Triptyme

I understand the train station does not go to the airport in Marseille. How do I get to the central train station?

Odin

By bus which goes from outside the airport to Marseille St Charles station

kerouac

Yes, the shuttle bus takes you directly to the train station.

kappa1

Hey what happened to the new shuttle TRAIN that links St.Charles and Gare "Vitrolles Aéroport" ? I read it here or on TA com. It's been open I read like since 1 year.

Christina

I'm not sure about that shuttle train, but I was just there in July and I asked the desk about it and they said it was not a feasible idea for me (I wanted to go to Marseille St Charles). They told me to take the bus. The bus is easy, cheap, and comes all the time (I think every 30 minutes). There really wouldn't be any advantage to a train, which you have to take a navette to get to, in the first place (it isn't at the airport). I think the bus to Marseille St Charles was 8.5 euro and the train is around 5 euro.

I think the problem is that train from there to Marseille doesn't run that often, whereas the bus is all the time. I think the train is every couple of hours at some time of the day, maybe when I was there. And the time is barely any quicker when you add in the navette to get to the train with the train travel.

I think you have to have a card with a chip to buy tickets from a machine for that thing, anyway, which I didn't. There is a live ticket agent to buy the bus tickets out near the stop.

Southam

It is possible to take a regional train from the airport for western destinations -- I found a convenient schedule to Avignon. But the shuttle from the airport to the train stop only picks up customers who already hold tickets. And the only source of those tickets at the airport are machines that require a chip credit card. So I was stuck going the wrong direction to Marseilles St-Charles by road, a waste of time and money. Now I am better armed, with chip and PIN ready to go.

kappa1

Thanks for 2 posters above for clarification with your experiences. It's hard to imagine then why they constructed this train line. Maybe they are hoping to do better and practical service in the futur? Not for now. Bus is the way to go.

Cowboy1968

The airport train station is very convenient for passengers traveling to the West or Northwest (Arles, Avignon, etc.). Because you don't have to go into Marseilles to travel back same way by train.
Though, if your travels take you to the East, the bus to Marseille will be more convenient.
If you need to connect to a TGV, Aix TGV is closer and easier to reach from MP airport than Marseille St Charles station because the shuttle to Aix TGV does not need to deal with any inner city traffic. Yet you need to check your planned connections if the TGV calls at Aix TGV.

You will find a map of (recommended) connections from MP airport here:
http://www.mrsairport.com/eng/acces/acces_train+bus.jsp

Triptyme

This is great--thank you all. We are going to Arles and the train from the airport to Arles would have been nice but you are right; it doesn't go very often. Looks like we'll have to go into town anyway.

Thanks again.

DebitNM

We are going to need to get from MRS to a TGV station in December, for a train to Paris. I had planned to take bus from airport to the central station in Marseille. I am confused about cowboys comments that it is better to take bus to Aix to get TGV than to take bus to Marseiile.

(We took the bus from Marseille Bus Terminal to airport in Sept 2012 which worked well. )

Also, is the train at airport still not a good option?

Thanks~

Christina

It makes sense to me if you look at a map and see where MRS airport is located. It isn't just on the edge of Marseille, after all, it is in Marignane. And the Marseille train station is in the city so you do have to navigate more traffic to get there. The Aix TGV station is not actually in Aix, but in the countryside SW of it about 18 km away. If you look at a map, MRS is actually about the same distance from both Aix and Marseille, but I think MRS is actually not that far from the Aix TGV station (which is inbetween Aix city and MRS). Even aside from the city traffic issue, I think Aix TGV is actually closer to MRS than the Marsille station.

You'll have to check the train schedules to see if it makes sense for your trip, that's all, I think. But I didn't think the airport train even went to Aix TGV station, I think if you do take that train, you have to transfer in Marseiile. Just take the bus to Aix.

MaineGG

According to fr.mappy.com -

MRS Airport to Aix TGV Station is 12km - 14 minutes
MRS Airport to St. Charles Station is 26km - 27 minutes

DebitNM

OK, I am convinced. And the map sure does show this - glad to have found out before I booked train!

We had been in Marseille for 3 days on that last trip so it made sense to take bus from there to airport. But clearly, unless the train schedule is all to different, we will take the train from Aix.