ladycatrin

We need to get ourselves and our bikes from Nurnberg to St Nazaire so we can ride the Loire Valley Bike Trail about 20th of May. I really do not want to overnight in Paris if we can avoid it. Can we take bikes on the Stuttgart to Paris night train? Do we have to go through Paris? The French Railway timetable did not seem to offer an alternative. Any other suggestions? All help will be very appreciated.

bilboburgler

ttt

FrenchMystiqueTours

If you put your bikes in boxes (look at TGV website for box size dimensions) they can be stored as luggage. I don't know anything about German trains or their bike rules but in France there are some TGV trains that do have space for fully assembled bikes but you'll need to make a reservation for your bikes as space is limited. I think it costs 10€. Some Intercités trains have bike storage space and from my experience they don't require reservations (I've never reserved) but you should really check that. Any of the local TER trains allow bikes but they may not necessarily have bike storage space.

If you're on the voyages-sncf.com website (or tgv-europe.com) when you look at the details of any train itinerary you'll often notice icons next to it. If you see an icon of a bike that means bikes are allowed on that train.

Since I don't know what website you are using to check your journey I know if you use www.bahn.de that is a good website to check time tables/trains.

I'm just checking to make sure you aren't checking train schedules or buying train tickets with the RailEurope website, which usually has higher prices and doesn't show all the trains. However, the RailEurope website often does have good information about rules of train travel and other helpful tips that tend to be difficult to find on the voyages-sncf.com and TGV websites.

BTW, just picking a random date for trains between Paris and Saint-Nazaire I see that all the TGV trains do allow bikes but remember, you need to reserve space. For the cheapest ticket prices you also need to buy tickets up to 3 months in advance as prices increase closer to your travel date. You can use www.voyages-sncf.com to check schedules and prices and buy your tickets. You can also use www.tgv-europe.com which has an English language option. Just make sure this website doesn't redirect you to the RailEurope website. You may have to change your ticket collection country to Great Britain or Antarctic to prevent this. Look at this website for tips on using the tgv-europe website:

http://www.nickbooth.id.au/Tips/FrenchTrain.htm

An excellent website to learn all about train travel in Europe is www.seat61.com.

PalenQ

You may find sending your bikes by FedEx or UPS, etc the best way to do that as most European mainline trains IME do not carry bikes as they do not have luggage cars (some do but many do not) - I have seen folks take their bikes apart and tie wheels to frame, etc and carry them on - may not be totally legal but works if they are compact enough.

In addition to www.seat61.com scour www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com for lots of great info on European trains.

In France regional trains often have bike storage cars - marked by a V in a circle on schedules - meaning 'Velos' or bikes accepted on those trains in luggage cars but most TGVs do not IME allow bikes on and have no place for them.

FrenchMystiqueTours

PalenQ - Look at the TGV schedule between Paris and Saint-Nazaire. The random date I searched showed that all TGV trains between these places had bike storage cabins, meaning fully assembled bikes.

Dukey1

The problem here might be with the GERMAN segments. I do not believe that ICE trains in Germany have any sort of bike storage capacity as do many of the other trains in Germany. I suspect the bikes would have to be boxed unless other than ICE services were being used.

bilboburgler

A fair few TGV have bike storage areas, often at the bow and the stern (I'm not sure of the train word) and even posh flip up seats in the same place. The issue will be ICE.

This may interest the OP http://www.mybikeguide.co.uk/Article_Bike_on_Train.php

PalenQ

FrenchMystique- thanks for the correcto - that may be a special service since so many folks want to take their bikes to the coastal areas and their seaside homes.

Scour the German site www.bahn.de for any train in Europe taking bikes - they note that in their special notes section if bikes are allowed on any certain train.

In France Sernam ships bikes to addresses I understand - often in or near stations as I believe it once was the SNCF's baggage service. Most train systems in Europe IME no longer check any luggage - except Switzerland where you can pay to deposit your bike at a certain station and expect it to be at another station within so many hours.

All systems used to do this but do not now so if you cannot carry it on you may have to send by parcel companies at a high rate.

But even ti ICE-TGV link will casue the OP to have to get the bike from Gare de l'Est across town to Gare Montparansse - if boxed a problem- good luck taking them on the metro or even in a cab.

ladycatrin

Many thanks for some helpful suggestions and I will check out those websites.

