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Booking trains Lyon in May from Lyon to Annecy and back the CDG airport

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We plan to book trains in May from Lyon Part Dieu to Annecy for 3 nights. The same day we return from Annecy to Lyon Part Dieu, we plan to catch a TGV train from Lyon Part Dieu to Paris CDG train station (we are staying over night at the airport to catch our international flight home the next day).
Questions: 1) Tickets are available now to purchase the fast train from Lyon Part Dieu direct to rail station at Paris airport CDG 2TG on the raileurope.ca website. However, I can’t seem to book return tickets yet on this site for the TER train Lyon Part Dieu to Annecy. Should I just go ahead and book these tickets directly from the en.oui.sncf site as they are available? 2) TER train leaving Annecy arrives at Lyon Part Dieu at 14:52. I was thinking of purchasing the TGV from Lyon Part Dieu To Paris CDG departing Lyon at 1600. Is approx 1 hour enough time between arrival from Annecy and departing fast train to Paris? Do these TER trains from Annecy often run late? 3) what is the difference between TGV Inoui versus just TGV? The raileurope.ca site makes this distinction for a few train choices. Many thanks!

Posted by
3685 posts
  1. Tickets generally go on sale 90 days before travel date so these tickets may not yet be available. Every so often on some routes the 90-day rule does not apply and that seems to be the case for the TGV tickets. I would buy all my tickets from the sncf website as they become available and avoid RailEurope all together. Just sign up at the SNCF website for an email notice when the tickets will be offered for sale.
  2. For most people, one hour is more than enough time to make a change at Part Dieu. As to the on-time record for the train from Annecy, I have no idea.
  3. It's just a rename and there should be no real difference. See https://www.connexionfrance.com/People/Interviews/Why-we-renamed-TGV-service-inOui
Posted by
27057 posts

I wouldn't use RailEurope. You will almost certainly pay more to buy tickets there, and it doesn't always list all the trains.

I would use SNCF instead. If you have payment troubles there, the next place I'd go would be trainline.com. Trainline now has a service charge, but I believe it will cost you less than RailEurope, and it doesn't have a reputation of displaying only some of the trains.

What I'm seeing for the random May date I chose is that most of the Annecy-Lyon routings require a transfer. The departure you're interested in allows 10 minutes for the transfer, which is plenty of time at a small station as long as the inbound train is basically on time. I have taken a lot of TERs that ran a bit late, though, so I'd recognize the possibility that I'd end up waiting at the transfer point (Aix les Bains - Le Revard) for the next Lyon-bound train.

Unfortunately, I'm not informed enough about French trains to say what would happen if a TER delay caused you to miss the TGV from Lyon to Paris. I'm sure another responder will be able to clarify that.

Part Dieu is a large station and can be very hectic, but 1 hour would be more than enough time to change trains there. The platform number for the outbound train won't be displayed terribly early; I think they usually show up 15 to 20 minutes in advance.

Edited to add: I'm not sure the "Inoui" bit is meaningless. I think there's something about checking in early for Oui trains and some sort of luggage limitation. Again, I am uncertain.

Posted by
3685 posts

The check-in and luggage rules are for the Ouigo trains not the InOui TGV.

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