Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
Posted 1 year ago
Hi,
according to https://m.ter.sncf.com/sud-provence-alpes-cote-d-azur/tarifs-cartes/cartes-reduction/tarifs-cartes-nationales-sncf Interrail and Eurail tickets are no longer valid on trains on TER Sud trains - these are the regional trains in the PACA (Provence Alps Cote d'Azur) region in the south of France (Marseille, Nice, Monaco, Avignon, Briancon,...).
This applies for all journeys within that region as well as for journeys to neighbouring region Occitanie (Montpellier, Nimes, Toulouse, Perpignan) and renders Interrail/Eurail pretty useless for visiting the region; you can still use the pass for long distance traffic (TGV to Lyon, Paris, Intercites to Toulouse, Bordeaux) as well as to neighbouring region Auvergne Rhone Alpes (Lyon, Grenoble, Clermont-Ferrand).
Well done to Interrail and the PACA region (apparently the region now wants to accept its own tickets/tariffs only and Interrail didnt know about it or didnt negotiate well); I am curious if this will last or if Interrail will find a solution in cooperation with the region.
I would recommend to write a lot of complaints...
Flo
MisterSteve
Traveller
896 comments
My guess is that that Interrail/Eurail hadn't a clue. Their homepage has a message starting "It has come to our attention....." about something that started last week. They then say "We are currently investigating the matter directly with SNCF .... to understand what this means for you as a traveller." That should be obvious, you aren't travelling! It opens up a lot of questions for France and other countries such as Germany. The rgeional trasnport authority is responsible for the financial aspects of the services, in France they pay SNCF to operate them. Clearly SNCF is receiving the agreed share of income from the sale of the passes, but are they sharing that out with the regions?
Who would you write a complaint to and what would you complain about? If SNCF failed to inform Interrail then all Interrail can do is offer refunds. If PACA are not being paid then they have a right to stop accepting the pass.
Arend7
Traveller
587 comments
Is TER sud actually part of SNCF?? As far as I can see TER sud is part of een private company called ZOU. But I have no idea if this company somehow is connected with SNCF!? I can't find where the letters ZOU stand for.
MisterSteve
Traveller
896 comments
Zou! is a brand name used by the PACA (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) regional transport authority, the trains are operated by SNCF on contract. All French regions do the same. A similar process applies in Germany (the federal Lands run regional transport) but there DB has to bid against other operators to get contracts. The question of how Interrail/Eurail revenue is divided up between operators, and whether the operators decalre that revenue to the authority that paid to run the trains could be at the hert of this problem.
Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
Well, you can complain at all involved parties basically; Interrail because they dont seem to care (and know) much about their own product, SNCF because, well, because they are SNCF and the region because they make international travel less attractive (I know I might exaggerate here a bit).
In Germany it works fine and Interrail/Eurail are accepted on almost all regional services (which are of course paid for by the different regions/states as well).
I could imagine that know Interrail knows about this issue there will be negotiations of some sort between all parties.
Luckily I am not personally affected and since it seems that passes/tickets bought before July 1 are not either most people who have bought discounted passes probably will be able to travel - but in general this is quite an embarassing situation for international train travel in general.
Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
Temporary solution: https://twitter.com/Interrail/status/1543989452229459968?s=20&t=sdgCRlClZZD-gebW-l-YSw
Lovis
Traveller
2 comments
I have been told that this issue has been solved…(July 6, 2022)
Is that Correct? Are Interrrail tickets valid in PACA region now - again?
I cannot find any info on this on SNCF pages…!
Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
Yes it is solved. Interrail is valid
Lovis
Traveller
2 comments
Thanks for this info!