Eurostar / TGV

[Gardian]

Some friends were with us for a few days last week.  They had booked a 'package' through Eurostar for 4 nights in Avignon (hotel), with travel via Lille on Eurostar / TGV.  After their hotel stay, they were to have 3 nights with us before their return.  Their planned return day was last Thursday: strike day!!

It was news to them when we picked them up, but we were able to establish from the SNCF website that there would be just one Lille service running that day.  We called Eurostar to ask for advice.  They said that Eurostar would unaffected and that if they had to get back that day (they didn't), to board the one TGV service and hope for seats.  Not their idea of fun, so they asked for the bookings to be switched to the following day.

No problem for the Eurostar leg, but apparently it couldn't be done for the TGV. I suspect that its because they're different operators and there was no tariff printed on their tickets.  The advice was to buy new TGV tickets online and claim a refund on their return.  This they did - €306 !!

They were lucky in a way - we knew of the problems and they were able to re-organise themselves using our phone and internet access.  Not so easy if they'd been 'on their own'.  Hope they get their refund.   

 

[andyh4]

Another appalling example of the lack of joined up system with the railways.

 

When airlines cross ticket they work very hard to resolve issues like this.   SNCF however seem incapable of organising any cross ticket support.

 

I had a similar lack of joined up service when a TGV arrived too late to make its 68 minute connection to Thalys in Bruxelles.  I can accept that any form of transport can be late on occasion, but the abandonment of the customers in Bruxelles to find their own onward transport was to be seen to be believed.