Intercities Train "non ouvert"
 

I want to book an Intercities direct train from Toulouse to Bayonne the last week in April. There are other Intercities trains with a connection available for booking now, but the direct trains all indicate "non ouvert" and offer a link to register to receive an email alert when they are open. I have signed up for that. Just wondering if any of you regular SNCF users would have a guess about why all the direct trains aren't available for sale now, and if the alert system works well.

Oops - forgot to tag this for France. Can one of the Mods do it please?

Did you go to the Pertubations site on SNCF to check if there is any unusual activity on that line on those dates?

https://www.oui.sncf/aide/informatio...-remboursement

However, it could have something to do with the direct one is longer distance and I think they have different sales rules for long distance ICs and short distance ones. For example, I don't think you'll see PREM fares available for the short distance ones. Or it could be track work on that route for the longer train.

They have a direct Blablabus on that route that only takes about 30 minutes longer than the train, though. You could buy that ticket as a backup as it doesn't cost very much at all, less than 10 euro. Of course they don't sell those tickets this far in advance, anyway, you'd have to wait a few weeks to do that.

There are a lot of variables at the SNCF and we do not always understand them. But if you cannot book the train yet, one can assume that nobody else can either, so I really don't see a problem. In any case, it isn't a great distance.

Also check out trainline. When I looked yesterday it looked like you could book that route in late April-but of course I don't know your exact dates.

https://www.thetrainline.com/

Thanks so much everyone for your helpful responses. StCirq, thanks for the link. I spent a lot of time plowing through and even trying to use the live chat to get some kind of answer, but to no avail. There were no noted perturbations on that route and I never got connected to anyone on live chat. Christina, thanks for the bus information. Good to know that possibility. Kerouac, you're right about no one else being able to book. And jpie, I had not thought of looking at the Trainline site but I should have since they don't have any direct trains listed at all for that route. What I think now is that no direct trains are going to operate at all. Oh, well, since we were going to pick up a car after a couple of days in Bayonne, we will just pick it up in Toulouse and drive. This is but a small piece of a 4-week itinerary and I'll be back here soon looking for more help. Thanks again.

Just a thought. You cannot book a seat on a train until the formation of the train is fixed. If there is any uncertainty about the type of train that will be used, number of carriages and location of seats, then the train may be in the timetable, but you cannot yet reserve a ticket and seat.

UPDATE -- Happy to report that this morning I got alerts from OUI.sncf that both trains I was considering are now open for booking. Good to know that the alert system works well. I have used the "Alerte Résa" system to learn when reservations open for future trains and it worked well too. https://www.oui.sncf/services-train/alerte-reservation
Now back to work planning the rest of the trip. Thanks again for everyone's help.

Oh that is great-and thanks to the link for the alerts-very handy!

That is great news-and thanks for the alert link-that is handy!