Last update for this page: 21 March 2008.
National Railway System: Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (SNCF). Infrastructure is owned and managed by Réseau Ferré de France (RFF).
Thalys services are managed jointly with the Belgian, German and Netherlands railways. Eurostar services are managed jointly with Belgian railways and Eurostar (UK) Ltd.
Voies Ferrées Locales et Industriales (VFLI) is a SNCF subsidiary which contracts for the operation of certain secondary lines.
Language: French. Breton is spoken in Brittany, but the visitor is likely to be aware of this only in the form of signs as most people speak French. There is limited use of Basque in the Pyrenees and German in Alsace.
UIC code: SNCF is 87. Eurotunnel is 69, but this is used only for accounting purposes and does not appear on rolling stock.
Currency: Euro
Timetable: The Indicateur Officiel is issued twice per year in three volumes covering the North East, South East and West of France (the west one is entitled Reseau Atlantique) and one (Services offerts et Relations transversales) giving general information (including the overall station index and "transversal" or cross-country services). Extremely rudimentary route diagrams are provided for each regional volume, which indicate (not always accurately) those lines with direct services to Paris and those without. No distinction is made between railways and bus routes. Principal stations are marked. A small scale SNCF national route diagram is included in the Services offerts et Relations transversales volume. A map of the passenger system is also available at the SNCF corporate website.
Although the South East volume includes SNCM ferries to Corsica, no details of the Cross-Channel ferry services operated by SNCF's associated company, SeaFrance, appear in any volume. The timetables are printed entirely in French, poorly laid out with a significant number of recurring errors / omissions - and by far the most expensive of any European country. Printed timetables are not sold at stations, but are available on subscription from SNCF Documents Clientèle, Service Vente par Correspondence, La Grande Brèche, 6 rue Désir Prévost, F-91070 Bondoufle. Timetables can be purchased over the counter at La Vie du Rail, 11 Rue de Milan, Paris (near Paris St Lazare station) on Mondays to Fridays, 09:00 - 18:00. The regional volumes do not include Paris suburban services, which are available in a separate series of booklets (including RATP RER services), sold from bookstalls at main Paris stations (but usually only for the line through that station); route diagrams are provided in these Paris suburban booklets. It is possible to buy a copy of the national timetable on CD-ROM at station bookstalls.
Small leaflets, known as Fiches Horaires, giving times for most main and secondary routes, are available free of charge from racks at main stations. You can create bespoke fiches at the Voyages-SNCF website.
For most French local government Régions, local train services are now operated by SNCF under contract, under the title TER Transports Express Régionaux. Timetables are available as fiches horaires (the comprehensive timetable books - Guide Régional des transports - seem largely to have been abandoned). Alternatively, fiches can be downloaded through the SNCF TER website - click on the interactive map for the region sought, then click on Cartes et Horaires in the blue menu bar in the heading. For most regions, engineering works pop up in the main window.
Gauge: Standard. The following SNCF lines are metre gauge: Villefranche-Vernet-les-Bains to La Tour-de-Carol-Enveitg, St Gervais-les-Bains-le-Fayet to Chamonix-Mont-Blanc and Salbris to Luçay-le-Male.
Electrification: Main lines from Paris to Le Mans, Hendaye, Toulouse, Marseille and Modane, together with many associated routes are 1500V dc. Other standard gauge lines are 25kV 50Hz. All high speed lines (Lignes à Grande Vitesse) are 25kV 50Hz, except for the Contournement TGV de Tours (Montlouis to Monts Indre et Loire) which can be used by conventional trains and is, therefore, 1500V dc. Villefranche-Vernet-les-Bains to La Tour-de-Carol-Enveitg is 850 volts dc third rail and St Gervais-les-Bains-le-Fayet to Chamonix-Mont-Blanc is 750 volts dc third rail. All 750 volts dc third rail operation has been eliminated from the SNCF Paris suburban network.
Rule of the road: Left, except in Alsace and Lorraine which were part of Germany between 1871 and 1918, where right hand running is the rule and German-style signalling can still be found. The change from left to right hand running is made on the flat at Mulhouse, but at all other locations there are flyovers. These are west of Molsheim, west of Sarrebourg, north of Ars-sur-Moselle, west of Rombas-Clouange, west of Fontoy and as part of the LGV Est junction at Baudrecourt. The arrangements at Ars-sur-Moselle, near Metz, are particularly complicated as the railway is quadruple track. Reversible signalling is extensively used.
