Sheer unadulterated vileness...
 

I never thought www.sncf.fr was a particularly well thought-out website, but its latest design is off the scale for tricksy-clever and counter-productive designer madness. Nothing to explain what all its different brands actually mean, let alone how you would begin to find out where to search to discover how to get from A to B.

Ugh!!

Oi, what a mess. I see what you mean.

"voyages-sncf.com" still exists as a link from sncf, but as far as I can tell (??), one must use the voyages site in french to book a ticket, else risk being referred to the infamous rail europe site with its stratospheric prices.

Vileness, indeed.

I just <i>love</i> it when a site designer shows off w/ all sorts of fancy graphics, music, annimation -- and totally misses that the site has to be useable . . . . .

Also, I can't find how to print out a ticket on a home printer like I did last year. It seems we're back to picking up the ticket at a station, at either a self-service machine or (probably a better bet if using a non-French credit card) from the ticket window (at least for North American resident customers, who must specify &quot;France&quot; as the <i> pays de reception </i> ...)

Sometimes French websites, in general, can be clever and visual, and imaginative, but not work very well at the basics, I've noticed.

However, while I agree the importance of various things on the front page is a little odd, I don't think it's really that difficult. YOu don't have to know what different brands mean, there is a big box on the right side (granted, maybe it should be on the left or bigger or something) that says &quot;horaires et billets&quot;, and if you click on that you go to a normal way of booking a ticket as always. I don't use the English version, but it is the French railway, and it is obviously designed for French people using the French railway (and if you are using the internet for booking a train, and know SNCF, you probably are pretty familiar with what a TGV is versus Corail). In any case, I did check the English version and it has the same box, anyway, that says in English &quot;schedules and tickets&quot;. You don't have to know any brands.

Being able to print a ticket doesn't have anything to do with being from North America. I'm North American and I can do it, and I just checked a PREM and easily got the option to print with no problem. Nothing about the booking process seems any different to me, just the front page interface. If they removed the ability to print PREMs, it would affect everyone, and I thought it would be surprising if they did away with that -- they have not. You never could print anything but a few kinds of tickets, anyway (PREMs and iDTGs or whatever that other thing was). IN any case, I have no problem getting the option to print for a PREM.

I think a few days ago someone on here said there was a slight glitch in them sending you the info by email or something, but that wasn't permanent, it was an error.

Merde! merde! I say. On Wed. I jumped thru all the hoops for my PREM ticket Barcelona to Paris. I got a great price for the night train BUT for two days now IT WILL NOT PRINT!!! My card has been charged, I seem to have seats but I have no tickets - just some printouts with a reference number. I have sent an email, I hope the response in English. If I could &quot;annul&quot; the ticket and start over I would but of course you cannot do that! Do you think I can get help at the train station in Barcelona before departure? but of course that is not SNCF. Can I get on the train with what I have been ablt to print? certainly not my fist choice! Ah the joys of independent travel!

Do you think they finally figured out that some people from North America were pretending to be in France when buying tickets????

The SNCF website has always been vile. At one time, it had lots of pop-ups, including some advertising cheap flights and car hire, which seemed commercially crazy for a railway.
For researching train timetables, the Deutsche Bahn website is so much easier and quicker.

&gt;&gt;there is a big box on the right side (granted, maybe it should be on the left or bigger or something) that says &quot;horaires et billets&quot;&lt;&lt;

Well, there you are. I missed it completely in all the whizzing and flashing. And, whaddayaknow, there's sound with it as well...

Aha! I see what I did wrong re trying to get the self print ticket option. I forgot to tick the box that indicates one doesn't want cancellation insurance (<i> l'assurance annulation </i> ) - once I did that, I got the option as always.

Christina, I agree sncf is largely for French consumers. However, my point was that previously, voyages-sncf.com had an English translation. Now, when you click on the British flag (to specify a preference for English) you get relayed first to tgv-europe.com, and then eventually back to voyages-sncf.com --- in French. Look, I'm not arguing the prerogative of the company to do business in French -- but in that case, why bother with the tease that an on-line transaction in English is available, when ultimately it isn't? It only serves to complicate the navigation of the site - which is what the thread is about.


It's true that being in NA has nothing to do with being able to print out tix. That has to do with the type of train (as you pointed out) and with declining the insurance option (as I've just pointed out.) However, one still doesn't have any option but to specify France as the 'pays de reception ou retrait de billets' if one is from NA. I never did get that one.

Like I've said before, I really doubt this is a conspiracy against English speakers. I think that this is a poorly managed IT and localization project, like is the case with so many software projects and web site application projects.

Without a doubt the SNCF site is the most confusing and anti-intuitive website I have ever seen. SNCF probably paid millions to some over the top web designer for this piece of fanciful garbage. And why would they put the Union Jack up there when all it does is give you more francaise?

It really is deplorable, and with each &quot;update&quot; gets worse.

There's a huge opportunity here for some enterprising bilingual web designer....hmmmm, I think I know just the person! (not me)

I thought the website was easy to use.