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I went to their website today to research a train trip fom Lyon to Paris on a Saturday afternoon in May. To start the search, you're presented with a map of the world toenter your country of residence. So when I clicked on the map of the US, it showed redirected me to Raileurope's website, which showed 3 TER trips, roughly 5 hours. When I clicked on the map of France, it showed additional TGV's, roughly 2 hours.
Does anyone know what accounts for the discrepency? Are Americans prohibited from booking TGV passage on the SNCF website?
Read more: http://www.frommers.com/community/forum.cfm/europe/france/question-sncf#ixzz1mfVK0LiA
Question about the SNCF
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It used to be very simple several years ago, but from what I've seen, SNCF has some sort of relationship with Rail Europe that's not good for Americans, or others, trying to get the best deal.
We do our reservations in French. You can use the following web page (in French) to start; http://www.voyages-sncf.com/
I just checked trains on 25 Feb, Lyon to Paris. There are several departures beginning with a TER at 21h40 on the 24th, duration 08h38. There are two TGVs (6604 & 6690) and one TER (17756) departing Lyon at 07h04 on the 25th. Other morning departures are at 07h36, 08h04 & 09h04
(www.voyages-sncf.com/billet-train/resultats?rfrr=interstitielRecherche_body_cliquerici&hid=YT7)
Raileurope is owned jointly by the SNCF and Swill Rail. They seem to relishing tricking those of us from the US into purchasing through their Raileurope website at fares which are significantly higher than what the rest of the world pays. Nothing precludes your purchasing from their main website www.voyages-sncf.com except that it is only available in French. You can use the multilingual site www.tgv-sncf.com but when using either site, if you indicate that you are from the USA, you will be bumped to Raileurope.
The solution: do not expose yourself as a resident of the US (no rule against it) and simply use the former website in French or the latter in English and select Antarctica or Afghanistan as you resident country. What you lose is the possibility of having tickets mailed to you meaning you will either print them at home (as with PREM or iDTGV tickets) or pick them up in France at either a SNCF boutique or rail station service window.
What you gain is access to the same fare structures that the rest of the world has access to.
Raileurope is owned jointly by the SNCF and Swill Rail.
That should be Swiss Rail.
I think Swill Rail fits better in this situation! Renfe also seems to have a hand in this venture.
You didn't use the regular SNCF website as it does not give you a map of the world on the homepage. You were at the TGV website, I imagine. I don't even know how someone gets to that website if they were searching for SNCF, you wouldn't find it first in a google search, it's about
SNCF has some sort of relationship with Rail Europe - well RE is largely owned by the SNCF with the Swiss Railways a minority stakeholder and Renfe, Spanish Railways has nothing to do with RailEurope.
Renfe however has entered into an agreement with RailEurope to offer fares exactly the same as on renfe.com on the RE site with $7 added onto each ticket as a service fee - a small price for many Americans to pay who are often totally frustrated trying to buy thru renfe.com as legions of Fodorites have complained about for years now.
RailEurope is a punching bag but not always for good reasons but if you say something enough folks will believe it. Not that on French tickets they may not offer the so-called PREMS at prices on www.voyages-sncf.com but on full fare fully flexible tickets they are often not much higher and can even be cheaper IME - so you have to qualify which kind of tickets are being sold.