Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer Francais SNCF (France)

Someone once told me that, no matter how overrated many French products and things can sometimes be.....(no offense to any of the French happening to read this right now =), they do have amazing Transportation systems. Whomever told me this, I can't remember anymore. I would love to tell that guy/girl though that.....he/she is .......deluded. What they were especially deluded about is the TRAIN system. Primarily the "SCNF" or "Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer Francais". Here are the top 5 reasons the SCNF should be called the "System Can Not Function". 5.) The Stations Aren't User Friendly: When I say ...  Read the complete review

SNCF is most famous for being the network that developed and deployed the TGV - the fastest traditionally railed passenger train anywhere in the world. The TGV, and its offspring Thalys (a TGV between France and the Low Countries) and Eurostar (between London and Paris and London and Brussels) are part of a wider European highspeed network that is being developed as a renaissance for the railways. The proof of its popularity can be seen in the gradual reduction in air service between key cities, such as Paris and Brussels or London and Brussels. The TGV operates almost exclusively in a hub and spoke fashion out from Paris, so if traveling from one region to ...  Read the complete review

No cheap tickets- if you try to book the cheapest tickets, there's a "technical problem" that goes away if you switch to the more expensive ones. The agents tell you that these tickets must be ordered online. It seems as though about 100 euro is the cut off point. So, if you're planning on traveling first class, this is the site for you, but don't assume just because there's cheaper tickets listed you can travel on a budget unless you can actually complete the order, including giving your billing ...  Read the complete review

Most people will agree that privatisation is one of the major factors behind Britain's poor service. Now, in France, private companies have not been in charge of rail transport since 1938, and you'll really be able to see why the French want things to stay this way, if you ever set foot in an SNCF station. SNCF stands for Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français, aka the public enterprise running all of the trains in France. It's a huge undertaking, and as such, around 180,000 people are involved in making sure everything runs smoothly. Before going to France to work for seven months, a friend of mine told me that I absolutely had to buy a magical thing ...  Read the complete review

During my time in France, I have many times booked online to travel to other parts of France by train. Living in a rural area, it was interesting that SNCF (which actually stands for National Society of Iron Roads) even serve smaller communities in France, and what they do is have a network of coaches that link small towns like the one in which I live to mainline stations, so that the whole of France is adequately served by the railway network. STARTING OUT THE SEARCH FOR THE RIGHT SERVICE. SNCF now have a superb website, and compared with other French companies, they really have worked hard on their website search facility. You are welcomed on ...  Read the complete review