I%26#39;ve travelled down to Provence by train several times, but is it my imagination or is the Eurostar web booking system getting more and more Byzantine?
I want to go to Avignon from London, changing at Lille.
Problem 1: the only Avignon services shown are the direct Saturday ones. Although there must be many trains connecting with trains to Avignon at Lille, these are not shown.
Problem 2: The cheapest fare shown for a ticket three months away is £169 single. I usually get about £109 return. Why are only expensive tickets shown? Am I simply too late?
Problem 3: very few trains changing at Lille are shown at all. I certainly don%26#39;t want to change in Paris.
What is going on?
Has anyone any experience of buying a return Eurostar ticket to Lille and then buying a TGV ticket from, say Lille to Avignon? Does this work? I%26#39;m completely confused because each time I book Eurostar/TGV down to the south of France there seem to be fewer trains.
Are the companies deliberately trying to route everyone via Paris, which means lugging luggage between stations?
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Try this site and change country where tickets are to be delivered to %26#39;Great Britain%26#39; - they mail tickets to UK home addresses within a couple of days of booking and there are no postage charges: http://www.tgv-europe.com/en/home/
I just checked random dates outward Wed Oct 15, return Wed Oct 22 and was online quote was 161 euros for round trip changing in each case at Lille Europe. The outward trip would be around 20 euros cheaper by changing in Paris as %26#39;Prems%26#39; (lowest priced tickets on SNCF) were still available.
If you are trying to book 3 months ahead remember that tickets on SNCF domestic routes (such as Lille / Avignon) are only released 89 days in advance. I suspect that%26#39;s why only the higher price tickets are appearing.
Another option is to book the Eurostar tickets early and SNCF domestic tickets once within 89 days of travel (if you are staying for more than a few days you might need to book outward and return trips on SNCF separately to obtain the Prems). You can readily check possible connections by looking at equivalent day of the week a month or so earlier than travel as timetable changes little (except on or about Dec 13). SNCF and Eurostar work closely together and should readily validate tickets for new onward connection in the event of a delay - even with separate tickets.
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%26lt;Has anyone any experience of buying a return Eurostar ticket to Lille and then buying a TGV ticket from, say Lille to Avignon? Does this work?%26gt;
Not to Lille but I%26#39;ve bought Eurostar tickets to Paris and SNCF tickets to both Basel and Zurich several times and it%26#39;s worked fine every time. The same applies for my next trip - I%26#39;ve bought separate tickets for Eurostar then Paris / Stuttgart. Note however that the routes I%26#39;m using don%26#39;t have option of a connection in Lille but the connection in Paris is much easier vs onward connections for Provence - Gare Du Nord to Gare D%26#39;Est (for Strasbourg, Switzerland etc) is only around a 10 minute walk.
I%26#39;ve done the transfer to Gare De Lyon and there%26#39;s a direct RER service with just 2 stops....but the walks at either end are longer than their equivalent on the London Underground.
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yes, my problem is I want to avoid having to change stations in Paris - I don%26#39;t care if it costs me a little bit more to change in Lille. I do get the impression that customers are being directed towards changing in Paris for undisclosed reasons! Maybe the Lille line is very busy. But in Lille you could arrive with five minutes to spare and make your connection, in Paris you%26#39;d need half an hour.
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Have taken this up with Eurostar and their reply is that if I want to change at Lille I need to phone them. For which I will pay a £5 surcharge!!!
Would someone like to suggest what%26#39;s going on in their little heads?
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You can get around this problem by booking the whole trip with TGV Europe which I linked in 1st reply. Select %26#39;More Criteria%26#39; and enter %26#39;Lille Europe%26#39; in the %26#39;Via%26#39; panel. Also change default country (France) for receiving tickets to %26#39;Great Britain%26#39; otherwise you%26#39;ll be re-directed to the SNCF French Language site.
I tried the above for a random date in September and only options to connect in Lille displayed i.e. there were no options shown to change in Paris. Fares were as low as E74 one way.
The above avoids Eurostar%26#39;s telephone booking surcharge to avoid routing via Paris.
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