“Full” or “not reservable”.
When trying to buy a TER ticket, you may have come across one of these two mentions on the SNCF Connect website or application.
Surprising when we know that regional trains do not require reservations: how, then, can we predict that all the seats will be occupied?
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On major departure days, such as at the start of school holidays or during long weekends, certain regions choose to block sales to prevent too many travelers from traveling standing up or on the ground.
In fact, a TER ticket does not guarantee having a seat, unlike a TGV inOui, Ouigo or Intercités ticket.
Contacted by
Le Figaro
, SNCF Voyageurs indicates that it carries out “
rigorous daily monitoring of the attendance of its trains, which makes it possible to identify periods of overload on specific journeys, on specific days and times.
It is only in these specific cases that the company takes the decision to close sales on certain trains, in order to guarantee travel in good conditions of safety and comfort for its customers.
»
Thus, according to our simulation carried out on February 7, half of the TER trains circulating between Lyon and Annecy (line which serves ski resorts in the Alps) are “full” on February 10, the first day of the zone C holidays.
Tickets still on sale at ticket counters and distributors
On the day of Saturday February 10, the start of the school holidays in zone C, half of the Lyon-Annecy TER trains are displayed “full” (simulation carried out on February 7).
SNCF Connect screenshot
Although the intention is laudable, this precaution can sometimes be counterproductive.
On social networks, passengers are surprised, with supporting photos, to board almost empty trains when they were supposed to be full.
Unable to purchase a ticket, some travelers switch to another train or choose another mode of transport.
“
Full trains can sometimes not be saturated on a small segment of the journey, but the data collected allows us to estimate that they will be full on a large majority of the journey
,” defends SNCF Voyageurs.
In this situation, the solution is to buy your ticket at a ticket office or at a TER vending machine (blue machines).
Or to book a ticket which runs at another time, a TER ticket being valid on all trains of the day on the chosen route.
But in either case, you run the risk of not finding a seat.
Towards compulsory reservation in TER?
Will it still be possible to board a TER unexpectedly?
Regional trains are the only ones to still offer total flexibility of access, with the advantage that the price of tickets, not subject to
yield management
(
i.e. the variation of prices according to demand, editor's note
), remains the same regardless of or the moment you buy it.
While compulsory reservations are becoming more common in our daily lives (to visit a museum, get a table at a restaurant, etc.), certain regions are considering implementing this formality.
For the moment, only Normandy requires reservations on TER lines departing from Paris, to Rouen, Le Havre or Deauville, in particular.
From July 6, 2024, this will also be the case on the Paris-Strasbourg and Paris-Mulhouse lines of the Grand Est network, as indicated by France Bleu.
For several years now, cycle tourists have already had to make a reservation to transport their bike in summer in most regions.
Optional reservation in Germany and Austria
The fact remains that these new formalities may not satisfy everyone, between on the one hand the passengers ready to make this small sacrifice to maintain their travel comfort, and on the other, the supporters of flexible access to trains , even if it means they are crowded.
If travelers are worried about the implementation of compulsory reservations, even more of them deplore the lack of seats and share photos of packed TER trains on social networks.
Germany and Austria seem to have found a compromise by offering for a long time optional and paid reservations in their long-distance trains, all accessible without reservation.
Passengers must pay a few euros extra to be guaranteed seated travel.
A small screen above the seat lets other travelers know if it is booked and, if so, between which stations.
At the time of booking, the Deutsche Bahn and ÖBB sites even display an estimate of the occupancy rate to help customers opt (or not) for the seat supplement.
An example to follow ?
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