I booked tickets through sncf for the Thalys Train from Gare du Nord to Brussels Midi and then a regional train from Brussels Midi to Bruges, Belgium. I have been able to print the Thalys train tickets from my confirmation email, however it stated that I can only print the Brussels to Bruge tickets at a self service kiosk in France. Has anyone done this? Can this be done at Paris Gare du Nord at a self service kiosk or would I have to go to Paris Montparnesse sales office to print these? Or can I just show my confirmation email without an actual printed ticket for the Brussels to Bruge portion and get on the regional train?
Posted by
Wengen
1684 posts
You can use any ticket kiosk in an SNCF station (you need the "Grandes Lignes" ones, not the IdF ones...). So Gare Du Nord is certainly possible, as is any other station.
The issue here is that SNCF can't be bothered to connect to the ticketing systems of other railways, and thus just issues standard TCV tickets on security papers for foreign sectors. And these you need to actually collect. For that reason it is actually better to book France - Belgium tickets with the Belgian Railways (www.b-europe.com). There you would have been able to get an e-ticket for the whole trip.
Posted by
Chicago
8063 posts
just one more reason to not book thru SNCF which has the worst on line service in tourism.
Posted by
OP
464 posts
Thank you for your responses. I wish we had booked our tickets from Paris to Bruges through the Belgian site. At least our return tickets from Bruge to Paris CDG Roissy are booked through the Belgian site and both the regional and Thalys tickets were able to print for that. So I guess we will have to get the Brussels Midi to Bruges ticket for our outbound train from Paris to
Bruges printed at a self service kiosk in Paris or have a SNCF agent help us print those out when we are at the Paris train station. I hope it goes okay.