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Okay I am officially baffled about why I can't buy a train ticket ...

Posted by (City of Seattle) on

Hi -

For more than a month now I've been trying to buy a train ticket from Tours to Karlsruhe on August 28th. It's not yet available. But for more than a month this ticket have been available on August 27th and any day before that. The price for August 27th has been creeping up and up, and I'd very much like to be able to buy my train ticket for the 28th?

I do see a schedule - an 08:08 departure that connects in Paris looks just right.

So what gives here? Does the French railway know that there will be rapture at midnight on the 28th, and that I might be going somewhere, but certainly not Karlsruhe?

I've been using Trainline EU to buy my tickets for this trip, but the sncf website also shows tickets are not available yet.

Thanks!

Posted by
1450 posts

Long shot guess - what if you clear the cookies in your browser and try again?

Posted by
4684 posts

Probably the journey hasn't been loaded.

One possibility is that there might be engineering work on that date and the service alterations for it haven't been finalised yet.

Posted by
16895 posts

The French railways (SNCF) do not necessarily release tickets for sale along a rolling 90-day-advance window. At least for summer, they release them in large batches, the last of which was (I think) in March for travel through August 27. You can already buy the ticket from Paris Est station to Karlsruhe. I'd wait at least another week (until 90 days out) to try booking the first leg.

Posted by
19 posts

On SNCF site one can only book within 90 days of trip. Also "Seat 61" train blog is generally quite helpful.

Posted by
21157 posts

I'm looking at en.voyages-sncf.com and it is showing Tours-Karlsruhe available for purchase for 58 EUR. You do have to transfer from Gare Montparnasse to Gare de l'Est and there is 1 1/2 hour transfer time (plenty). That can be done directly with the No 4 Metro.

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