Lille to Strasbourg

[williamn]

I’m provisionally planning a trip to Strasbourg from the UK in late January. Ideally changing in Lille.

I’ve two questions I wonder if forum members could help me with.

First, when are tickets likely to go on sale? It’s frustrating that the Eurostar is on sale but the TGV isn’t.

Second when I searched for fares for early January dates I was a bit staggered to find that it’s just shy of £150 return, Lille to Strasbourg. Is this typical? So much for trains on the continent being cheap…

 

[cjw714]

I don't know about the specifics of Lille to Strasbourg but when we were in France and Belgium last summer we were surprised by how expensive local train tickets were; it was a real disincentive to just jumping on a train and visiting some random small town.

 

[Chris Butler]

I’m provisionally planning a trip to Strasbourg from the UK in late January. Ideally changing in Lille.

I’ve two questions I wonder if forum members could help me with.

First, when are tickets likely to go on sale? It’s frustrating that the Eurostar is on sale but the TGV isn’t.

Second when I searched for fares for early January dates I was a bit staggered to find that it’s just shy of £150 return, Lille to Strasbourg. Is this typical? So much for trains on the continent being cheap…

I just came back from Italy and the reverse (Strasbourg to Lille) leg on Friday. Reservations were open almost exactly four months prior to our travel dates. As you say, a lot later than Eurostar.

We used InterRail, so I don't know about cost. It's InOui (eligible for InterRail) rather than OuiGo (not eligible) so that will impact pricing. It was well loaded even in 1st - although it was the Friday evening service.

By the way, it also serves some of the very little used LGV stations and is overtaken there by several other TGVs/ICEs.

 

[AdamWW]

I don't know about the specifics of Lille to Strasbourg but when we were in France and Belgium last summer we were surprised by how expensive local train tickets were; it was a real disincentive to just jumping on a train and visiting some random small town.

The thing that annoyed me was having a ticket on an overnight train plus a connection onto a local train being charged as two entirely separate journeys. I appreciate that's how it's going to be given the structure of French railways, but it's not how things used to work.

(Particularly annoying because I think the sleeper used to serve Hendaye, rather than chucking people out at Bayonne onto a connecting train).

 

[30907]

I’m provisionally planning a trip to Strasbourg from the UK in late January. Ideally changing in Lille.

I’ve two questions I wonder if forum members could help me with.

First, when are tickets likely to go on sale? It’s frustrating that the Eurostar is on sale but the TGV isn’t.

Should be fairly soon IIRC

Second when I searched for fares for early January dates I was a bit staggered to find that it’s just shy of £150 return, Lille to Strasbourg. Is this typical?

You need to choose the 2x daily direct train for the best fares - EUR92 seems to be the lowest at a quick search, but EUR 114-120 is more typical.
SNCF doesn't seem to discount fares involving a connection, though I haven't done a detailed check.

 

[MarcVD]

If you want something cheaper, you might want to try Lille-Tournai-Brussels-Luxembourg by SNCB and then Luxembourg-Metz-Strasbourg by TER SNCF Grand Est.

 

[williamn]

hould be fairly soon IIRC

Looks like 12 Nov having tracked down the right page in SNCF’s site. By which time the Eurostar fares will probably have risen significantly… (I may not go via Lille if it is prohibitively expensive).

Every experience of SNCF recently sees them dropping down my internal list of European railway rankings!

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Its c 400 miles Lille to Strasbourg on the through TGV service - same as KX to Edinburgh - so EUR 92 return doesn't seem that outrageous. Sadly you can't take the traditional 'boat train' route Lille to Strasbourg via Sedan and Metz any longer - there are no through services and the very few local services that remain do not connect.

 

[Starmill]

Eurostar is pretty much never 'cheap'. That includes Eurostar Continental. I'm not sure who reckoned that were true but if someone did suggest it they were very much mistaken!!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Oct 2025 ==

Its c 400 miles Lille to Strasbourg on the through TGV service - same as KX to Edinburgh - so EUR 92 return doesn't seem that outrageous. Sadly you can't take the traditional 'boat train' route Lille to Strasbourg via Sedan and Metz any longer - there are no through services and the very few local services that remain do not connect.

