tickets but we have only used it for transport on walking hols so no bike booking.

[andymiller]

I've just got another email from Captain Trainline. The new site is:

https://www.trainline.eu/

not to be confused with

https://www.thetrainline.com (Trainline UK). "I book in advance. I am train" (I am train?)

... although clicking 'European rail tickets' on the Trainline UK site will take you to trainline.eu.

The apps have also changed their names:

Our Android and iOS apps have also received a new paint job, in order to adapt to Trainline’s colour palette and logo. Though the functionality remains exactly the same. In the App Store and in the Play Store we’re now called Trainline EU. This helps us distinguish ourselves from the British app, which is called Trainline UK (and is for train tickets in the U.K.).

The last bit of that is interesting as it suggests that Trainline UK may continue as a separate thing from Captain Trainline (aka Trainline EU), and the Trainline management will leave well alone. (We hope).

[jamesgilbert]

Yes, nothing's changed yet other than the website address and the colour scheme.

However, the last paragraph of their latest blog post says:

"In time, our website and apps will merge with the services of Trainline, to offer a single and comprehensive booking platform for all trains in Europe."

For me that means booking fees but maybe I'm being pessimistic...

[andymiller]

For me that means booking fees but maybe I'm being pessimistic...

I don't know how they get away with charging fees in the UK, but it seems hard to imagine how they could charge them in the rest of Europe, when they are trying to compete with DeutscheBahn, SNCF etc. In the UK it's sort of understandable why occasional train users, confused by the multiplicity of train operators, end up buying tickets on trainline, but elsewhere in Europe you're still looking at one, maybe two train companies. So I think Trainline will continue to segment the market (polite phrase for fleecing unwary British consumers while being more competitive in the rest of Europe) for as long as they can - even if the underlying system is the same. After all SNCF do the same thing with the UK version of its website..