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carujo
Traveller
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Posted 10 years ago

Good afternoon!

I'm not being able to find an answer for the following: are TER buses included in the InterRail global pass? They are operated by SNCF, the french railway company, but they are buses. Are they included or do we have to pay a supplement? I'm asking this because I'm planning my InterRail for the summer and there are no direct trains from Annemasse (France) to Geneve Eaux Vives (Switzerland) but there are these direct TER buses.

Thank you so much for your attention!

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nltrainer
Traveller
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replied 10 years ago

Varies. TER-buses are NOT operated by the always very strike-prone SNCF itself, but by subcontractors (many who are in fact owned by a subsidy of SNCF_in many ways the French economy resembles that of old CCCP=Soviets). They either replace trains on closed lines or substitute for trains out of service due to longtime works on the irons. Many regions have taken them over in their own plans and sometims merged them with their own intercity-buslines.
Acc. to the official leaflet (which is incomplete anyway for many countries) IR is accepted on SOME TER-routes-see that leaflet, it may even be linked somewhere on this site.
In my own experience I have used IR on many other TER-busroutes, the driver-who checks the tix, mostly does not seem to have any clue what that is, but nods OK in the end.
For that specific route you are-if challenged to pay- look at maybe like 1,50-2 eur, so I would not worry too much about this. As youth you still get 25% off. But I think you have 99,99% chance of going ''free''
Do you realise you get stranded in an outer part of Geneve and have to have exact money to pay for the tram-but I think you can also use EUR coins beside CHF? The walk Annemase-ExVv is much shorter as Eaux Vives-main station in GNV (=Cornavin)