Don’t expect to book a Paris–Berlin or one Lyon–Vienna on SNCF Connect. The platform will stop marketing a large number of these international journeys from Thursday May 23. Itineraries including a train from a foreign company will no longer be sold, nor will it be possible to simply search for their timetables.
The error message “No journey matches your criteria” is now displayed when searching for a journey between two foreign stations or including a connection abroad.
However, it will still be possible to reserve a ticket Eurostar towards London Or Brusselsa journey to the Swiss with TGV Lyria or Barcelona with TGV inOui, these services being provided by SNCF and its international subsidiaries. Enter here France and the Germany Deutsche Bahn’s ICE trains (Paris-Stuttgart and Paris-Frankfurt) will still be offered since these services are provided as part of a cooperation. As for the Paris-Vienna night trains and Paris-Berlin from ÖBB, they are available at nightjet.com.
Many alternatives for international journeys
“This lack of possibility of reserving tickets for the summer raises questions about the importance given to these journeys by the SNCF. Service interruption prevents travelers from knowing about international journeys», Regrets Marc Sahuguet, co-founder of Railee, a European rail comparator. “This discourages the use of trains internationally, even though the challenges of decarbonization through the modal shift from plane to train have never been so important.», Adds Matthieu Marquenet, co-founder of Kombo, a French multimodal reservation platform.
Trainline, Rail Europe, Kombo… Travelers have no shortage of alternatives to SNCF Connect to plan their national and international journeys. These booking platforms have the advantage of selling tickets for hundreds of train and coach companies across Europe. They issue electronic tickets with QR code, whereas when booking via SNCF Connect, it is often necessary to collect a paper ticket at the counter or at a terminal.
Another solution: book the first part of your trip on SNCF Connect then the second on the local company’s website (Renfe for Spain CFF for Switzerland, SNCB for Belgium etc.). Finally, travelers who wish to obtain European train timetables without purchasing tickets can use the interrail Rail Planner, or that of Deutsche Bahn, DB Navigator.