During this busy period on the SNCF network, you may not have a reserved seat. Here’s what to check on the platform to travel comfortably.
If you have had the opportunity to book your train ticket well in advance, there is a good chance that you have been assigned a reserved seat. However, there are many situations in which you will travel without a guaranteed seat. For these specific cases, here is the information to check on the platform before the train departs.
If you take a TER (Regional Express Trains), you should know that this type of train does not have a seat reservation, so you can sit wherever you want. There are also reduced-price tickets, such as those for young people or seniors, which also do not include a seat reservation. This can also concern special offers or promotions. The same goes for “free travel” tickets, these tickets are valid for a given day or period, without a specific seat reservation. Not forgetting, of course, periods of strikes or high traffic, during which the SNCF can sell tickets without reservation, allowing more passengers to board the train, even if it means that you have to travel standing. This is also the case for last-minute departures, with trains that may be full, but on which you can still travel standing.
In all of these situations, you will then need to check a key piece of information, available on the platform, which will guide you to the carriages that are still vacant. In most European stations, you will find a light panel on the platform, which will indicate the destination of the train, but also the planned stops. Below these indications, there is a symbol representing a train and its carriages, specifying the degree of occupancy of each. In other words, if a carriage indicates a full gauge, it means that it is full, on the other hand if the gauge is low, it means that several unreserved places are still available. So, stay alert!