ianp Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 One of the books I bought recently on French railways (courtesy of the good advice here) mentioned a direct train route from Bordeaux to Geneva, via Brive, Clermont Ferrand and (I think) Lyon. That would be an interesting sight-seeing trip I thought. However the Deutsche Bahn website for continental travel shows no trace of any such service. Admittedly such a service would have been running more than 40 years ago so it could well have been abolished since then, especially as anyone wanting to get to Lyon from Bordeaux can do it quickly on the TGV these days, via Montpellier and Nimes, rather than trundling through the Auvergne. But does anyone know anything about that service? Thanks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Andy Hayter Posted January 18, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 18, 2015 There used to be two routes across the Central Massif and from memory, one fell out of use a few years ago and the other now has a major break due to the track not being maintained and the line being shut for an indeterminate period of time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianp Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 Thanks. That may be the bit between Ussel and C-F. Doing the journey in (many) stages is still possible. But the quickest version involves travelling by bus between Ussel and C-F to join up the train journeys. Rail-only journeys seem to take about 21 hours, and involve five, six or even seven changes of train, with a very inconvenient overnight stop of about 6 hours (presumably spent on a platform bench) at either Brive, CF, or Lyon. I don't mind changing trains, but waiting six hours for a connection isn't quite my bag. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianp Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 Update: The DB website is great and it tells me I can do the journey in one day, all by train, but with six changes. Leave Bordeaux at 07:35 and change at Brive, Aurillac, Neussargues, C-F, Lyon and Bourg-en-Bresse, before arriving in Geneva nearly 16 hours later at 23:20. On other days a similar journey involves leaving Bordeaux at 07:00, changing at Perigeaux before Brive, but with no change between Lyon and Geneva. So, same number of changes and a slightly shorter journey by about 15 minutes. So it can be done this way without an overnight stop. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Andy Hayter Posted January 18, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 18, 2015 All the ones I have found involve at least one bus trip - but I cannot find your timings on the dates I looked at. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Storey Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 The last direct service across the Massif has just been cut back, as part of the latest round of savings being made by SNCF on unremunerative services, due to lack of cross-regional support by the Regions (and crap maintenance by RFF), and their own inability to run these services more economically or with more attractive timings and frequencies. They are also proposing to shut many of the existing freight only branch lines, which collectively generate 20% of freight income but have never been maintained adequately and many are now adjudged as close to unsafe. Whether these will ever be safeguarded for future re-openings (an extremely rare thing on France these days) remains to be seen. This is at the same time that SNCF are pumping millions into a new lorry-carrying service from Calais through to the South West, just at the time the French govt has abandoned proposals to apply extra tarrifs to lorries, on which the scheme was partly predicated. Can SNCF get anything right at the moment? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianp Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 "All the ones I have found involve at least one bus trip - but I cannot find your timings on the dates I looked at" On the DB booking website, enter the start and destination points: Bordeaux and Geneva. Then click on "search other options", a bit down the page in rather small letters. Doing that lets you put in up to two way points, or stopovers as they call them. Put in Brive and Neussargues. In fact, you can put in just Neussargues. Click on search, and it then throws up the train-only route with lots of changes. The precise route and timing of this particular journey appears to vary from day to day, for instance it is slightly different on a Thursday compared to a Friday. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Andy Hayter Posted January 19, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 19, 2015 Found it!! Clearly not on one of their standard routes!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Would Bordeaux- Tours- Lyon- Geneve be valid? If it is, it would be less scenic, though you would have the pleasure of travelling alongside the Loire and through the southern edge of Beaujolais. At one time, the Tours- Lyon bit started back at Nantes, but it doen't seem to any more. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianp Posted March 4, 2015 Author Share Posted March 4, 2015 I noticed recently that the French railway publisher Le Train has, among its many magazines, one devoted to the history of the cross country routes from Bordeaux to Lyon: http://www.letrain.com/component/virtuemart/les-géographiques/lyon-bordeaux-detail?Itemid=0 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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