TER trains France

[Richard Fairhurst]

loco2.com will find a TER journey if you force-feed it the relevant via points (e.g. Boulogne-Tintellerie for Calais-Paris), though it defaults to TGV.

[Mr.Benton]

how about this site http://www.sncf.com/fr/trains/ter

[Ivor Tingting]

Hi Ivor,

I would love to know if you manage this as I am keen to try this route.
From Calais I think you can get the TER to Reims and then south avoiding Paris.

I have the route information I just want to know how much it will cost? Can't believe the French make it so hard to find out.

[Winfried]

Is it possible to pre-book tickets for TER trains in France? I have tried but the SNCF site inevitably only wants to give journeys for the TGV which I don't want. I plan to get TER trains all the way from Calais to Grenoble and back taking my bike of course. Deutsche Bahn do a most useful journey planner so there are TER trains available and the journey can be done in a full day, but you can't book tickets on the DB site.

As you've seen, the SNCF site will only display TGVs if they're available for that trip, a simple way to force customers to pay a premium even if they don't mind taking a slower route. https://calendar.voyages-sncf.com/?lang=en

However, CFF (the Swiss rail company; Hits the same database as DB and OBB) gives the opportunity to ignore high-speed routes, and just use the IC (Intercités) or TER (Train express régional) routes.

To go from Calais to Grenoble, there doesn't to be any realistic way to go from Lille to Lyon on non-TGV trains without spending the whole day:

1. https://www.sbb.ch/en/
2. > Advanced Search > Uncheck "ICE/TGV/RJ"

Trip takes 12 - 20hrs, and anywhere between 3 and 9 changes!Even coaches can even be a bit faster

Calais - Lille by TER : 30mn-1h25mns, €15.50
Lille - Lyon by Flixbus : 10h20mns, €40
Lyon - Grenoble by TER: 1h24mns, €22.50

That's why I bought a folding bike, so I know I'll never be stuck with trains, coaches, or even car-shares.

"High Speed Trains are Killing the European Railway Network"
http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2013/12/ ... twork.html

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Edit:

FWIW:
1. The FR version of the SNCF site offers a Via field, which is a clever work-around to ride non-TGV trains (IC, TER):


2. The UK version of the SNCF site, OTOH, doesn't support the Via field, and neither does TrainLine (ex-CapitaineTrain/CaptainTrain) at this point

3. Here's the PDF of the Intercités network:
http://medias.sncf.com/sncfcom/pdf/cart ... rcites.pdf

Mon 29 May 2017
> Calais-Ville - Gare du Nord (Paris) via Amiens

05h19 CALAIS FRETHUN TER 48839 07h13 AMIENS
07h21 AMIENS INTERCITÉS 12006 08h35 PARIS NORD

> Gare de Bercy (Paris) - Lyon Part-Dieu via Tonnerre

13h39 PARIS BERCY TER 17761 18h44 LYON PART DIEU

> Lyon - Grenoble (make sure you emptied the Via field)

19h14 LYON PART DIEU 20h38 GRENOBLE

Since most people ride TGVs between Lille-Paris-Lyon anyway, it's not a major risk to just show up and buy tickets on the spot, but prices will be higher for IC routes (TER are mostly/only fixed price.)