Indeed. I think the only feasible option for reservation free travel is the above mentioned route via Tournai and Luxembourg, but that'll still be quite expensive when all added together. It's also possible to use ICE International without a reservation and change at Frankfurt (Main) and Offenburg. However this will probably be even more expensive.

 

[williamn]

Its c 400 miles Lille to Strasbourg on the through TGV service - same as KX to Edinburgh - so EUR 92 return doesn't seem that outrageous. Sadly you can't take the traditional 'boat train' route Lille to Strasbourg via Sedan and Metz any longer - there are no through services and the very few local services that remain do not connect.

92 would be fine, but looking at the dates on sale in early January €160 was the cheapest on sale.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Oct 2025 ==

Eurostar is pretty much never 'cheap'. That includes Eurostar Continental

Eurostar isn’t often cheap but the general public perception is that rail travel on the continent is much cheaper than in the uk, which a lot of the time I don’t think is true.

 

[Starmill]

92 would be fine, but looking at the dates on sale in early January €160 was the cheapest on sale.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Oct 2025 ==


Eurostar isn’t often cheap but the general public perception is that rail travel on the continent is much cheaper than in the uk, which a lot of the time I don’t think is true.

Indeed. TGV trains are generally priced far closer to what will have them run full rather than in this country where it's less important to sell all the seats but no more, and more important to focus on revenues. Accordingly if a TGV is lightly loaded it'll probably seem really good value. Most TGVs aren't lightly loaded, so most trains will be middle of the road to expensive. Of course a rather large number are also sold out, which takes away the ability to actually see an implied very expensive price. TGVs running internationally are usually at a significant premium, although none as much as Eurostar.

 

[nwales58]

Indeed. TGV trains are generally priced far closer to what will have them run full rather than in this country where it's less important to sell all the seats but no more, and more important to focus on revenues.

Also in britain we fix the timetable then try to maximise yield, sort of.

SNCF adapts the TGV timetable as part of yield maximisation (and is not afraid to leave sets idle on non-peak days).

 

[dutchflyer]

1.for more help on finding cheap fares, always, always quote at least age-and if you may belong to some special category. The route via BElgium becomes much cheaper for any senior >65 f.e. And the SNCF TER locals are also reduced then. For small groups there may also be significant reductions.
2. more chance on a lower priced combo by going via Paris- Nord and Est are nearly adjacent-no need for metro, and from Est there are also still a few slower, now run as TER, but still direct trains to Strasbourg, these were even offered for ´free´ to german Juniors holding their DE-Ticket last summer-but they DO require REServations still. But then I assume you would want to avoid that routing.
(PS/BTW-here on the ´continent´ are far, far more really low priced offers-for anyone or even more for such special categories, but not as single/return, but for longer periods as UK can offer). And much, much less as that infinite number of fare categories for local trains by time-though I understand thats mostly for to LONdon.

 

[otter11]

We did London to Strasbourg earlier this year, and decided to go via Paris rather than Lille. The journey time is quicker in most cases and the change from Gare du Nord to Gare de L'Est is very easy, 10 mins walk.
From a cost point of view it means you get a choice of many departures from Paris to Strasbourg and many more London to Paris eurostars, which means more chance of finding something affordable. There are also Ouigo options if you're looking to save more money, but some are slower (Ouigo is already bookable for late January, just beware of the luggage restrictions).

We left 1 hour between trains on the outward journey, and 1.5 hours on the return journey (to account for the Eurostar check-in). This was more than enough time and due to HOTNAT we would have been protected and booked on the next train if the Eurostar had been delayed (NB Ouigo is not included in HOTNAT).

 

[rvdborgt]

I just came back from Italy and the reverse (Strasbourg to Lille) leg on Friday. Reservations were open almost exactly four months prior to our travel dates.