FrenchMystiqueTours

Just an aside about TGV trains and bikes. I've been noticing more and more TGV trains are allowing bikes (fully assembled) in recent months. It seems you're more likely to find bike cabins/storage on those TGV trains that aren't on the busiest lines. Makes sense since they're probably trying to expand the passenger base on those trains that usually aren't full. But for the busy and crowded trains, Paris to Avignon for example, you're less likely to find a TGV that has bike storage. Checking a random date for Paris to Avignon I found only 1 morning and 2 afternoon trains that take bikes.

spaarne

Here is a good illustrated site discussing bikes on German trains, http://tinyurl.com/aarlsng. and here is another source for French trains http://tinyurl.com/b9pcvjs. For general information on trains in Europe see http://tinyurl.com/3f9cmfh. For schedules, maps, and train details I second FrenchMystiqueTours' mention of http://www.bahn.de/.

PalenQ

Have you considered renting or buying bikes once in Saint-Nazare - taking them on airlines can be a pain and costly - bike shops may well to a sell and guaranteed buy back or you can rent bikes at many places though they may perhaps not be up to your standards if you have a really expensive bike (which then will be a target of thieves) - for ease consider renting or buying a bike.

FrenchMystiqueTours

Great info spaarne.

PalenQ

Again www.bahn.de the German Railways schedule for all European trains clearly indicates which trains accept bikes by saying 'bikes accepted' - if they do not do not expect to be able to bring a bike, boxed or not on a train as there simply will not be any room for such a large parcel. That said I have seen folks wedge bikes on trains even in defiance of conductors shouts and get away with it.

FrenchMystiqueTours

PalenQ - Just for fun I went to the bahn.de site because I never really use it and I was trying to figure out if it had the same bike info as voyages-sncf. I used tomorrow as a dummy date for the journey between Paris and Saint-Nazaire and compared the voyages-sncf site against the bahn site. The bahn site showed that bikes were not allowed on the trains at 6:53, 8:53, 13:53, 15:53, 17:24, 17:29 etc. The voyages-sncf site said bikes were allowed on all those trains. I didn't bother looking any further because the bahn site had already been wrong about so many trains that day which the voyages-sncf site showed as allowing bikes.

When bikes are allowed on trains the bahn site seemed to indicate this in the notes by saying "Number of bicycles conveyed limited".

If I'm doing something wrong tell me because maybe I did something wrong on the bahn site. But if not, then based on this experience I would not use the bahn site to find out whether bikes are allowed on trains in France. I would use voyages-sncf. Maybe bahn works properly for German trains.

bilboburgler

FMT, good research which sits well with my use of both sites in 2012 when I was planning to do some trips. I found that the bike "button" on bahn.de did not work well on multiple change journeys within Germany, and so I broke a journey down to find the individual elements and got a sensible plan. I found the same on Trenitalia in 2012 but I understand that software is getting better.

To be certain I work on the basis that ICE and above don't take bikes and Italian Regionale do take bikes while within SNCF you can use their software.

Just for info, I've never yet (in 20+ years of touring) ever made a reservation for a bike in the Continental Europe. I suspect that even if I had someone would have taken my place before me. If I had to make a judgement I would only bother in France (due to the importance of the train in the French culture) and then only in high season.

On a separate note, I understand the Swiss are now getting even more cranky than normal as they have closed a fair number of ticket offices assuming either their ticket machines always work (they don't) or you will order tickets by smart phone. Prosecutions are up and customers less happy.

FrenchMystiqueTours

Some of the journeys I researched were direct trains (no transfers) between Paris and Saint-Nazaire and the bahn site showed these trains did not take bikes whereas the SNCF site did. I think the bahn site is the best one for an overview of train schedules throughout Europe but I don't use it frequently as my primary interest is train travel in France so I stick with voyages-sncf. But based on this experiment perhaps bahn is not the best website to check for train details.

I did spend some time looking at the links spaarne provided and the website they linked to is probably the best one I've ever seen for info on bike/train travel in Europe. I was specifically interested in the info it posted on trains in France and I did find one area where it really needs correction, however. In the section entitled "Where to buy your tickets for a European Rail Trip" the first place mentioned was RailEurope and for an American this is probably the last place you should be directed. The author did go on to state that RailEurope will have higher prices than booking directly with the train operator in the country in which you travel but that really should have been mentioned first and the appropriate links to the country specific rail lines should have been given. However, overall this website was a fantastic resource.

PalenQ

If I'm doing something wrong tell me because maybe I did something wrong on the bahn site>

It could be dated info and the bikes thing on tyhose TGVs may be a new thing and simply have not been updated on bahn.de?

But anyway to be sure the best site is always the national railway site of the country involved that should have the most current info possible. And if the bahn site shows bikes are accepted that too could be dated info - always use the site of that country's railways.