Rail Rovers in France

[BrianP]

I am planning to travel in France by rail and would like to explore the Pas de Calais/Nord region in detail. Is it possible to get a rail rover for up to 7 days just for this area rather than purchase an Interrail whole country-ticket? Are there multi-day rail rover tickets covering a region of France similar to what we have in the UK? If so can someone point me to a link, please?

 

[Alfie1014]

There are few if any rgional 'tourist' passes for other than one day in France and in many cases these are only available in the high summer or at weekends. Though there are season tickets for commuters which may be zonal, (they are in Paris).

I think in Nord du pas Calais the only ticket available is the 72hour Lille City Pass which includes a 24 hour pass for all TER trains in the region. This is €45 and only available from the Lille City Tourist information office, not at SNCF stations. The 24 and 48hr passes only offer free travel on the city public transport not SNCF services.

http://en.lilletourism.com/city-pass.html

Pass 72 hours (45 €)

'Free access to over 26 museums, tourist sites and services during 72 hours + free access to network transport on Lille (metro, bus, tram) + benefits shopping and restaurants.

+ Free access to 14 museums, tourist sites and attractions on 7 areas in the Nord-Pas de Calais region during 72 hours + free unlimited access to TER region (SNCF) during 24 hours'

 

[BrianP]

Thanks for your advice and have studied the link. I may be able to use the 72h pass although it is not really what I want.

 

[30907]

http://www.sncf.com/fr/trains/ter is the place to start but there's nothing in Nord-PDC as far as I can see.

PS sorry it's in French, the English site is configured totally differently.

 

[CC 72100]

I am planning to travel in France by rail and would like to explore the Pas de Calais/Nord region in detail. Is it possible to get a rail rover for up to 7 days just for this area rather than purchase an Interrail whole country-ticket? Are there multi-day rail rover tickets covering a region of France similar to what we have in the UK? If so can someone point me to a link, please?

Hi,

With regional transport in France being managed by independent regions, things can vary massively between neighbouring regions - what is done in Haute Normandie may not be done in Basse Normandie! As a result, the promotions depend entirely on the region, and always are for that region only. What this means is that you have to check each region separately - some do offers, some don't.

I've just had a look at some of the regions, and for example in TER Pays de la Loire, they offer a 45 euro pass for 2 days consecutive unlimited travel on all TER services within the region - http://www.ter.sncf.com/pays-de-la-...e-la-loire/voyager-a-plusieurs/forfait-tribu/[tab]presentationdeforfaittribu

Looking at TER PACA (Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur), they do a day pass which allows unlimited travel in one of the départments which make up the PACA region as a whole. Regrettably, this is a summer only offer: http://www.ter.sncf.com/paca/offres/cartes-et-abonnements/zou-pass

The only other region that I am sure of having this sort of pass is of course the Ile-de-France region, which contains Paris and the départments around it. For all 5 'zones', it is currently 16 euros: http://www.transilien.com/static/tarifs/mobilis

It is valid on the metro, all buses in IDF, both suburban networks (RER + Transilien), and any TER or Intercités services which stop in the region before continuing their journey towards Provence, such as the Intercités services which call at Mantes-la-Jolie or the TER services which call at Rambouillet.

I hope the above is of some help - couldn't find anything else for Nord PDC.

 

[BrianP]

Many thanks again for these replies. I shall examine all the TER regional sites on a regular basis. Perhaps new offers like the one in the Loire region will appear elsewhere.

 

[Redonian]

The Pays de Loire Forfait Tribu is available only from May - September. It does cover an area slightly larger than The Pays de Loire TER but the map that was on the website seems to have disappeared.

 

[dutchflyer]

ONLY Paris area (IdF) AND ALSACE have any day passes-Alsace per deprmt or whole regio, also incl bus/tram.
The yearly Passes booklet of TR=Todays railways lists them all.
IF you can time it-often in sept during the European week of mobility there are many more local offers, but these change all the time and often are not accessible without local knowledge.
Nord does have very cheap country buses and even a sizeable network1,60/ride, transfers included.
Nord offers a kind of local railcard that gives you+ 3 or 4 fellow travellers, 25% (weekday) or 50% (weekend) discount. Cost is 7 eur, often reduced to just 1 on promotions.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Another snag may be that FR intends to simplify the regions by merging many of them-and thus all this may change again, I do not know on what term they think of doing that.

 

[CC 72100]

Another snag may be that FR intends to simplify the regions by merging many of them-and thus all this may change again, I do not know on what term they think of doing that.

Apologies for late response, I was waiting for the official vote results to be published.

Ministers have approved the new map, which will have 13 regions. One mega region from a land point of view is the new mega South West region of Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes. This region had land mass equivalent to 8x Ile-de-France, which may or may not gain département 60, "Oise", which is currently part of Picardie.

Other fusions seem more logical, such as the two Normadies, and Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardie becoming one whole region.

http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2014/1...ffpost-infographie-interactive_n_6336998.html

 

[Gordon]

Apologies for late response, I was waiting for the official vote results to be published.

Ile-de-France, which may or may not gain département 60, "Oise", which is currently part of Picardie.

Ile de France gaining Oise would be logical for gricers if not for historical purists. It would make the shape of Ile de France more balanced. Currently Ile de France, and therefore Mobilis rover tickets are valid much further out of Paris to the East (especially) than to the north.

Until now French regions improved on SNCF's tradtional aversion to regional rover tickets (or national come to that). On French railways, regular users and locals are deemed the most 'important' customers, so most travel deals are those that are available to regular travellers as extras to their commuter seasons, for example

 

[CC 72100]

Ile de France gaining Oise would be logical for gricers if not for historical purists. It would make the shape of Ile de France more balanced. Currently Ile de France, and therefore Mobilis rover tickets are valid much further out of Paris to the East (especially) than to the north.

Until now French regions improved on SNCF's tradtional aversion to regional rover tickets (or national come to that). On French railways, regular users and locals are deemed the most 'important' customers, so most travel deals are those that are available to regular travellers as extras to their commuter seasons, for example

That's very true actually, there are little tourist initiatives, with strong emphasis placed on giving the best deal to the 'bread and butter', day-in day-out user.

If Oise did become part of Idf, then that would 'even up' the geography of Ile de France considerably - you can go out of Paris some way East and certainly South, yet even bits of the RER are classed as part of a different region as things stand!