 A Ouigo TGV at Paris Gare de Lyon. Fares start from just €10 at www.sncf-connect.com or www.thetrainline.com.
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Ouigo, a budget airline on rails
In 2013, SNCF (French Railways) created a separate subsidiary company called Ouigo to run lo-cost high-speed trains on key routes in France on the no-frills airline model. Ouigo trains are one-class only with no catering, no first class, strict baggage limits with fees for larger or additional bags, it even costs extra for a seat with a power socket. Tickets can only be bought online (and only from certain designated sellers), and you combine Ouigo with other connecting trains at your own risk. But I'll say it again, it's cheap.
How to check times & buy tickets
The Man in Seat 61's opinion of Ouigo
Where does Ouigo run?
Ouigo links Paris with major cities including Lyon, Avignon, Aix, Marseille, Cannes, Nice, Nimes, Montpellier, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Rennes, Angers, Nantes, Strasbourg. It also links Lille & CDG airport with Lyon, Avignon & Marseille. It's less frequent than SNCF's regular TGV service, for example Ouigo runs Paris-Nice just twice a day. Check routes and times at www.sncf-connect.com or www.thetrainline.com.
Ouigo classique trains: In April 2022, Ouigo Classic started running between Paris, Tour or Le Mans, and Nantes. These use refurbished classic carriages, not the TGV Duplex trains shown on this page, and they run on classic non-high-speed routes. Another Ouigo Classique now links Paris, Dijon & Lyon via the original non-high-speed route. These can also be booked at www.sncf-connect.com or www.thetrainline.com.
How to buy tickets
Buy tickets at www.thetrainline.com (small booking fee) or www.sncf-connect.com (the main French Railways website, no booking fee).
Booking opens up to 9 months head, sometimes as little as 2 months.
Tickets are only available online, www.thetrainline.com & www.sncf-connect.com show both Ouigo and regular trains side-by-side so you can compare prices.
Fares start at only €10 to Lyon or Bordeaux, €19 to Cannes or Nice, but vary dynamically just like budget airline fares.
You can't buy Ouigo tickets at stations or by phone or on some train booking websites such as www.raileurope.com. Interrail & Eurail passes aren't valid on Ouigo.
Ouigo Essentiel or Ouigo Plus? These aren't two different classes, the seats are exactly the same. If you pay the basic Ouigo Essentiel fare, then you can pay an extra fee to have a larger bag with you and another fee to choose a seat. If you pay the extra €9, the bag fee and the seat choice fee are included, along with a faster boarding line at Paris stations and some streaming content on the WiFi. So there's not much between the two, really!
After booking, tickets with your seat & car number are made available 3-4 days before travel, you can either print your ticket out or download the Ouigo app and load your ticket into it using your name and booking reference so you can show it on your phone.
PAYMENT FOR OUIGO TICKETS: Whichever website you use to book, only credit/debit cards from the countries listed below are accepted.
Payment cards accepted: Cards issued in Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, French Southern Territories, Germany, Greece, Guadeloupe, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Martinique, Mayotte, Monaco, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, St Pierre & Miquelon, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, United Kingdom.
How to get around this problem if you live elsewhere: Buy Ouigo tickets at www.thetrainline.com, then select the option to pay with PayPal. If you use PayPal, you can book Ouigo wherever you live, no problem.
What are Ouigo trains like?
Ouigo uses French Railways TGV Duplex trains, which have had the cafe-bar removed, 1st class removed, and one class of high-density seating installed, 644 seats per 8-car train - and you'll sometimes find Ouigo departures consisting of two 8-car TGV Duplex sets coupled together with 1,288 seats! They run at up to 300 km/h (186 mph) on France's high-speed lines.
An afternoon Ouigo train to Paris arrives at Lyon St Exupéry. Two 8-car trains coupled together, 1,288 seats!
Boarding a Ouigo train to Paris at Lyon St Exupéry.
Important: Luggage on Ouigo
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When it comes to luggage, Ouigo is not a normal easy-going train like regular TGVs. It's a budget airline on rails with strict baggage limits. No cartons or boxes or household appliances(!) allowed.
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Baggage is strictly limited to one item 36 x 27 x 15 cm max and one item 55 x 35 x 25 cm max, including handles & wheels.
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If you want to take a larger bag (for example a backpack, suitcase or semi-dismantled bicycle in a bike bag), or an additional bag you must pay the extra baggage fee, currently €5 per item, max 2 such bags per person. Or pay €9 for Ouigo Plus which includes the larger bag fee and seat choice fee. If you don't pay the larger bag fee online in advance you will be charged €20 per item at the station.
Tips for travel with Ouigo
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Choosing your seat
For a small fee, you can choose your seat from a seat map. Seat choice is included if you pay the extra for Ouigo Plus.
When choosing a seat there are 3 options: Standard €3, Avec prise (with power outlet) €3 and Solo €7.
