How early should I arrive for TGV?

For your journey with TGV, INTERCITÉS and TER To have plenty of time to find your car, your seat, to store your suitcases etc... we advise you to arrive 20 minutes before departure. Access to the train is guaranteed up to 2 minutes before departure, so avoid arriving at the very last minute!



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Station / Airport guide For assistance boarding the train, arrive at the platform at least 30 minutes the before train departure time. Wheelchairs and boarding ramps are available if required.

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Seat reservation is compulsory on TGVs, and all tickets automatically include a seat reservation on a specific train. TGV seating numbering plans. Fares vary like air fares, with cheap Prems fares if you book in advance, much more expensive flexible fares if you wait and buy on the day.

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PRE-BOARDING Arrive early—it's a good idea to arrive 30 minutes before your train is due to depart especially if you are checking baggage. Please arrive one hour early if you will be crossing the United States/Canadian border.

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TGV and Eurostar tickets are only valid on the booked train, date and class. If you are about to miss your train or have missed it for another reason than train traffic disruption, you can excchange or cancel the ticket according to the fare conditions and/or purchase a new ticket.

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The Paris Museum Pass lets you skip the line at many top museums and monuments by reserving a specific date/time slot. To be clear, none of these ticket and tour options let you skip security lines.

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The check-in procedure for Eurostar train journeys takes roughly 20 minutes from start to finish, and depending on the class you're travelling in, it's recommended that you arrive at least 90 minutes before your Eurostar train leaves.

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Don't waste your time in Paris by standing in ticket lines when you don't have to. Skip-the-line (also called fast-track or priority or reserved entry) tickets that let you book a specific date/time slot are almost always worth getting and are easy to buy online before you travel.

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The percent of French SNCF trains that arrive with a delay of less than 15 minutes is at 87%, according to a study released in 2022 (read here about it in French). So 13% of French trains are delayed by 15 minutes or more. This represents an increase in lateness over the decades since the 1950s.

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For long-distance trains including all TGV, Intercités & Intercités de Nuit overnight trains, reservation is compulsory, but there are usually seats available even on the day of travel and you can buy a ticket immediately before the train departs. But there are much cheaper fares if you pre-book.

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For travel on TGV INOUI or TGV France-Italy trains There is no weight limit for your luggage, but you must be able to carry your bags and suitcases by yourself*. On TGV INOUI trains: Your cabin luggage or other compact bags should be stowed under your seat, at your feet, or in the overhead compartment above your seat.

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TGV high-speed trains are all-reserved. All tickets for these trains come with a seat reservation automatically included and the price varies like air fares, so pre-book for the cheapest prices. In practice there are almost always places available on most trains even just before departure, the issue is price.

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