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> I'll have to fly into Paris and add 3 hours to my already-long trip and make a totally separate train booking, and worry about if lose the train ticket if the flight is delayed?

I don't know if you're American, but I think you've just got funny ideas about how trains work. You don't really need an advance booking - you just turn up, buy a ticket, and take the train. It's not a big deal - they go every hour or so between major locations so you don't have to wait long. Trains are more like busses than aeroplanes in most places - Amtrak is an outlier in trying to be like an airline.

I am American, but having traveled around Europe and Japan, I can say with confidence that if you're traveling between cities you very often need to buy your ticket in advance and it's valid only for that departure. Your seat is reserved because the train can sell out, and they do. Plus, fares often go up significantly the closer the train is to being sold out (so days/weeks early can be a good idea). It's no "funny idea" of mine, and it's certainly not just Amtrak.

Of course it really depends on the individual train line and time of day and direction and if it's a holiday etc. If you have enough local experience to know for sure it won't be sold out in advance, then that's great for you, but if you're traveling somewhere new you won't know that.

I'm not talking about commuter rail, which is like what you're describing.

I've definitely seen TGV sell out in France, and would recommend buying your ticket in advance, depending on the trip. SNCF is sadly taking the airline fare route, with intricate pricing and non-sensical fare (sometimes 1st class is cheaper than 2nd class, and I'm not sure two people riding the same train pay the same price...). I hate this system with passion.

But unless it changed recently, it's not quite like that with the shinkansen in Japan. I would usually buy a ticket in advance for a late time trip around 10pm (with reserved seat), just in case all shinkansen are sold out (never happened, but I'm the anxious kind). On the date of travel when I'm ready to leave I just go to the train station, and ask at the counter to change my ticket for the next shinkansen. It's completely free, including the reserved seat, although maybe that's only for the Nozomi shinkansen? Not sure for Kodama/Hikari. Never had an issue with the next shinkansen being full, but maybe I've just been lucky.

I was mostly traveling between Osaka and Tokyo, where there is one shinkansen every 6 minutes at rush hour, and at worst one every 20 minutes. So in practice the waiting time was practically nil, and I loved the flexibility of being able to decide until the last minute to either dine out in Tokyo with my friends, or simply head back home earlier.

What? No.

I live in Japan and you absolutely do not need to book trains in advance, ever, for any reason. It's a good idea if you're planning to travel during peak hours on the first and last days of a major holiday period, but there is a free seating area that you can ride. The only downside is that you may need to wait a bit on the platform until you're squeezed onto the shinkansen. You're sacrificing some comfort this way, but it's not a strict need.

But that problem only occurs 3 weeks out of an entire year. Also, the normal free seating tickets don't have a reserved time. They're only limited by day.

And my experiences in Europe are similar. Show up, buy a high speed rail ticket, hop on a train and go to the next city.

I've only ever needed to reserve tickets in two countries: one was dealing with Amtrak in the US, and the other was trying to take a train in China between two cities in the midst of the biggest holiday of the year. Other than that, it's always been a show up, get a ticket, and hop on 5 minutes later sort of deal.

> But that problem only occurs 3 weeks out of an entire year.

Which is, of course, when you're statistically the most likely to be traveling.

And the fact that a ticket is valid the whole day doesn't help much when your flight is delayed overnight or by a day.

Some people tend to travel precisely when others are not, and might not run into this problem, seems like that might be your case. Other people travel precisely when others are too, and will run into it all the time. As far as China, every hard sleeper I ever took was sold out in advance, zero holidays.

As far as I can tell, you're entirely confirming what I'm saying.

You may expect a situation in Japan to use both flight and shinkansen, but such use is rare for Japanese locals. Flight or Shinkansen + local train (or rent a car) is used in most cases, not both.

For a overseas tourist arriving by flight, anyway it's better to avoid the three weeks. I believe it's on May, August, and end of the year, but former two is Japanese local holidays so you can easily avoid. Then you don't always need reservation shinkansen because free sheets are available (but YMMV).

What? That makes zero sense.

If you book in advance and your plane is delayed by a whole day, your ticket is void. That's it. You're done.

...In which case you can just show up to the station and buy an unreserved ticket and ride, like everybody else and like I mentioned is the better idea.

My point is that reserving in advance has no purpose because of reasons you're giving to somehow justify it. If you don't book in advance, there is zero chance of missing your train due to a delayed flight since you're buying it 5 minutes before riding.

You seem very, very confused.

Oh, you arrived without a ticket? Sorry, covid restrictions, only one person per wagon and the tickets have been sold out a few days ago. Enjoy your indefinite waiting for a free spot. I feel like you might not have taken the train anywhere within the last year or two.

Obviously almost nobody should be taking any trains in Europe at the moment - that's a given.

If you take Paris as an example, CDG has a train station in it. The airline will sell you the train ticket together with the plane tickets so you just get a second ticket which looks like a plane ticket except for the train. You literally go to the basement of CDG and get on the train. I've done this many times in CDG and also in FRA (Frankfurt) and the tickets are issued as valid on any train between the two destinations, so even if your flight is delayed, you just wait for the next train and get on it. The train thing is really a non-issue.

Your second point does however seem valid, I guess the airlines will reroute around French airports and fly to nearby countries in Europe to get around this regulation. Hopefully this law doesn't cause more harm than good...

> will I just book a flight via Brussels (New York -> Brussels -> Lyon) because that will still be fine...

Or Amsterdam flying KLM which is a way better airport than Paris Charles de Gaulle anyway (and arguably a better airline than Air France). Or any German airport flying Lufthansa.

its kind of funny that air France is considered worse then KLM considering they are the same company..

They both have their own staff, airplanes and general policies. They are under the same umbrella but far from the same company.

> massively inconvenient

Combating climate change will cause massive inconvenience.

> So... do I have this right that I won't be able to fly from New York to Lyon, it just won't exist even though they both have airports? I'll have to fly into Paris and add 3 hours to my already-long trip and make a totally separate train booking, and worry about if lose the train ticket if the flight is delayed?

This is FUD. If you search airfrance.com for flights from New York to Lyon, the fastest connection you get is indeed two flights connecting at CDG (11 hours total time). The second fastest connection (11:30) is also a connection at CDG... taking a direct train to Lyon. Such flight+train combinations have existed for a long time.

> If you search airfrance.com for flights from New York to Lyon, the fastest connection you get is indeed two flights connecting at CDG (11 hours total time).

And if you search an aggregator, chances are that Brussels Airlines (via Brussels, obviously) is faster. And more convenient since you can drop your luggage at your starting point.

At that point, one criteria that comes into play is if you are living closer to the Lyon train station or to the Lyon airport.

There is a TGV station in CDG.