I am confused by all the different train companies in Paris that are available when looking online. What is the difference between rail.cc vs trainline.com vs bahn.de?
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
rail.cc and trainline.com are not rail companies, they are ticket resellers (travel agents). Trainline is reputable, for rail.cc the ".cc" means it is registered in the Cocos Islands off Australia! Caveat Emptor.
bahn.de is the German National Railway company. They operated most of the trains in Germany. Their website only sells tickets for trains within, to or from Germany, but their website has the timetables for most of Europe loaded, and is easy to use, so it is the "go-to" place for looking up train times across Europe.
The French National Rail company is SNCF (= Société nationale des chemins de fer français), website: https://www.sncf.com/en
SNCF runs trains to and from Paris, but they don't run the métro or busses in Paris, that is done by RATP (= Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens), website: https://www.ratp.fr/en
I hope this answers your question.
Posted by
898 posts
more info here:
https://www.seat61.com/France-trains.htm
Posted by
OP
83 posts
Awesome. Thank you so much!
Posted by
The Heartland USA
8979 posts
people like to use the bahn.de site because it is easy to use to find trains. But they won't sell tickets for trains that they dont run.
Posted by
London, United Kingdom
4684 posts
Local SNCF trains in and around Paris also have their own separate website at www.transilien.com