Is is possible/practical to travel from St. Malo in Brittany to Charleroi in Belgium by way of using TER services? Breaking the journey overnight would not be an issue, and avoiding Paris a bonus - but not essential.
I would be arriving at St. Malo Port at 08:15 ex the overnight ferry from Portsmouth and I could leave after midday to give myself a few hours to see the town.
Yes it is easily possible to do that journey both entirely on TER trains and entirely avoiding the Paris region.
You would have to take seven trains as follows:
• Saint Malo to Dol De Bretagne
• Dol De Bretagne to Granville
• Granville to Caen
• Caen to Rouen Rive Droite
• Rouen Rive Droite to Lille Flandres
• Lille Flandres to Maubeuge
• Maubeuge to Charleroi
It is possible to do entirely in one day if you allow Belgian intercity trains to be used from Lille onwards:
• 10:21 Saint Malo to Dol De Bretagne 10:37
• 11:59 Dol De Bretagne to Granville 12:56
• 13:06 Granville to Caen 14:43
• 16:08 Caen to Rouen Rive Droite 17:48
• 18:22 Rouen Rive Droite to Lille Flandres 21:07
• 22:09 Lille Flandres to Gint Sint Peters 23:24
• 23:48 Gint Sint Peters to Brussels South 00:17
• 00:25 Brussels South to Charleroi 01:23
If you are very lucky and manage to make a two minute connection at Lille then you can get there an hour earlier:
• 10:21 Saint Malo to Dol De Bretagne 10:37
• 11:59 Dol De Bretagne to Granville 12:56
• 13:06 Granville to Caen 14:43
• 16:08 Caen to Rouen Rive Droite 17:48
• 18:22 Rouen Rive Droite to Lille Flandres 21:07
• 21:09 Lille Flandres to Kortrijk 21:45
• 22:11 Kortrijk to Brussels South 23:20
• 23:32 Brussels South to Charleroi 00:29
Both of these option above use Belgian intercity trains so i am not sure whether you would count these as they are not a TER equivalent. But at least they get you there all in one day. So no extra hotel costs.
The following options below use Belgian S Trains which are their equivalent to TER trains.
You could do the following from Saint Malo to the Belgian border in one day but unfortunately you miss the last connecting Belgian train:
• 10:21 Saint Malo to Dol De Bretagne 10:37
• 11:59 Dol De Bretagne to Granville 12:56
• 13:06 Granville to Caen 14:43
• 16:08 Caen to Rouen Rive Droite 17:48
• 18:22 Rouen Rive Droite to Lille Flandres 21:07
• 21:35 Lille Flandres to Maubeuge 22:53
OVERNIGHT
• 06:45 Maubeuge to Charleroi 07:41
(or frequent later trains from Maubeuge at 06:45 07:45 09:45 11:45 13:45 15:45 17:45 19:45 20:45 if you want to leave later)
The trains from Saint Malo to Dol De Bretagne are frequent but the next train from Dol De Bretagne after 11:59 is the 18:33 so you would have to overnight in Caen if you want to leave Saint Malo later:
• 18:05 Saint Malo to Dol De Bretagne 18:21
• 18:33 Dol De Bretagne to Granville 19:42
• 19:53 Granville to Caen 21:31
OVERNIGHT
• 08:07 Caen to Rouen Rive Droite 09:49
• 11:18 Rouen Rive Droite to Lille Flandres 14:07
• 14:35 Lille Flandres to Maubeuge 15:47
• 17:45 Maubeuge to Charleroi 18:48
So there are a few options of where you can stay overnight along the route.
These are just examples and there are other places you can break your journey or take an earlier train or later train if you want more time to explore one of the intermediate towns.
The timetables for each line on this journey can be downloaded at these links here:
• Saint Malo to Dol De Bretagne timetable:
• Dol De Bretagne to Granville timetable:
• Granville to Caen timetable:
• Caen to Rouen Rive Droite timetable:
• Rouen Rive Droite to Lille Flandres timetable:
• Lille Flandres to Maubeuge timetable:
• Maubeuge to Charleroi timetable:
You may find it convinient to look at these and work out if you wish to break your journey somewhere else along the way.