Other railways
Eurotunnel SA, in partnership with UK company Eurotunnel plc, has a concession to operate the Channel Tunnel between Calais and Folkestone.
Veolia Transport (formerly Connex) - through its Sociéte Générale de Chemin de fer et de Transports Automobiles (CFTA) subsidiary - operate freight services over various SNCF lines, and also passenger trains on the branches from Guingamp to Carhaix and Paimpol and a number of tourist lines (see their website) and directly some urban tram systems.
Tourist lines
The best available list of French tourist lines is provided by the Union des Exploitants de Chemins de Fer Touristiques et de Musées (UNECTO) (a grouping of preserved and tourist lines) website. Fortunately the information given is not limited to UNECTO members. Similar information is often published in spring issues of French railway magazines. Some tourist trains operate over RFF freight lines and are, therefore, susceptible to suspension or withdrawal. Most lines operate quite infrequently, fortnightly from May to September being typical.
Rail cycling is possible on a number of lines - see the Vélos-rail de France website. These lines are also shown - as Cyclorail, Cyclo-draisine or Vélorail - in the UNECTO list.
Metro: The Trams in France website provides comprehensive information, apart from Rennes.
Trams: The Trams in France website provides comprehensive information. All French tram systems are either of recent construction or extensively modernised. The Lyon tramway is being extended east of Part-Dieu to Meyzieu, using tracks of the former Chemin de Fer de l'Est Lyonnais. Part of the Valenciennes system is over the trackbed of the former Chemin de Fer d'Anzin.
itransports.fr is a web site about public transport provision with zoomable geographical maps showing all public transport stations and stops. It includes trams, funiculars, etc., and local bus facilities in and around various towns (including Rennes).
Recent and future changes
A significant number of local passenger services, mainly in rural areas, were withdrawn during the the late 1930s and again in the 1980s, but in most parts of France the Regional Councils now have a strong role in planning and funding local transport and are keen to promote railways. The exception, alas, is lines crossing Regional boundaries and where extensive deferred track maintenance has been in force - hence the closures of the lines between Volvic and Lapeyrouse (December 2007) and between Montluçon and Eygurande-Merlines (March 2008). Many councils are funding new rolling stock and are requiring SNCF to introduce improved timetables.
Regional Councils have, over recent years, expressed intentions of reintroducing passenger services on the following lines with little or no tangible result: Niort - Fontenay-le-Comte, Chartres - Voves (and eventually Orléans), Orléans - Châteauneuf-sur-Loire, Quillan - Perpignan (the latter partly reopened for seasonal tourist service), Oloron Ste.Marie - Bedous (and eventually Canfranc), [Avignon -] Sorgues - Carpentras, Nantes - Nort-sur-Edre (and eventually Châteaubriant). The reopening of the Meyrargues - Pertuis (only temporarily bus substituted again, during engineering work on the Marseille - Aix-en-Provence line) and Cannes - Grasse lines and the reintroduction of Monday to Friday local services between Aulnoye- Aymeries / Maubeuge and Quévy (Belgium) are exceptions to the general lack of progress - even though SNCF seem determined to go out of their way to sabotage the latter service by continuing to exclude it from their Nord-Est timetable! Similarly, recently introduced weekend services between Mulhouse and Müllheim (Germany) and between Metz and Trier (Germany) via Apach - sponsored by the Council - are poorly publicised by SNCF and omitted from their timetable. The forthcoming closure of the Pornic and Croix-de-Vie-St.Gilles lines from autumn 2008 will only be temporary, for resignalling work.
Until recently, the only regular interval services operated by SNCF were on Paris suburban lines. The introduction of a regular interval service pattern on the high speed lines from Paris to Lille, Nantes and Lyon has resulted in increased traffic. However, the infrequent service on many lines reflects the sparse population in most of France and the relatively small size of many cities - or perhaps they reflect the demand for travel to work fifty or more years ago and do not meet the current needs of people working more flexibly or travelling for leisure. Certainly, the traveller on cross-country, secondary and tertiary routes will hanker for the frequency of service found on just about all other European systems while concluding that the travel writers who lavish their praise on the TGV network never tangle with the more backward parts of the SNCF system!
