"Ridiculously cheap" tickets in France

[Porty]

Worth listening to Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast for today with details of some very low priced bus and train fares in some parts of the south of France.

Google Podcasts

podcasts.google.com

 

[CC 72100]

Is this the TER Occitanie tickets at 1 euro?

Used some recently, but be aware, they may not appear in normal searches (you have to use their website, not the main SNCF Connect one), they only come on the market 10 days in advance, and with only a few seats per train, do sell out very quickly.

Not running them down; its a great offer, but like with all great offers, involves a hoop or two to jump through to get it.

 

[Segedunum]

Some further details for those interested...

Source: https://www.ter.sncf.com/occitanie/tarifs-cartes/billets-un-euro

On the 5 lines indicated below, all seats on the liO Train are €1 , regardless of when the purchase is made:

• Nimes - Le Grau du Roi
• Carcassonne - Quillan
• Perpignan - Villefranche-Vernet-les-Bains
• Marvejols - La-Bastide-St-Laurent-les-Bains
• Béziers - Bédarieux - St-Chely-d'Apcher

Where can I buy my tickets?

• liO Train website SNCF Occitanie
• SNCF Connect and other SNCF approved travel agencies
• Regional distributors and at the counters of the SNCF stations of the lines concerned

 

[dutchflyer]

As above-on some minor branch lines it is all the time and for anyone.
Note that this region also does rover tickets for 10€/day, MIN 2, max 5 or 7, extends from Toulouse (or even west of that city) till Avignon, along the Mediterranee and deep into the north.
Quite a few french cities also charge 1€ for local single fares.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

These cheap fares are only for local TER services.
All the fast services via Toulouse are Intercités which are not part of the TER setup, and they have a range of discounts similar to TGV services.

 

[nwales58]

Occitanie TER (liO) has, I believe, 4 kinds of cheap-to-mad fares:

Avantagio Futé EUR 3, 5 or 10 by distance, off-peak trains only
Avantagio 1eur - above, few routes
1ers weekends du mois 1st Saturday, Sunday (and following Monday if public holiday) 1eur potentially on any train but quota limited, on sale from 10 days ahead only
Occitanie Rail Tour 2-6 days - above
These are all per person.

Normandie, Bretagne, Pays de la Loire, Centre-Val de Loire TER have 1-3 day 2-5 person rover tickets but some are weekend+public holiday only.E.g. Normandie weekend 2 persons EUR 20, Centre-VdL 3 days 4 persons EUR 60. Most include region-run buses (which may be sparse). Grand Est has about 5 rovers but so perplexing you need to start with the precise journeys to choose.

There are other summer-only, e.g. PACA has several 1 / 3 / 7 / 14 day rovers for 1-2 départements or the whole region but not particularly cheap, Hauts-de-France claims to have EUR 1 tickets but you have to hunt for them through the planner.

For each region, go to the relevant ter.sncf.com but check both 'Tarifs' and 'Bon Plans' as the cheap fares and rovers can be in either place.