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Comment by esel2k | Hacker News Reader

Sitting on the TGV Lyria while writing this. I have to say it is a great feeling to travel across the country in a few hours. However I think it is the experience around it that make it difficult: Waiting lines at Gare the Lyon never knowing where your train comes and having huge qeues or just the idea that travelling with bags or family squeeze in the metro, still makes me think about flying or driving for certain use-cases.

I think it is mostly a business train to get from A to B (bug cities).

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>Waiting lines at Gare the Lyon never knowing where your train comes

The platform is announced in your booking application in advance. You can wait anywhere and if it isn't shown a few minutes before departure, you can go near the platform and see where it is on the screens.

I'm French, I don't have a car so frequently travel by train and I've never waited in the station. Families aren't an issue for me either and it's easy to overtake people if you know where you're going. Especially in Gare de Lyon:

- https://www.ratp.fr/sites/default/files/2019-08/gare-de-lyon...

- http://estacions.albertguillaumes.cat/img/paris/lyon.png

Thanks, I didn’t know it is visible in the booking application. Normally the trip is arranged by a booking agency (business trip).

I wanted to take kids (stroller etc) with me but I don’t see them in the metro. How do you get from the big TGV train station to any place in Paris with small kids?

I've seen people with kids every time I've taken the metro in Paris. It seems pretty normal and no different than doing so on any other metro. I don't even think I understand this question. Is there something about the Paris metro that makes it harder than other metros when moving around town with children?

Stairs, pickpockets and the smell (I am French, used to work in Paris for 8years)

This was not my experience recently. German and Italian stations publish printed posters of train schedules and platform numbers but did not see these in any train station in France. Instead, platform numbers are updated at the last possible minute probably to keep the crowd off the platforms, so everyone congregates around the central board waiting for their number, and then rush madly to the platform en masse.

Also, on the French trains the connection platform numbers are only announced in French, so good luck if you're not a native speaker. Italian and German trains announce connections in English and also have LCD monitors on the bulkheads. All in all, I found the French train system the worst in Europe.

(Also, the new French booking app and website is train-wreck level of broken awfulness. And forget trying to book a train ticket across a national border, or several!)

I don’t agree with all of what you said but if there’s one thing I completely agree with it’s the booking website. It is such a pain to book tickets on it.

Agreed. I don't remember how it is in Gare de Lyon, but platforms are usually announced at the last minute for TGV (not TER). It may have something to do with Vigipirate, the counter-terrorism operation?

Gare Part-Dieu in Lyon is one of the worst offenders, sometimes having to change platforms.

We do not talk about the app. (TBH, I don't use proprietary apps, but they also somewhat neutered their website, though I think they still indicate platforms in real time?).

The only thing I'm curious about... there are plenty of LCDs?

Also, I still prefer the experience to taking a car or plane, and can run errands while waiting for the train.

That'sodd. I travel on French trains regularly (Both TGV and local). I have always found the French train system to be easy to navigate, and clearly signed. The trains departures and platforms are always on big screens in the stations.

Platform numbers at the starting station are not usually given until the train is ready for boarding (usually 15-30 mins before boarding), but this is pretty standard across Europe.

Why are you expecting announcements in a language that is a foreign language in both the departure station and destination?

> on the French trains the connection platform numbers are only announced in French, so good luck if you're not a native speaker

Funny, when I went from DC to NYC with Armtrack, the platform numbers were only announced in American, so good luck if you are not a native speaker.

Yup, I’d definitely travel from London to the south of France by train more often if it didn’t mean the Gare du nord - gare de lyon change…

I’ve only done that trip a once by rail. I was blown away by the rail option, it was great. Despite Gare du Nord being disorganised and gross, it was the best international travel I’ve ever done by a huge margin.

One is likely to need a connection at both ends and connecting from a rail hub is a lot simpler than from an airport (and less subject to rip off airport pricing). I loved the space, the comfort, the views and the display showing the speed.

You can connect in Lille, France for TGV service to Montpellier and Marseilles.

There used to be a TGV direct from London to Marseille, at least during the summer season, iirc.

But, IMHO, it's much more convenient and faster to fly from Heathrow to Marseille.

But much more emitting of CO2

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