Rail Deals- One Day France Pass
 

Raileurope has announced a special for a one-day France Railpass ($129 first class; $90 second class) that gives one day of unlimited travel in France. Whilst this is not a bargain in light of cheap fares on www.voyages-sncf.com for those wishing for flexibility, such as those landing at CDG and wishing to blast south this could be a good deal, esp in first class as with planes you need some flexibility - if the plane is late, etc. - so i don't see this being a great deal, but maybe for a few profiles. PalQ

Hi PB,

Well, it's interesting, but I think that you would have to do quite a lot of traveling that day.

For example, PREMS fares are:

Paris to Marseille - 35E.

Marseille to Toulouse - 20E

Toulouse to Bordeaux - 20E

Bordeaux to Paris - 25E.

Thus, you can ride the train all day on your 1cl railpass for the price of 2cl PREMS.

OTOH, I'm sure that there would be some folks who would think that they got their money's worth; having "visited" Marseille, Toulouse and Bordeaux as a daytrip during their 3-day stay in Paris. :)

((I))

PREMS fares have limited availability and must be booked a long time in advance. It's extremely unlikely that you could find PREMS fares to do a complex day trip as suggested.
The big advantage of a rail pass is that it gives flexibility - the chance to change your plans at a moment's notice and hop on and off trains as you like. That is useful if you can't predict when your journey can start (if you're arriving by air, for instance) or if your schedule might depend on the weather (if you want to visit somewhere out of doors where a trip on a rainy day would be a waste of money).
Having said that, I can't see many cases where a one-day pass for France would be useful, but it's good to know it exists - it could be useful for somebody, sometime.

As the pass is good for a one-month period of validity there are other aspects: such as getting a passholder fare on Eurostar trains London/Paris - as low as $77 in the U.S. and this ticket is actually changeable once up until the time of the train in Europe sans frais. Thus twinned with one long train journey it could be a viable scenario.

Hi G,

>It's extremely unlikely that you could find PREMS fares to do a complex day trip as suggested.<

But, I just did. :)

You have to start early, you don't have time to see anything but train stations, and you get back late, but it is doable.

((I))

The flexibilty is not total : if you intend to use a TGV or a TEOZ train you still need a seat reservation (you can do this the same day but it means some time at a railway station or a boutique SNCF - you can't make on line reservations for a pass) at it adds a bit to the cost (3€ per leg).
The flexibilty is complete with the local/slower trains only

And on some lines i have very reliable (personal) reports that just showing up with a pass and asking for a TGV reservation can be hard even if seats remain on the train.

To wit in Nice going to Paris the clerk said no space for passholders but she would sell me a full-priced ticket. Usually i've had no problems but it seems that main TGV routes only allow so many passholder reservations per train. I actually went to another window and the clerk there made me a reservation after i pleaded a bit about having to Paris.

The one day flexi pass (out of a one-month period) is being sold thru 12/31/06 and is valid for travel within six months of issue. Prices are subject to change. Unactivated passes can be rrefunded for up to one year for a 15% cancellation fee.