Hot answers tagged high-speed-rail
18
I do recall Paris metro tickets being available on the Eurostar and at the information desk in London, but that was a few years ago and may well no longer be true. The price is rather more expensive than if you get them in Paris.
There generally isn't that much of a queue in Paris Nord, especially outside peak hour. This is one of Paris's busiest stations ...
15
It's called SAPSAN, there are 7 trains in both directions Saint-Petersburg > Moscow and Moscow > Saint-Petersburg.
Here is link to schedules (Google Translate)
Prices are here (translation). There are business and economy class tickets available.
The average journey is no longer than 4 hours in one direction.
All trains serve every day except train 154 ...
12
There is a minimum checkin time for Eurostar trains, which is generally
30 minutes before departure (see below for details), but it does vary.
Before listing the times, it's worth thinking a little bit about how
the Eurostar checkin process works, as that explains why it is as it is.
When you get to the station, you need to checkin with your ticket, either
...
12
First Class on the TGV means a wider seat, power sockets, less people (so a generally quieter environment), and that's about it.
Standard Premier on the Eurostar is pretty much the same, except you get a small cold dish and a cold alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage.
The difference in price is more due to demand than the actual cost of the service.
...
11
Officially, you are not supposed to / expected to give tips to anyone on the Indian Railways network. On most express or mail trains, these attendants used to be IRCTC employees, a public sector company but many of them are now being directly handled by the Indian Railways while on other routes, these are handled by private companies.
Regardless of who ...
11
Book early.
Most tickets can be bought up to 90 days in advance. Some tickets can be bought only on shorter notice, and some tickets on even longer notice. The cheapest rates get sold first, so you want to be the first to buy the ticket after it becomes available.
Cheap domestic tickets (on any train) are called Sparpreis and exist in domestic and ...
10
It does depend what ticket you have, and who you're with.
If you are delayed on another RailTeam service, the ‘Hop on the next available train’ (HOTNAT) feature means that you may not even need to rebook (depends on the station), but if you do it'll be easy. (Keep the ticket from the delayed service though!)
If you bought a domestic ticket that included ...
8
You can find information about train stations in France on the Gares en Mouvement (Stations in Motion) web site. The translation is somewhat haphazard. A left luggage facility is called a consigne (consigne automatique for automated lockers, or consigne manuelle if there's an attendant).
In Paris Nord, there are both automated lockers (acessible as long as ...
7
First of all you should compare what's comparable. There are no ICE-like high-speed trains in Poland. Compare the IC fares to the fares you may be used to from Polish IC trains. Also note that generally speaking, the cost of living is higher in Germany than in Poland. This means that plenty of things are more expensive in the Germany than in Poland.
The ...
7
As Andra said, RER B (5stations) + Metro (3Stations) will be way faster than Ligne 4 all the way down. The thing is the interconnection Line 4 to the train can take you up to 10 minutes, moreover if you have lugages with you. But taking the line 6 from Denfert-Rochereau to Montpartnasse will save you this time, trains are at the first exit.
Summary
Gare Du ...
7
The Yamanashi Test Track has the experimental Maglev train. For fairly obvious reasons, they generally don't have passengers - although there's a practical section for it.
Currently it's about 18.4km long and will become part of the Chūō Shinkansen connecting Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka - but at present it's being extended to 42.8km to be finished by ...
6
I would be very surprised if a non-SNCF machine would let you pick up the tickets, and I would doubt that there are any SNCF machines outside of France (apart from perhaps a few exceptions like the SNCF station in Basel).
Unless you are really short of time you shouldn't find yourself queueing for long or at all. At the larger stations there are a number of ...
6
Yes, you can receive phone signals. Not because of good antenna design (a thick concrete wall can stop a phone signal, you have no chance through vast amounts of rock and seawater) but because they have installed repeaters the length of the Chunnel.
Interestingly, it appears British phone users are being charged more than French to use the phone while in ...
