bikes on French trains

rich_pcp

How easy is it to take a fully laden bike on a local/regional train en France? Not a TGV. I'm taking a ferry from Newhaven to Le Havre and ideally would like to travel 100 miles or so south to start the tour off further south due to time limitations but I'm not sure what sort of trains or rules there are.
Any advice gratefully received

cthompso

It can be tricky, you're not allowed to carry a fully laden bike on all trains - at least make sure the trains you're aiming for have the bike symbol next to them (at http://www.voyages-sncf.fr) - take one of these and you'll have no problems.

There's a definitive guide (in french) at: http://www.velo.sncf.com/

Worst case, the french can often pretty flexible in bending the rules particularly if you are travelling off-peak..

stinger67

Bikes and French trains ... words that always make me shudder! :shock:

I'm going back a bit, early 90's, but may still be relevant today - sure someone will have more up-to-date knowledge?

Planned the same Newhaven route but to Dieppe. We arrived about midnight and straight away we had problems getting on the train - we had the bikes in cardboard bike boxes as well thinking that they would be treated as large bits of luggage? No chance, empty luggage/guards carriage and we were refused entry to the train unless we paid a supplement - apparentely this was normal? And we got this on nearly every train we got on in France, nightmare, we didn't expect it and it took a large chunk of our money for the trip at one point we were threatened with having our passports confiscated and being thrown off the train - we were refusing to pay! We only had a short time so wanted to get south quickly. No problems in Spain though, no one batted an eyelid.

We look back on it as a bit of fun now and at one point likened it to being pow's trying to get back to England without being noticed .... but at the time, not funny!

Do your research and check things first.

We were told you are supposed to send your bike on a different train ahead of you and pick it up later, dunno why but that was the rules. Might be different now?

rich_pcp

I have done some research and found much of what you say. I was hoping that someone would have a more optimistic view but I think I'll just cycle from the port. It's very irritating that a country that supposedly loves cycling is no better (and possibly worse) than ours at train+bike.

wallabyhunter

Watching with interest. I may have to use the trains soon, so thanks for the post


24 days & 6 hours to go... ... but who's counting?
www.letourgb.com

wjhall

Came back Rennes-St Malo yesterday (29 May 08) with son and his bicycle, without problems. Mostly the TER trains (Regional Express) on this route are marked as carrying bicycles. This was a modern one, and there were three bikes hung on the hooks in the bike space, and two in the luggage space, where our baggage also was. Most of the others seemed to be commuters.

Le Havre possibly less well served, but you can check whether bikes are allowed on the SNCF Voyages web site. This suggests that the TER here also carry bicycles.

(Somebody here seems to have a complaint about Le Havre, about travelling on a train not marked on the leaflet, although the worst the conductor did was make him take his bike off the hooks, and put it in the corridor:

http://www.corail-en-retard.com/index.p ... &Itemid=38)


You will need to try the voyages sncf website for the trains you want. (The long link below may take you directly to a page giving le havre - rouen trains for tomorrow as an example, but you will probably be better to enter your own details from the search page.

When you have the list of trains, click on the "détails" box for each train and it will give the symbols applying to the train.

May also be possible to write to the SNCF, or a tourist office and ask for a copy of the timetable leaflet.


http://www.voyages-sncf.com/dynamic/_Sv ... Fare_03138

psmiffy

not had problems with local trains - can normally travel reasonable distanes quite quickly by linking them together- being fully loaded can be a problem (same in most countries) but i just make sure my luggage is managable seperate from bike - tie panniers together in 2 sets and tent and rest of junk into a large plastic bag that sort of balances on rack while dashing from platform to platform

wjhall

Comparing the two halves of the trip, the "bikes and French trains ... make me shudder" remarks seems rather strange, although I can see from the FUBICY guide that life is not always a bed of roses:

France: Plenty of space, for luggage and bikes, attractively priced walk up tickets valid at least a month, cycle capacity clearly marked in the timetable, clean new trains. Other people travellilng with bikes, although the ungrateful French do not appear to overcrowd the TERs, which I assume are provide more as a basic infrastructure than because there is enough custom.

UK: Spent two hours eating a subway sandwich at Portsmouth station whilst waiting for the Bristol train on which we had had to reserve, using very cheap fares booked two months in advance for one train only, but not actually much cheaper than the French walk up unlimited validity equivalents. FGW train space for two bikes, and advance reservation compulsory. Greeted at the ticket barrier with "Do you have a reservation for the bike?". "Yes", I smiled triumphantly.

At least the bike cubby holes on the 158s have been opened out, and the luggage space increased. Train squalid, despite recent refurbishment, although assume this is the UK public rather than the train company. General leakage of diesel fumes into the compartment. Few travellers. Extra bike spaces in the attached 150, making up 5 coaches, although you would not have been allowed to use them and probably could not reserve above the nominal two.

Having chosen to spend the last half hour on the platform, for a change of scene, fascinated to see that despite the FGW obsession with preventing their trains being overcrowded by cyclists and the notorious overcrowding in peak hours of their 3 coach trains, a SW trains 12 coach train with about 1-6 passengers on each train was stopping about every ten minutes in each direction. (Incidentally marked as 3 bike spaces roughly every three units.) This being about 2000.