The opening in June 2007 of the Ligne á Grande Vitesse Est represents a further phase of the extension of this network. Other projects being considered or developed include extensions of existing lines to Rennes, Bordeaux, Perpignan, Modane (and Torino) and Genève, together with a new line, TGV Rhin-Rhône, from Lyon to Dijon and Mulhouse.
A west-facing curve off the Alès line is to be built at Nîmes, so that passenger trains no longer need to reverse at Courbessac. A light rail system is being developed in Mulhouse, which may incorporate various closed or freight only lines. Conversion of the Kruth branch is under way as the first phase.
The ligne du haut-Bugey, Bourg-en-Bresse - La Cluse - Bellegarde, will be modernized, electrified, and, in part, reopened, offering a shorter and faster route to Genève, mainly for TGV's from Paris, whose timing is expected to improve by 30 minutes. However its alignment will remain lartgely unchanged.
Special Notes
Many SNCF main lines are closed for several hours each day, usually during the morning, for maintenance. These blancs travaux can cause long gaps between trains. There is a growing tendency - in an endeavour to catch up with deferred track maintenance - for services to be replaced by buses for exstensive periods without this being shown in the timetable.
TTickets purchased in France need to be validated before boarding the train by inserting them in a yellow machine (composteur) at the platform entrance. This stamps them with the station name, date and time.
Reservations are obligatory for travel on TGV, Thalys, ICE, TEOZ and Eurostar services. However, subject to space being available, it is possible to change reservations up to the time of departure (or check-in time for Eurostar). If travel plans are not definite, it is best to reserve on a later train and change this for an earlier one if desired. Passengers on TGV or Thalys trains without a reservation, or with one for another train, have to pay a penalty charge. It is possible to make reservations on TGV, Thalys and Eurostar up to the time of departure (or check-in), including from intermediate stations, because reserved seats are not labelled. There are relaxations to the TGV reservation rules for local travel in areas such as Britanny where there are few other trains. The computerised reservation system tends to fill the seats in one coach before starting to allocate those in the next. Passengers are specifically requested to occupy their allocated seat on Eurostar, but conductors rarely object if passengers move to a more spacious area on TGV or Thalys. However, seats may be claimed by passengers joining the train later in the journey.
There are special fares for Thalys and Eurostar, and tickets for other trains are not valid.
Passengers boarding a train without a ticket or a valid reservation (when one is required) should advise the conductor immediately and a modest charge will be levied for purchasing a ticket on the train. Waiting until the conductor comes round the train to check tickets will result in a much higher penalty charge being payable.
A large number of local services and connections to TGV stations are operated by buses. Rail tickets are valid on bus services shown in the three regional railway timetables unless there is a note to the contrary.
SNCF operates the railway through Monaco, which does not have its own railway administration. Journeys between French stations and Monaco-Monte Carlo are regarded as domestic and are subject to SNCF conditions of carriage, not CIV.
Regional express (RER) suburban services in the Paris area are operated jointly by SNCF and RATP. Tickets such as InterRail and FIP are not valid on RER lines owned by RATP, but can be used on RATP trains working over SNCF lines. Holders of such tickets can obtain from booking offices free of charge a special pass (contremarque) to open the automatic gates at platform entrances.
Strikes (Grèves) are not uncommon on French railways. These may be localised and information about them may not be widely circulated elsewhere.
If a station name begins 'La' or 'Le', this is ignored in alphabetic indices; for example La Bastide-St Laurent-les-Bains is listed under B, and Le Havre under H. Treatment of places named after saints, of which there are a large number in France, varies. SNCF disregards gender, so Ste Gemme (female) comes between St Gely and St Genest (male) in the station index. However, in indices to Michelin guides and maps, female saints (Ste) all follow the male ones (St).
A website containing useful information is Caracteristiques des principales lignes SNCF which tabulates distances for each line listed.
Maps: Gérard Blier's book Nouvelle Géographie Ferroviaire de la France: Tome 2: L'Organisation Régionale du Trafic (ISBN 2-902808-43-7) contains a large number of maps and track layout diagrams. RFF's system maps are available via their website - in particular their National rail network plan. Privately produced maps/plans include Thorsten Büker's Map of France, Rail21's Le réseau ferré français and the Railway maps of France site.
Last complete update: 18 February 2008. Subsequent amendments: "Recent and future changes" and "Tourist Lines" amended (26 February 2008); "Recent and future changes" amended (21 March 2008).
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