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Jrednall
Traveller
1 comments

Posted 9 years ago

Hi.
I'm going on my first interrail trip in early September for two weeks and have already booked my eurostar ticket from London to Paris. Following a short stay there I'm travelling down to Lugano, Switzerland on Tuesday 9th September and have noticed that a reservation is required for the TGV train Paris to Zurich. Although I understand that many reservations can be made at stations when travelling I wanted to make sure that the first leg of my trip was organised and I can go from there. However, after calling the Deutsche Bahn Booking Center, which the official interrail website recommended to make the reservation, they stated that they were unable to do this and instead to contact the SNCF. I have subsequently been on their site and have marked that I want to make a 'Seat Reservation' for this route but it has come up with a price of £32! Is this firstly correct or have I done something wrong and is there another way I can make this reservation?

I'd appreciate any help as this is the first time I have organised this sort of trip and even though I have over 2 months before I go, I would like to make strategic preparations.

Many thanks

James

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Flo
Traveller
10723 comments

replied 9 years ago

Hi James

I hope you will buy/already bought your InterRail pass at [ux]https://rail.shop/interrail[/ux] to support our work and the free information you get on railcc. Thank you. Otherwise you should ask where you bought your ticket.

For InterRail reservations in France, please also use our affiliate link [ux]https://rail.shop/sncf/reservation[/ux]

The reservation fare for InterRail for TGV Lyria (France - Switzerland) sadly has risen steeply this year to 29 GBP (when booked through above link). :(
I would recommend to instead travel with TGV only to a station before Switzerland, in your case the best option would be Mulhouse. That would be 5,50 GBP only; then continue with local trains to Zürich (change in Basel required but no further reservations). That way you would lose about one hour but save quite a bit of money.

Deutsche Bahn is unable to make reservations for TGV Lyria services since the beginning of this year.


Flo 8)

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Jrednall
Traveller
1 comments

replied 9 years ago

Excellent, thank you very much, this is fantastic and prompt advice. I will be sure to purchase my pass through your site!

James