Service with a smile. (Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer Francais SNCF (France))

Member Name: thingywhatsit

Product:	Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer Francais SNCF (France)
Date:	22/08/06 (231 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Speed and reliability

Disadvantages: Don't be late cos the train won't wait.

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 their site with a good system of weeding out the voyage that you want, i.e. chosing the faster TGV trains with fewer stops, price differences between different days, and here you really can save a fortune. It also shows the different routes and gives you the choice. Incidentally ticket offices do that as well, trying to give the passenger the best value instead of the quickest ticket. The staff are very aware that travellers want value. Beware if you smoke as there are no longer smokers compartments in French trains.

What I like about France in general applies to SNCF too because in general the people are generous to a tee, and SNCF do not just accept the dates you put into the computer, they tell you online how you can get a cheaper voyage, simply by varying your leaving or arrival time. When you search, they give a list of alternatives and the price difference between what you searched for and the choice available can sometimes mean a lot of money, so they are actually client friendly and try to find you the best deal.

Having established what train journey you want, booking is easy and you are given information in email form with your reservation number, and tickets follow by post or can be collected at the station of departure if the time is too short to send you your ticket.

THE TGV EXPERIENCE

The first time that I travelled through France by train, I was a nervous traveller with no idea what to expect. I was handed my ticket and told which quai to wait in and didn't really understand what they were talking about so asked another traveller.

I was amazed. You have the number of the carriage marked clearly on your ticket and above the platform, there are boards with numbers of carriages, and I could not believe that every train in every station across France could be so efficient that the train stops at exactly the right place to match the boards, but believe me it does.

If you wait in the appropriate quai, you actually have your given carriage stop directly in front of you and there is no searching, no rummaging through corridors to find your seat as I have experienced in many other countries. Also be aware that arriving on time is important so that you can find your appropriate place on the quai, because if you are late, as I was once, you can get onto the wrong end of a train that splits during the journey. This was rectified by moving to the correct carriage during a stopover, but caused me problems that need not have been there had I arrived on time.

THE VOYAGE

The first time that I travelled on the TGV, I thought that it would be a very smooth ride. The TGV is the high speed train service that covers the length and breadth of France. The seating is organised in such a way that your seat is clearly marked. There is adequate baggage room above the seats in each coach and legroom gave me no reason to complain.

The motion of the train was different to anything I have experienced before. Instead of gliding over the rails as I thought the TGV would, this is a super fast mode of travel and the train seems to sway from side to side, not uncomfortably so, although it is a little difficult when you are balancing a cup of coffee in the buffet car !

When booking your train, the site tells you if your particular train has a buffet. The buffet offers a range of food which is a little limited, although adequate to suit most tastes, from toasted sandwiches (croque monsieurs), to baguettes with ham or cheese and salad fillings, or something that I found amusing. These were sandwiches as we know them in England and are simply called "clubs" (as in club sandwiches in the states I guess). The prices were reasonable and they had not done the thing that British rail have, i.e. make the food an expensive part of the journey.

Coffee was available or hot chocolate at normal high street prices, and you could chose from the range of desserts, and biscuits, and all in all I believe that the range they offered was satisfactory for a journey.

DISABLED TRAVELLERS.

SNCF do make allowance for disabled travellers in that they have lifts for wheelchairs and wide entrances to carriages, although movement within the train itself would be difficult, not because of SNCF themselves, but because of the thoughtlessness of customers that put their baggage in the aisle.

TIMING

Now here we find the huge difference between British Rail and SNCF. The trains seem to be always on time, or at least if any catastrophe has happened and there is a reason why the train is delayed, a board shows quite clearly the reason so that passengers are not left wondering.

My experience of SNCF is that they are efficient, that they do care about their clients, and that they offer an economical form of transport. The carriages are clean, the food tasty, and there is something kind of relaxing about travelling through France by train, leaving the worries of the world behind you, and watching the countryside pass. Even at the speed of the TGV, the sights that you see are an experience in themselves.

NIGHT TRAVEL

The night carriages on the SNCF to my knowledge and little experience (i.e. one journey), are very good. The berth that you get is adequate and somehow that swaying that i mentioned earlier seems to rock you to sleep. The blankets and sheets were clean and fresh smelling and the toilet facilities were better than average French high street ones.

OVERALL CONCLUSION

I believe that British rail should take heed of customer complaints, and take an example from the service offered by SNCF which is the best I have ever travelled on in the world.

Incidentally, they are offering special deals to England at the moment on Eurostar for as little as £25 return which is pretty amazing, plus their links with towns all over France at affordable prices makes travel with them a good option when compared with the cost of petrol and the tiredness encountered at the end of a car journey. My trip to Toulouse in three weeks time takes me from one end of France to the other for as little as 70 GBP return which is pretty amazing when you cost the petrol it would have taken plus the toll roads. My car journey would have cost double, and I would not have been able to relax as I will on the train, watching the countryside go by and being able to sit back and let the train do the work for me. I usually arrive tired from the journey though the train seems a better alternative all round.

If you want to experience the France experience and travel independently, then book online with SNCF.com and enjoy all that this country has to offer, though more especially the treatment you will receive from a train company that has not forgotten that it is customers that make a railway successful.

Thankyou for reading.

Summary: Service with a smile.