I purchased 2 tickets from Avignon to Barcelona on 7/25/09 for travel on Oct. 25. My reservation number and voucher have us leaving on train 76411 at 10:21am to Montpellier, change to Port Bou, then to Barcelona arriving at 6:39pm. When I look at TGV-Europe or SNCF web sites these trains are no longer there. The only train that day from Avignon is 76305 at 1:27pm.
How do I know if my trains and tickets have been canceled? Will my tickets have been changed to this train? The price now is much higher than I paid, 71eu each versus 85.90eu for 2 tickets. I will be in Paris Oct. 15-18 to turn in the voucher for tickets, but I don't speak French and may not understand what they are saying if the tickets have been changed.

I'm not sure what's going on here, but the SNCF website could just not be showing all trains correctly, you never know. I'd say you definitely will not just be switched to other trains automatically. The fact that you are seeing prices means you are in the section where you buy tickets, and if a train is sold out, it won't show. Now, I actually did just look at only the schedules on SNCF, not the place you buy tickets, and it didn't show a 10:21 train if you put in the full schedule (Avignon to Barcelone). But it does show train 76411 leaving Avignon at 10:21 and going to Nimes.

Do you actually have a ticket saying train 76411 goes to Montpellier? Because it doesn't appear to. The odd thing is I couldn't then get a schedule from Nimes to Port Bou on SNCF, probably because that is a minor Spanish town. But you will get a schedule if you put in Nimes to Barcelone, from 11:13 leaving Nimes, arriving 18:39 Barcelone, changing in Port Bou (13:59). Now it does show trains from Montpellier to Barcelone later in the day, maybe that's what you bought, but you have to go from Avignon to Nimes to Montpellier. That Nimes train to Montpellier is at 13:56, and you arrive in Barcelone at 17:39. I don't think that train then goes through Port Bou after Montpellier.

So I think you could go from Avignon to Nimes to Port Bou to Barcelone or Avignon to Nimes to Montpellier to Barcelone (which appears to arrive a bit sooner). So your itinerary sounds different. Also, those two schedules arrive in different stations in Barcelone.

BTW, where did you buy this ticket? I've just never heard of a voucher exactly, so wonder if you didn't buy them from SNCF. When I've bought tickets online, I either could print them myself, or simply got an email with a confirmation number for the paid reservation, I never got a voucher per se.

I bought my tickets on TGV-Europe.com. I have a confirmation number/file reference email that I will use to get the actual tickets at a SNCF boutique or train station in France.

When I log in to my account on tgv-europe.com with this reservation number it shows my trains. My itinerary reads:
76411 10:21 Avignon Centre-
11:22 Montpellier
76413 11:55 Montpellier-
14:28 Port Bou
15814 15:59 Port Bou-
18:39 Barcelona Sants
I wonder if the trains are sold out and that's why they don't come up on the schedule. None of these 3 trains have reserved seats though. I hope my tickets are still valid and these trains are running on Oct. 25.

Here is what the German site shows:

Avignon Centre Su, 25.10.09 dep 10:21 RE 76411 Regional-Express


Nîmes Su, 25.10.09 arr 10:48
Nîmes Su, 25.10.09 dep 11:13 RE 76413 Regional-Express


Port Bou Su, 25.10.09 arr 14:28
Port Bou Su, 25.10.09 dep 15:26 R 15072 Regionalzug

Barcelona Sants Su, 25.10.09 arr 17:39

from
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Stu Dudley

The 76411 train goes from Avignon to Montpellier, with a stop in Nimes.

The 76413 goes from Nimes to Port Bou, with a stop in Montpellier.

Therefore, you can change trains in either Nimes or Montpellier.

Stu Dudley

BTW, the train to Barcelona stops at the Passage Grazia station, which is closer to central Barcelona than the Sants station. We got off there when we took the train to Barcelona Sants.

Stu Dudley

I've just looked at the timetable on www.voyages-sncf.com and the train from Avignon at 1021 on 25 October is shown, as well as the 1155 from Montpellier to Port Bou. These are TER trains with no seat reservations so cannot sell out.
The trains from Portbou to Barcelona should be checked on the RENFE website (www.renfe.es). The 1559 from Portbou is shown. Note that the SNCF refers to Port Bou and RENFE to Portbou.
I searched for each part of the journey separately. I don't think the Spanish regional trains appear on the SNCF system which is why the SNCF doesn't show the Avignon-Barcelona journey. If you look for Avignon-Port Bou on the SNCF system, then Portbou-Barcelona on RENFE, you'll see all the trains.

>>If you look for Avignon-Port Bou on the SNCF system, then Portbou-Barcelona on RENFE, you'll see all the trains.<<

Or look at the bahn site I referenced above to see everything - including intermediate stops.

Stu Dudley

The Deutsche Bahn website is marvellous for looking up schedules, but it doesn't show all the temporary timetable changes which might appear on the national railways' websites. Susiesan was worried that her trains had been cancelled or rescheduled, which was quite understandable as the journey does not appear on the SNCF site. The best place to confirm the timings is on the websites of the national railways actually running the trains.

I was also concerned because it doesn't show on TGV-Europe, which is where I bought the tickets.If I look the individual segments up on TGV they ar all there. When I purchased the tickets in July this was the best way to get to Barcelona leaving Avignon the earliest and getting in to Barcelona earlier.

StuDudley: thanks for the info about the stop at Passage grazia. We do have to take the metro to Verdaguer to the apartment we are staying in and that may be closer and faster. I'll look at the metro map of Barcelona and see which stoop is easier for us to do with luggage.

I think the Bahn site provides some temporary schedule change info. Don't know how complete it is compared to the SNCF (which I find almost non-functional), or the REFNE site (which I've never tried). For susiesan's trip it says this:

runs Sa, Su, also 12. Oct, 8. Dec
Border crossing: Port Bou(fr)


I use the bahn site to determine schedule options, and the SNCF site to purchase tickets (if it is working that day).

Stu Dudley

If we get to Port Bou and there is an earlier train to Barcelona we can try and change our tickets to this one. With unreserved seats, will they care which train we are on as long as we have a ticket for that route? Can we just get on the earlier train at 15:26 or should we wait for the exact one the tickets are for?

If it's a regional train with no reservable seats, then you can use your ticket on any train. There's no need to change the tickets because the tickets are not for a specific train.
However, the 1526 from Portbou is listed by RENFE as a Catalunya Express at a higher fare, so you'd need to go to the ticket office to sort out the ticket.

Bahn.de will show temporary alterations as well as the normal tickettable, if these are pre-planned within the base timetable. If they are short notice, then it won't.

However, here the issue is the shortcomings of the French system (www.voyages-sncf.com or tgv-europe.com, same system, same people), notorious for pushing TGVs an not showing loocal trains, it doesn't handle journeys with multiple legs as well as bahn.de and may not have Spanish regional trains programmed in.