jengoestofrance

Hello,

I know that there have been past posts about bikes on trains, but they're all quite old so I decided to make another post to find out the recent information.

I will be travelling from Pari to Provence and will need to transport my bike. It will be in a bike bag. Can I still take advantage of a PREM type fare? Are bikes permitted on all trains? Do you need to have reservations?

We'll be coming back to Paris from Provence (maybe Avignon) and will have our bikes with us again.

Finally, we'll be in Paris for a few days - any advice on how to get a bike from our hotel to the train station? I know the shuttle companies will take you from CDG to your hotel, will they also do shuttles from hotel to train?

Thanks a lot!

StCirq

Do you read French? http://www.velo.sncf.com/

Not all trains allow bicycles. You must have a reservation if you are traveling with a bike, and it will cost you 10€.

Looks like they will also transport your bike to and/or from the station/hotel for 33€.

PalQ

To see which trains take bikes and the rules for taking them go to the German Rail Web site (www.bahn.de) and get the English-language schedule page- there you put into Paris to Bordeaux and check the box "Conveyance of Bicycles Required" and all the trains that day that accommodate bikes will pop up. Then click on 'Details for Selection' and more info on the conveyance of bikes on those trains will be explained - some will say limited number of bikes, etc. From Paris it seems only the much slower trains to Bordeaux from Paris-Austerlitz convey bikes - TGVs do not and you can't send them separately either i believe on trains in France.
An easy way to get to the German Rail's English language schedule page is to go to: www.budgeteuropetravel.com and when their home page pops up click on "All European Train Schedules" in the lower right corner of the home page and the German site's English-language schedule page will pop up - just put in Paris to Bordeaux and the date and check bikes needed to be taken and viola you'll get all the trains that do.

StCirq

Well, if the German site says TGVs don't take bikes, I'd be a bit hesitant to put much faith in it because I've been on plenty of TGVs to Bordeaux that had whole train cars stacked with bicycles.

StCirq

This is from the SNCF site showing which trains take bicycles - loads of TGVs there:

http://www.voyages-sncf.com/info_res...loParisidf.pdf

ira

Hi J,

If you google <bicycle on TGV> you will find http://www.tgv.com/EN/services/offres/velo.htm

PalQ

Ira's site says: "certain TGVs carry bikes and then says a maximum of four bikes. This is not clear whether it means four for a group or four max - if four max these may well be sold out long in advance it seems - 10 e or to have it shipped by Sernam 40 euros (sent as luggage to another Sernam office - usually next to the station. I couldn't find what TGVs carry bikes to get an idea of how common it is - St Cyr's site wouldn't come up on my computer maybe it says - perhaps very few take bikes or many do - a sure thing are the trains the Bahn site says do and all the TGVs i searched there it says they do not but did not do exhaustive search. So i don't know and retract my statements about TGVs and bikes as apparently some do. but seems you'd want to reserve the apparently limited spaces far in advance.