Successful departure on TGV on a Thursday - UPDATE - Second Thursday trip report

I will be taking a train on Friday 3 June out of Gare de Lyon, first time, hope it goes smoothly. Enjoy your trip.

So what was the advice from Captain Train? Did they say you could use the same ticket on another train but without seat assignment? I think that's the policy with strikes. If they didn't advise that, then I wouldn't expect the exchange to cost you anything. SNCF is the one that cancelled the train.

Exactly. If you had checked SNCF advice, they would have counselled you you could take any train that was following your original route.

To clarify, I did not communicate with Captain Train at all. I probably should have, but I saw an opportunity to possibly improve my peace of mind and took it.

I certainly could have simply got on the train, with or without my old ticket. No one checked the entire route. Although, my old ticket was supposed to be printed at Gare de Lyon, and it probably would not have printed, which would have been awkward for me? Who knows.

Are these Thursday strikes just affecting Paris trains, or elsewhere in France too? I have a Thursday journey coming up in mid-June that involves getting from Gare Montparnasse to Gare de Bercy across the middle of the day. What's the best source for information nearer the time?

cgichard - I would follow Kim's advice and check the SNCF website. It is continuously updated and easy to use.

We were in a similar situation leaving Paris for Bordeaux on the strike day of March 31. SNCF contacted me the day before and said our TGV was cancelled, and we could either get a refund or take any other Paris-Bordeaux train that day, with no guarantee of a seat. We wound up getting an even earlier train that day, and there were plenty of seats. And no one came by to check tickets for the entire 3 1/4 hour trip.

Robert: had you booked directly with SNCF or with one of the train booking websites? How did SNCF have contact details for you?

Cgichard, I had booked with Captain Train, and was surprised that I was contacted by SNCF directly. I guess they must share info.

We had a second Thursday trip booked - today from Beaune to Paris.

After zealously monitoring the SNCF site for the status of my trains, as well as looking for alternatives, I saw that my train from Beaune to Dijon scheduled at 11:30 today was cancelled. I had a connection at 12:00 in Dijon.

My wife and I hopped a train leaving half an hour earlier, and easily made the connection. Again, no one checked our tickets for the Beaune to Dijon leg. We had assigned seats for the second leg, a TGV Lyria, which ran as scheduled, and they checked tickets almost immediately upon departure.

I never received an email from SNCF or Captain Train, from whom I bought my tickets. So it all worked fine, with due diligence. We are now back in Paris, flying home tomorrow. Hope this helps.

We were also successful today! We traveled from Paris Gare de Lyon to Marseille to Cassis. No problems. The SNCF emailed us twice indicating everything was a go. We purchased our tickets through Captain Train. The email was in French but I asked for assistance where we were staying! Now just crossing our fingers our train back to Paris is as smooth. It is a Saturday train.

Thanks so much for the updates! We fly into Paris next Thursday and, over the course of five weeks, have reservations for four Thursday train departures. I'm encouraged to read your success stories and remain hopeful that we'll be as lucky.