I recommend paying to choose a seat, you can then choose an upper deck seat for the best views of the countryside with seats 2+2 across the car width, and avoid the risk of ending up in the middle seat of a 3-abreast row downstairs. These 3-abreast seats have no centre armrests so can get quite, erm, cosy.
The 3-abreast seats exist downstairs in cars 1-3, where the aisle 'trough' in the floor of these former 1st class cars was offset to one side. In the former 2nd class cars (cars 5-8), seats are 2+2 both upstairs and downstairs.
The solo option gets you a downstairs 1-abreast seat in a seating area that has 3+1 seating across the car width, so you have both window and aisle with no-one sitting next to you. There's a lot to be said for a solo seat, but they're all downstairs, I personally prefer the upper deck.
There are luggage racks & toilets both upstairs & downstairs. The stairs from the entrance to the upper deck have just 9 steps, they're wide, shallow and easy, with handrails either side, see the photo above.
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Out-of-town stations
Sometimes Ouigo trains use the normal city centre stations such as Paris Gare de Lyon, Paris Montparnasse or Lyon Part Dieu, but sometimes they use an out-of-town station such as Marne-la-Vallée (a 45-minute €8 RER express metro ride outside central Paris) or Lyon St Exupéry (a 30-minute €15 tram ride from central Lyon). Pay attention to the search results when you book, and be aware of the extra time & cost in getting to or from an out of town station.
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Bring your own food & drink!
Lo-cost Ouigo trains have had the cafe-bar removed and there is no catering whatsoever, even on a 6-hour run between Paris & Nice. So remember to bring your own food & drink - even wine or beer is fine.
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Checking in
There's no formal check-in, just head for the train. Ouigo recommend being at the station 30 minutes before departure, but this is not enforced in any way. However, access to the train will be closed off 5 minutes before departure so don't turn up at the last minute.
In Paris, you go through the automatic ticket gates as for any other train, scanning the barcode on your ticket to open them. At stations without ticket gates, look for the Ouigo signs & mobile reception desk, staff scan the barcode on your phone or printout and let you onto the platform.
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Connecting with other trains
If you choose to use Ouigo in connection with another train or operator, for example Eurostar between Paris & London, you carry the risk of a delay and missed connection yourself. So allow hours not minutes between trains. Ouigo is a totally separate company and even though it's a subsidiary of SNCF, unlike SNCF it is not a party to any of the Railteam, AJC or other agreements which guarantee later onward travel at no charge if there's a delay and missed connection. If your Ouigo is late and you miss your Eurostar back to London, it could cost you £200 for a new Eurostar ticket to get home.
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Interrail & Eurail
Interrail & Eurail passes are not valid on Iryo, you should use regular full-service TGV InOui instead.
The Man in Seat 61's opinion of Ouigo
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People like train travel because it's much less stressful than a budget flight. So applying all the things people hate about budget airlines to a train service can't be a good thing.
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Ouigo is a subsidiary of SNCF, some of Ouigo's budget airline aspects seem aimed at making it unattractive to SNCF's existing TGV travellers to deter them from down-trading. I can't help feeling that a real independent competitor to SNCF would not want to make its trains unattractive so would not impose such airline-style restrictions if it didn't have to!
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Ouigo trains were originally run in addition to existing regular TGV trains, which was fine. However, when Ouigo expanded significantly in 2018 this involved replacing 'proper' TGV departures with lo-cost Ouigo services, removing the 1st class, removing the cafe-bar, applying luggage restrictions and removing it from normal booking systems.
In other words, trains which once had 1st & 2nd class and a cafe-bar, with Interrail & Eurail passes valid, through ticketing possible to/from London or Brussels or Amsterdam, appearing in all booking systems, became 2nd class only, no catering, passes not valid, luggage limited, through ticketing not possible, a stand-alone service that can only be booked online and only using certain websites, and then only if you have a European or U.S. credit card. I believe this is a retrograde step which unnecessarily fragments European train travel.
On routes such as Paris-Nice the Ouigoisation of existing TGV departures has created significant gaps in the normal TGV timetable, to the detriment of normal travellers, including many international travellers.
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That said, I've experienced Ouigo for myself and for a 2 hour journey from Lyon to Paris it was perfectly comfortable - especially if you get a top deck seat and remember to bring your own food & drink. The train is clean, modern, air-conditioned and carpeted, the seats don't adjust, but legroom is fine even for my 6'2" frame. Although I wouldn't like to find myself trapped on a 6-hour Ouigo journey from Paris to Nice without access to food or drink, and for that length of journey I'd appreciate the option of first class!
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Ouigo's one selling point is that it's cheap, and that's true. Although by the time you've added €3 for a power socket, €5 for a proper-sized bag, and if necessary paid €8-€15 for travel to an out-of town station, you may as well stick with a normal TGV with luggage and power sockets included, from a city centre station.
