French Senior+ railcard

[Gyn_Paul]

Does anyone know if it is possible to buy online a UK - to UK rail ticket with a (French) Senior+ discount?

I did try to add St P. to Bedford & ret. to my La Souterraine - Londres ticket but - quite frankly - I lost the will to live somewhere around the middle of the second hour of battling with the lamentable SNCF site.

I know I'm hardly the first to discover that it is quite possible to book tickets on french trains using the DB or Belgian rail sites which -according to the SNCF site - don't exist. There is a Direct TGV service which runs from Limoges to Lille which I needed to use to get to Belgium, but the SNCF site insisted it didn't exist and I could only get to Lille via Paris. Useless piece of cyber-junk! It seems the most efficient way of planning a journey is to research it using foreign sites, then troll to the station, queue, queue a bit more, then debate your needs and findings with a booking clerk. France in the 21st century !

What rail sites do the rest of you use?

p

[NormanH]

http://www.seat61.com/France.htm

[Loiseau]

Not sure if I have quite understood the question, GP.

Do you mean can you book the bedford-London, London-Bedford bit of the journey via the SNCF website? Hmm, I very much doubt it. I would do that via www.thetrainline.com in time fr the tickets to come dropping into my letterbox before travel. (i always prefer them to post me the stuff, as if you collect from a machine, SO many bits of cardboard emerge to cover your journey and your payment that it's hard to be sure you have picked up all the right bits.)

Or do you mean can you get the same reduction on the UK part of the journey with your French Senior+ card as you would in France? I think that would be highly unlikely. It'd be like expecting to use your UK Senior Railcard on the French Railways...

I always seem to have a struggle with booking the French trains online. In the enc, after researching online, I usually go in person to a French station if in France, or to the French Rail shop on Piccadilly if at home (lucky me to livein London!)

Angela

[sid]

GP I use the trains only infrequently and have always used the voyages-sncf website. I've just tried it for Limoges to Lille(Europe) out of interest. Baffling if you are convinced about the direct service. It does give one option though via Poitiers instead of changing in Paris, that would be easier as you just change trains, you don't have to trek across the city! However over 6 hours seems a long journey time!

EDIT  When I now look at a rail map of France, there doesn't appear to be a line from Limoges to Poitiers; that could be an interesting journey... replacement bus perhaps? [:-))]

I've recently done Ruffec(16) to Lille-Europe and had to change in Poitiers (the first leg on TER train then TGV direct from Poitiers) and the journey took around 3 hours, which I thought was very fast and civilised.

How did you find the direct service in the first place?

EDIT again! I found the direct train on the RailEurope site.!! How strange! 08:06 and taking 5 hours!!  Is the train reserved for foreigners?? [blink]

ANOTHER EDIT (sorry!)  By changing the search criteria on the SNCF site so that early trains are included (07h00 onwards) the direct train (08h06) now comes up on the results.

[woolybanana]

The lady behind the glass at my nearest SNCF station is very helpful at rooting out cheap options for me to go to Belgium. And for my daughter she even managed to get first class travel for the price of second class.

From the Vendée, there is either an option to go via Paris or Lille but I think the Lille TGV bit is with Eurostar and not pro rata as cheap.

[sid]

Yes, Wooly, people around here say the same thing, that the office at Ruffec(our nearest mainline station) is very helpful too. My only problem is remembering to go during office hours when she's open, and oddly the station is not listed in the phonebook... I don't think they have a phoneline, at least not one connected to the national network.

Not helping very much with the original question though. [:$]

 

[NormanH]

Last time I travelled by train in the UK I was told that my French senior card wasn't valid outside France.

[Russethouse]

Yesterday I travelled by bus from Brest to Quimper, but the ticket was booked via SNCF .the man at seat 61 says that in France all you need is proof of age, not a special card, so I merrily checked the 60+ option and travelled for virtually half price.

Later the friend I am staying with said I should have had the equivalent of a Senior Rail card.......who is right?

( I guess the disheartening thing is that I obviously look my age as no one questioned it) :-(

[woolybanana]

I think that you obtain additional price reductions with the railcard, RH, though there are some from simply being over 60, so they are both right.

[Cendrillon]

This is correct