6
It turns out that the ever great Man in Seat 61 has a great page on changing trains in Lille that covers this very thing.
If you really want to, you can take the Lille Metro between the two stations. It's just one stop, journey time measured in 10s of seconds, plus the wait for trains! If you have a through SNCF ticket, the metro connection is free, ...
5
I'm in the lounge now, so I can confirm that the Qype review is largely correct.
The lounge is at the other side of the station from the main cross-concourse, so you either need to take the lift down from the south end of the Thalys platform, or walk down the westerly corridor and round the corner. If you take the southerly exit from the Eurostar platforms ...
5
I can only quote another travellers review from Qype, but I think the most imporant information is there:
The Thalys lounge is open to 1st class passengers and to Cybelis
members as well as to members of the German bahn.comfort program. If
you have such a bahn.comfort card, you can bring a collegue, that
neither needs a train ticket himself or be a ...
5
Whether you can get a refund on a ticket will depend on the fare conditions of that ticket. Your confirmation should make clear of these conditions and you'll have been made aware of them prior to purchase.
If you booked a cheap advance fare by TER Corail (in the region of about £18-20) then this will likely be a non flexible meaning it's not refundable ...
5
Yes, you can! But currently only in one direction...
As detailed in this IET article from July, Eurotunnel (who own the tunnel) have fitted leaky feeder aerials, base stations and repeaters to both tunnels, and it only took 10 months to kit out. Eurotunnel are then leasing them out to mobile operators.
The North Tunnel, which is normally used for trains ...
4
I'm afraid not. Eurostar's ticketing rules forbid this. From their FAQ:
Can I board the Eurostar from a different station?
(…)
For journeys from the Continent to the UK, you will only be able to board the train from the station indicated on your ticket.
Starting from the UK, if you have a ticket from London, and your train calls at Ebbsfleet ...
4
It is expensive,traveeling by train in Germany.
You can get special offers by booking days in advance
http://www.bahn.de/i/view/USA/en/prices/germany/dauer-spezial.shtml
If you are commuting there are special discounts:
...
4
I've found the answer on the Eurostar website, which it turns out has detailed information on facilities in all their stations.
In short, there are seats and vending machines, but nothing else - no lounge or shops.
Checkin at Lille is the same as everywhere else, 30 minutes, or 10 minutes for Business Premier/Carte Blanche. (Ski services look to be special ...
4
There is indeed very little information about this online.
A question asked prior to 2003 on the site 'www.h2.dion.ne.jp' (no longer online):
Q: Do shinkansen trains have power outlet sockets for running laptop
computers?
A: Generally, no, although the latest 700 series trains
running on JR West Hikari Rail Star services do have power outlet
...
4
The Montparnasse-Bienvenüe metro station is practically two stations with a long corridor between them: lines 4 and 12 to the north, and lines 6 and 13 to the south. The train station is on the south side, so whenever you're boarding a train it's best to arrive by line 6 or 13. (Here line 4 is still faster if you're an average walker with no luggage, and you ...
3
I've used the auto-lockers on this station without any problem. They are open the same time as station is (near all-around clock, with little interval at night) and you can use as you want (I've inserted all my luggage into one locker and saved some money, for example).
Luggage room is on underground level, inside the station, so you don't need to move much ...
3
There used to be a sncf boutique in Brussels. It is now named Rail europe. You can find them at: Rail Europe,
Avenue Henri Jaspar 113,
1060 Bruxelles
But can't you print your tickets at home? I haven't been travelling with the sncf for a while, but I used to travel to Paris a lot some years back, where I always downloaded and printed my tickets at home.
1
You can credit most TGV travels (to/from England, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland) on the SNCF Voyageur traveler program, that's for sure, I read it in the conditions, each euro being worth 4 SNCF Voyageur points, plus one status point. It applies only if either departure or arrival is in France, though.
But I don't think there is any ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