Sometimes it's like that, but certainly not always. It depends on the time of the year, the type of train and the destination.
SNCF have a special page where you can check when reservations open. It's the French page because last time I checked, the English page wasn't as detailed.

 

[Freemo]

I'm doing this trip later this year, a couple of points:

- for some reason the 11.04 Eurostar to Lille (an Amsterdam service) which connects to one of the twice daily direct Lille to Strasbourg TGVs sometimes doesn't appear on booking engines until the three month horizon usual for UK trains rather than the much earlier Eurostar window. This may be true of others. I think it might have something to do with potential for engineering work on the Amsterdam route. If this train isn't appearing then you aren't seeing the full picture (although it probably won't be cheaper or quicker than via Paris either way as mentioned above).

- Depending on what else you have planned and especially if starting the journey outside London, Interrail may be cheaper when they have their Black Friday sale in the next month or so, particularly in First class. You need to account for the price of the pass plus reservation fee of €35/40 for Eurostar and €10 or €20 for TGV per person per train. Covered here: https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm

Possible also that the only tickets you can currently see are getting heavily booked for the New Year return to work?

 

[brooklynbound]

Given Eurostar Lille fares are almost the same as Paris I'd expect it's cheaper to travel that way.

 

[Jamesrob637]

I don't know about the specifics of Lille to Strasbourg but when we were in France and Belgium last summer we were surprised by how expensive local train tickets were; it was a real disincentive to just jumping on a train and visiting some random small town.

To the point where a rover is often not much more than a return/two singles.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Indeed. I think the only feasible option for reservation free travel is the above mentioned route via Tournai and Luxembourg, but that'll still be quite expensive when all added together. It's also possible to use ICE International without a reservation and change at Frankfurt (Main) and Offenburg. However this will probably be even more expensive.

Doesn't look to be massively expensive overall using classic trains only.
The metro to Tourcoing and the train to Kortrijk seems to be around €5-10.
SNCB from the French to the Luxembourgish border shouldn't be horrendously expensive.
It seems to be €26 single a week in advance from Kortrijk to Troisvierges.
Trains in LU are of course free in second class.
Luxembourg to Strasbourg seems to be €32.60 using TER, but as another member mentioned, age related discounts are available. It depends what you value I guess, time or money!

 

[johncrossley]

The metro to Tourcoing and the train to Kortrijk seems to be around €5-10.

You can cut costs even more by walking to Mouscron (about 30 minutes) from the closest metro station.

 

[rvdborgt]

It seems to be €26 single a week in advance from Kortrijk to Troisvierges.

That's the full maximum domestic fare, so it's the same from Mouscron. It will go down on 15/10 and will then be €20.90, or €14 with the new Train+ card (€3 for 1 month introduction offer). Age discounts available.

 

[AlastairFraser]

You can cut costs even more by walking to Mouscron (about 30 minutes) from the closest metro station.

True!

That's the full maximum domestic fare, so it's the same from Mouscron. It will go down on 15/10 and will then be €20.90, or €14 with the new Train+ card (€3 for 1 month introduction offer). Age discounts available.

Even better! What a world away from absurd British fares. At less than 60 euros overall if you use the TER Lille Flandres to Mouscron instead of the metro and TER to Kortrijk, I guess any alternative routing Lille to Strasbourg (including Ouigo) would only be cheaper without luggage.

 

[rvdborgt]

Lille Flandres to Luxembourg is currently €28.10 (age discounts available) on www.b-europe.com if you choose a journey with regular trains (via Kortrijk or Tournai). This will also become cheaper from 15/10.

 

[williamn]

True!

Even better! What a world away from absurd British fares. At less than 60 euros overall if you use the TER Lille Flandres to Mouscron instead of the metro and TER to Kortrijk, I guess any alternative routing Lille to Strasbourg (including Ouigo) would only be cheaper without luggage.

Plenty of British fares will be much cheaper if you take a very convoluted and slower alternative route too.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Plenty of British fares will be much cheaper if you take a very convoluted and slower alternative route too.

Not usually reliably cheaper Anytime fares though!