I have been desperately checking on train ticket from Lyon Part Dieu to Paris Gare de Lyon on the said website. It only displays "Access to the service of booking train tickets are currently unavailable. This version of the site allows you to check schedules, book another product of the travel agency or print your train tickets.".

Any idea what is happening? What other reliable site I can check on price and make my booking? Thanks.

Hard to say without knowing what link you are using. Try this one. Enter Lyon and Paris, date and when it asks about collecting the ticket select France.

http://en.voyages-sncf.com/en/

>>>It only displays "Access to the service of booking train tickets are currently unavailable. <<<

It could also be you are trying to book too far out. What is the date you are trying to book?

As kybourbon says, you may be trying to book too far out.

I have tried the link provided by kybourbon. I typed depart lyon part-dieu arriving paris gare de lyon. Date of travel is 11/05/2013. Once I pressed enter, it transfered me to http://agencies.voyages-sncf.eu/en/ which I believe is for agent with user login. Once I click "individuals" on top of site, the display message I mentioned earlier appeared.
Anyone please help...

Date is May 11th.

Try clearing your cache so that your computer doesn't keep calling up the old response page to your original search.

(I'm having no trouble on the link given above).

Might I suggest giving up with Machiavellian voyages-sncf.com and using either:

(1) www.capitainetrain.com (in French, but SO easy to use, same prices as voyages-sncf, no fees, no payment problems, no Machiavellian tactics to divert you to rail Europe) or:

(2) www.loco2.com (in English, no fees, same prices as voyages-sncf.com but a percent or two lost in conversion to pounds)

This is very valuable information from Seat61. The redesign of the SNCF websites has succeeded in adding to the confusion of ticket research. I blame Cartesian logic. Everything is laid out in careful order, according to an unseen plan that is so complicated nothing can be understood. Michelin operates on the same basis.
I ran a little test on the three websites. Each has a certain quirkiness. Capitaine appears to operate only in French, always an adventure of its own. Loco quotes in British pounds so conversion to whatever dollar is in the customer's pocket may cost a couple of hidden percentage points. SNCF does provide the most information, suggesting more options but without helping the user know what the differences are. And the dread RailEurope bump can strike at random, or so it seems.
Bottom line: The prices were close enough to go with whichever seems the easiest, other options such as seat selection being equivalent.
So thanks to Seat61 I shall be changing my approach to riding SNCF's rails

When you use alternate sites, you might have difficulty if there is a problem with your order.

You should enter Lyon and as you are typing you will see Lyon Part Dieu in the autofill list below. Mouse over and click when it highlights and it will autofill. When you start typing Paris, you want to highlight select Paris all stations. Select your date, select your country as France. There should be no other selections except which train you want to book.

>>>Once I pressed enter, it transfered me to http://agencies.voyages-sncf.eu/en/ which I believe is for agent with user login.<<<

Are you selecting country before clicking search? If not, you need to.

FYI - When you get to the screen about how to collect your ticket, if you want the e-ticket it says you must have a Mastercard with Secure code. This is not the code from the back of your card. This is a code you have to set up with Mastercard.

http://www.mastercard.us/securecode.html

If you are traveling in two days, aren't you already in France? Can't you just buy a ticket there?

Ah yeh www.voyages-sncf.com is so so easy to use - that's what many folks say but they are experts at using it - novices often spend hours - flummoxing hours trying to figure it all out - not the piece of cake some make it out to be!

I booked there about two weeks ago, from the US, using my Amex card. I booked a TGV ticket from Paris to Luxembourg. I selected "France" as my "Ticket Collection Country," even though I would just be printing out my confirmation. If I chose "United States" as my collection country, I kept getting re-directed to Rail Europe.

I had read about issues with American credit cards detecting fraud when purchasing tickets via this site, so I called American Express ahead of time acnd asked them about it. The customer service agent boasted that Amex is now smart enough to detect automatically when you are going overseas, so I didn't even need to tell them I was traveling anymore! Great - but I'm still in the US buying a ticket on a French website... She noted it down, and two hours later on my first attempt, I bought my ticket successfully on the SNCF site.

I just tried searching the site for "Lyon Part Deux" to Paris (didn't type any specific station name), just the default it guessed for me - "TGV - all stations" and I got right to ticket selection.

I think the OP's problem is not selecting a country at all after entering the date and it is rolling over to an agent page.

>>>PalenQ on May 9, 13 at 10:10am
Ah yeh www.voyages-sncf.com is so so easy to use - that's what many folks say but they are experts at using it - novices often spend hours - flummoxing hours trying to figure it all out - not the piece of cake some make it out to be!<<<

Really? It's not hard to enter your cities, date, France as your country and select your train and click purchase.

It is really easy to use, but a lot of people cannot follow instructions and don't really explain what they are doing (the OP didn't say what URL they were using and what dates, for example).

It does NOT send you to any link about agencies if you start at simply www.voyages-sncf.com, then simply type in your departure and arrival points and dates at the left in the box named "reservez un billet de train", and then click on "rechercher". You get the tickets available and can then click on the buttons to buy one of them. It is really easy. They don't even ask you anything about your country at that point.

I suspect the issue is the OP is not really using the basic URL, nor the site in French, as once you start changing things is when these other issues come up (about country). I used the link kybourbon gave and nothing about agencies came up doing the same thing. And in fact, if you don't pick a country for collection when you are using that particular URL (which means you've said you are in some other country), it still just comes back with a box asking you to pick your country, it doesn't do that agency link.

So I suspect the OP is doing something that hasn't been described. I really don't know, but it sounds like they are in some part of the website for peopel who already have an account.

Thanks all for the response/advise. Man in seat 61's links are very helpful.

If you use sites other than the official site, you will not have the same ability to cancel/change/refund as you do with an official site.

WWW.voyages-sncf.com is totally intuitive. I can understand why Pal can't manage it, but most people who aren't high can figure out the French equivalents and get through it in a few minutes. As Christina says, all you have to do is punch in your departure place, your arrival place, your dates, how many people in your party, and which class you want..

The issue with American credit cards is another matter, which has been discussed here often. Seems Amex works pretty well, and PayPal.

I used the site in 2011 with my Visa debit card from the US with no problems. My tickets were printed in my hand within 10 minutes of getting to the site.