SNCF Tickets "Not Bookable"

Most national train companies such as Italy’s Trenitalia France’s SNCF and Spain’s Renfe will not sell tickets for trains beyond December 10 until the newly-revised train schedules are officially released on December 10 and again during the second weekend in June. This occurs two times each year in December and June. In the case of Trenitalia, Italian law actually restricts it from offering tickets for sale before the timetable change.
But the law does not apply to companies selling tickets for Trenitalia and this is why it’s often possible to buy your tickets at www.TheTrainline.com as it was earlier this year before the June timetable change.
Trainline is a private company— recommended by Rick Steves—which contracts with the national train companies and is linked up with their computer ticketing systems. Because Trainline is not legally restricted from selling train tickets before the December and June timetable release dates, it often has tix on sale before they go on sale through the national train companies own websites. While, at the moment, it appears that train tickets beyond December 10 are not currently on sale, check back in a few days as they well may be in the coming days. The availability varies by the train company’s policies, but back in April it was possible to buy Trenitalia train tickets from The Trainline for August and September.
In any case, the tickets will be on sale on all sites on December 10 at 24:00.

Actually I think Rick recommends Rail Europe, while the Man in Seat 61 recommends Trainline.

phred, Both Mark Smith, the author of “The Man in Seat 61,” and Rick Steves have recommended The Trainline.
Rick now sells train tickets on this website through RailEurope.

Is the best time to purchase a TGV ticket for late April/early May on December 11th? We will be using TGV to go from Paris to Nice and then again from Arles to Paris.

The far more prosaic answer is that the Ventimiglia to Nice trains are TER local trains and run frequently. They are mass transit.

Think of any of the Commuter railroads in the US.

Anyone but foreign tourists just buys their tickets on the day on such trains. And no-one is at all concerned about no advance tickets being available, let alone two months or more out.

They cannot sell out. They would be useless as mass transit if they did.

The locals know fine well that the trains will run on December 11, and to much the same timetable.

Rick and the man in seat 61 get commission from these third parties, they just don't admit it, but that is why they recommend them. There is zero reason not to buy from the relevant train companies.

@wanderlusting- tickets will be available anywhere between 2 and 4 months before travel, so for that far out are not likely to be on sale immediately on or after 11 December.

There are plenty of regional trains showing up on the Trenitalia schedule for Jan 13 for Milan to Ventimiglia, but missing are the direct IC trains. Just wait a few weeks and they will show up.

Thanks everyone. All quite interesting as I just last week purchased all our January tickets on the Trenitalia site from Como-Venice-Rome-Sorrento-Florence-Ventimiglia with no issues. And as started earlier, in late October I purchased mid-December SNCF tickets for Ventimiglia-Nice-Ventimiglia. It was just that last segment in January on SNCF that threw up the roadblock. I just today went back and ran a test search on SNCF for that same segment for next week and it still shows up as not bookable, even for November, well before the 10 Dec schedule update. That is what is really confusing. Our concern was that there was a scheduled line closure for maintenance or repairs. Sounds like we are safe just waiting until 11 Dec?

In France this trip I never bought the tickets in advance, whether going from Paris as day trips to Bar-le-Duc, Orleans, Rouen, Troyes, Maubeuge, Soissons and so on since these places were accessible on the TER , just bought them the morning of the trip or the night before.

The fact that train times are showing, at 17 and 47 minutes past each hour, proves that there is no track maintenance. The trains are running. But you just can't reserve them because that is how TER trains work, as commuter trains.
If there was track work they would show as CAR - (bus replacement).
Given that there is also a good scheduled bus service along the coast I personally would be totally relaxed about the journey.
Flixbus also run Milan to Nice, maybe other operators.
There is a multiplicity of surface transport. Totally uncalled for panic arising from a misunderstanding of European railroads

isn31c, thanks. No panic, just a bit of frustration. I tend to be very logical and it seems totally illogical to me that in October, I bought two RT SNCF tickets Monterosso—Nice for mid-December, and now I I can't buy the same ticket for January, the same dates in December or even for next week! Makes no sense to me, but I suppose it is what it is, at least for SNCF. Travel is after all about the adventure. :-)