Buying RER Ticket CDG-Paris
 

Question for Paris metro experts:

My son is flying home to France and as usual his dear mother is buying him a train ticket from Paris to Les Aubrais-Orelans and in the past his mum would be able to be the RER ticket for CDG to Paris at the Les Aubrais train station with the train ticket but now she was told the station no longer sold RER or metro tickets.

Q- Is there some way to be an RER ticket in advance online - son has a smart phone of course. He wants an RER ticket in advance because he says there are always long long lines at RER ticket windows and vending machines.

Any advice?

There were no lines at the Roissy station ticket windows last Friday morning.

Well that's what I told him just buy there but he goes twice a year and swears there are always long long lines. Just wondering if there is some way with a smart phone to buy that ticket in advance or do you have to have a physical ticket to put in the turnstile?

But I agree even if have to wait--- but he asked me to ask Fodors folks about it.

I'm surprised he ever could buy that. No, as far as I know, there is no way to buy that particular type of ticket, which is solely part of the Ile de France rail local network, elsewhere in France. You can buy some type of tickets (ie, carnets and Paris Visite and the Orlyval ticket) at some rail stations and airports outside Paris in parts of France at a SNCF agent, but not that type of ticket. If he had a Navigo pass, he could also load it at some bank ATMs, actually.

I think he'll have to suck it up and use the machine like anyone else.

If he visits Paris at least once a year, which it sounds like he does, I don't know why he doesn't have a Navigo pass. I have one and I only go once a year, I've had it for years. Then he could load it at some CIC and Credit Mutual ATMs, of course that may not help at CDG, not sure if they have those or not and then they could have lines.

they don't scan smartphones at metro/RER turnstiles.

oh, Pal, I suggest he buy several if this is a big problem for him. You know those tickets don't expire, he could at least buy a couple for future trips. I used a Paris-CDG ticket once that I had bought 2 yrs before.

thanks that's what I thought - seems primitive in today's world and why did SNCF stations outside Paris stop selling those tickets?

Seems French trains are going backward a bit too - recently his French mama took trains from Les Aubrais to La Bourboule with 4 separate trains involved and instead of like before issuing one ticket for the whole journey they now said they had to issue separate tickets for each leg of journey.

thanks Christina for your detailed responses - he'll have to suck it up and hope like weekender found no lines.

Firstly, there are 20 to 30 kiosks at CDG 2 selling the 10.30€ tickets to Paris. The lines are at the ticket window and there is absolutely no reason to wait in line for window sales if all you need is an RER/métro ticket for Paris.

Secondly, if all of the kiosks are broken at terminal 2 and the line at the sales window is lengthy, simply take the free CDVAL shuttle to Roissypôle and purchase tickets there. Roissypôle is the other RER B stop at CDG.

While there many RER ticket machines, ones I used, the ones without lines, took chip and pin cards. No cash slots.

RER tickets are also sold at Paris tourist offices scattered around the airport. For that, you can use cash as well as chip and signature US cards.

All of the ticket kiosks accept coins. Each general sales area has at least one huge machine which changes bills into coins.

The only restriction to purchasing tickets at a kiosks is if you have no cash and your credit card has no chip. Magnetic strip cards are accepted at the ticket sales windows located at either terminal 2 or Roissypôle.

Thanks all - problem - well situation solved - his mom was told at Les Aubrais station that they could sell RER/metro ticket but only in conjunction with a certain train at a cartain time from Austerlitz to Les Aubrais - apparently no open tickets anymore.

Merci for your attention.

The RER/métro network (which includes Transilien trains) is functionally separate from the Intercité/TER trains which serve les Aubrais.

Transilien tickets are not train or departure specific, they are <i>open tickets</i>. However, I rather doubt that there has ever been Transilien (Ile de France) service to les Aubrais.

Intercité or TER tickets are generally train specific.

Intercité or TER tickets are generally train specific>

This is a change where open tickets were common to Les Aubrais - he also says on non-TGV trains reserved seats often are not marked like before with stubs stuck into seats that were reserved and on one trip Les Aubrais-La Bourboule involving 4 trains they saw no reserved seat markers and sat down and folks boarded with seat reservations for those seats.

Anyway things seem to be moving backwards on non-TGV trains.

TER tickets for trains originating/terminating in the Île-de-France, if purchased at full fare, are open tickets with a period of validity of 7 days from the initiating date shown on the ticket. Some full fare Intercités tickets are the same.

You can buy RER tickets from CDG to Paris on-line for 11.40€ from the Paris tourist office website. Many other types of tickets and passes can be bought on-line:

https://reservation.parisinfo.com/il...aris-ratp.aspx

Merci FMT for that info on TER tickets - he will be leaving from Austerlitz so should qualify!

<i> You can buy RER tickets from CDG to Paris on-line for 11.40€ from the Paris tourist office website. Many other types of tickets and passes can be bought on-line: </i>

Thanks for info but a warning: Postage can cost as much as &euro; 24. By comparison two rer tix costing around &euro; 23.

On a Tuesday morning, having searched for the shortest line, still took us 20 minutes to buy tix. I'm not sure why the line moved so slowly, the operation seemed simple enough to me, maybe people were having trouble getting their CC to read and were slow to alter course and try cash, who knows.

FrenchMystique regarding TER validity: I wonder though if one must ride only a train in that 7 day period at a time compatible with the fare one has paid. As you know some time slots for the same journey cost more. We played it safe, paid the max for the return journey when we didn't know what time we would catch the train that day.

<i> By comparison two rer tix costing around € 23. </i>

Two tickets from CDG into Paris, which includes any required métro connection, will cost 20.60€ if purchased at the ticket kiosks.

There is never a need to wait to purchase tickets at the kiosks. The kiosks are grouped and if the lines are long at one group of kiosks, simply go to another. Rather than wait at all, it is very easy to take the CDGVAL to Roissypôle, which is were I generally purchase tickets. I have never had to wait at all at Roissypôle.

Departing from Roissypôle, you´ll be one stop closer to Paris than if you were to depart from terminal 2.

I have no idea what postage may cost but indeed it may be more expensive than the ticket itself. I don't know. I was just addressing the fact that it was mentioned that RER/métro tickets can't be purchased online and that's not true for some tickets (like CDG to Paris), though other tickets/passes can not be purchased on-line.

In regards to TER tickets, if they are full fare tickets (again, for TER trains only originating/terminating in Île-de-France) then they can be used on any TER train for 7 days starting from the date of validity. In the case of PAL's son, some of the train from Paris to Orléans are Intercités trains and I don't have the experience to know if those full fare tickets could also be used on the Intercités trains, though I would suspect not if the trains had seat reservation requirements, which TER tickets do not.

IME, when I buy TER and some Intercités tickets, even for destinations outside of Île-de-France (like Compiègne, Vernon, Crépy-en-Valois and other places) the ticket says right on it (in French) that it is valid for a period of 7 days. Again, these routes I do have no seat reservation requirements.