International Free Pass

[iknowyeah]

I'll be travelling on Dutch and Belgian free passes for a couple of days next month, I was wondering if I'll need to buy a ticket for my return journey as I will be finishing in Lille, or will my pass be accepted as it is a Belgian train?

 

[306024]

Your international free coupon is valid firstly for that particular country only, and secondly only on operators within that country that are part of the scheme (so not Thalys for example).

So if you are travelling from somewhere in Belgium to Lille you will need to purchase a FIP ticket using your FIP card (the small grey one) from the Belgian / French border station to Lille. This can be done at any Belgian booking office in advance, they'll know which station is considered the border for ticketing purposes.

The country that provides the train is irrelevant. Hungary provide rolling stock for a train from Budapest to Hamburg for example, but you wouldn't get to travel right across the Czech Republic and Germany on just a Hungarian pass.

Have a good read of the staff travel section of the Rail Delivery Group website, lots of useful information there.

 

[iknowyeah]

Thanks, I've booked my outward on the Thalys, but did not want to use my French pass for a 10 minute journey, I'll buy the ticket before departure

 

[306024]

Very wise, I do similar rather than waste a pass for a short hop.

I've now had a chance to look at my Thomas Cook rail atlas of Europe, which shows the border stations with a red dot. Those near Lille are Tourcoing and Baisieux on the conventional routes, but on the high speed route there are no stations so I'm not so sure what would happen if your train uses the high speed line.

Brussels travel centre will be best placed to advise if you are passing there.

 

[iknowyeah]

I'll be travelling from Waregem, so I imagine it will be Tourcoing on the way into Lille Flandres

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

Tourcoing is indeed the frontier station. The high speed line is used only by TGV, Thalys and ES trains. Depending on how desperate you are to avoid paying SNCF, you can also take 'the Mongey' (ie. an interurban-ish tram) from Tourcoing to Lille, the tram stop is about 400m from the station and the fare is EUR1,60. If you go to Lille this weekend, be aware that 'La Braderie' the largest street market on Earth (well, Europe anyway) is on and the place will be mobbed. You might, though, pick up something there that's even more of a bargain than the Mongey....

 

[dutchflyer]

For INTernational transport/fares, stations do not normally apply, nor mostly companies, but so-called Border tariff-points. INTernatioal-SCIC fares are simply added up per country traversed. You canNOT buy that at any BE-station, as it must have a special INTernational ticketwindow and only the larger ones have that (comparable to BR just still a few years back).
BUT this wont be cheap, as there is also a 7 eur handling fee to be coughed up. Thats for normal tix, I DK about FIP and all that. Online there is no fee.
To please the local passenger, there are thus cheaper and no-extra-fee tickets fro the area ONLY sold at the normal windows in the area (and possible via local machines), search for ''trampoline''. Its however a lot cheaper to bus it over border and change into tram or metro from Transpole, f.e. there is the MRT bus Mouscron-Roubaix. on ALl transpole tickets you also have to pay an extra 20 or 30 cents to get that chipped card-its re-usable. And again-do NOT forget to validate=touch in!
Its also a short walk from Komen/Comines to same-named FR side, with frequent direct bus to Lille or maybe still the odd peak-hour train?

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

And I dare say that if you asked the Belgian train crew nicely when your ticket is checked in Belgium whether you mind staying on it to go to Lille, then you will be fine. Put it down to the power of FIP. (NB. the train is crewed by SNCB/NMBS all the way to Lille, ie there is no changeover to SNCF personnel.

 

[reb0118]

I did a similar journey recently. From Maastricht to Rijsel/Lille. I had coupons for The Netherlands [NS] & Belgium [NMBS/SNCB] but not France [SNCF]. I bought a FIP ticket from the "Gare Frontier" to Lille for a few Euros. Mind you only get 50% discount for an "international" journey.

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

 

[iknowyeah]

Thanks for all the advice! I think I'll stay on the train as I want to spend a couple of hours in Lille before my Eurostar back!