Welcome to today's thread - #CrossBorderRail 2026 Tour Day 03 - 18 Feb - Ravières - Dijon - Culmont Chalindrey - Paris – Genève

[jon@gruene.social]

@stefanlindbohm @12train in Bourgogne it’s weird. They add the 8 only to the very slowest trains (ones that don’t serve Paris)

[jon@gruene.social]

So I asked at Culmont Chalindrey

Station staff told me Dijon - Culmont Chalindrey ISN’T compulsory reservation

But anything along the line Belfort - Culmont Chalindrey - Troyes - Paris IS (whereas I thought it was only from Nogent sur Seine - Paris)

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[bovine3dom@masto.ai]

@jon you _can_ coax this information out of SNCF Connect by clicking "Show details" and then "Pricing details [...]"

I'm always amazed that they're allowed to sell you tickets without explicitly showing you what they're actually selling you

and of course just because they're only selling specific-train tickets doesn't mean that that's the only kind of ticket accepted on that service. because as we discussed yesterday the SNCF doesn't sell all SNCF tickets in France

[thias@mastodon.social]

@jon I sometimes doubt myself. A source is always good.

[partim@social.tchncs.de]

@stefanlindbohm @jon Both ÖBB and the Interrail app show those with five digits only, too. Maybe it is a Hafas limitation (which would make sense, the old Hafas exchange format used fixed witdh fields and was a wee bit conservative).

[phrawzty@hachyderm.io]

@jon
Doing god's work out there 🫡

[jon@gruene.social]

I also asked why these trains are compulsory reservation anyway

“There’s too much demand!”

My response: “So run more trains!”

“But that’s the Région’s responsibility!”

But what if my plans change? I asked the employee

“Then you have to change your ticket in the app”

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[hopla@zug.network]

@jon @stefanlindbohm
Little hint: the leading "8" in the numbering system indicates it's a TER train with passagers. The number after seems to be region-related, and the next one line+service related. I don't have the exact details but I can make guesses:

832xxx is gonna be a train in the Strasbourg area, either as Saverne-Sélestat omnibus or Strasbourg-Niederbronn mission.
Trains starting with "7" are "postal train" without passengers (hence won't show in apps). If I recall correctly, "9" is for last-minute sillon, "4" and "5" are cargo related

As for Dijon.. it's always a culture shock to me when I go there and see the station at a rush hour (~17:00-18:00) and there's barely any train entering/departing for 20 minutes, platforms empty, station shops sparsely occupied. Région BFC doesn't order trains for commuters, almost everything is Paris-Lyon oriented.

[bohwaz@mamot.fr]

@jon
This wasn't the case a few months ago. Also the discount cards on this line are a joke. If you want to go to Nancy from chalon and being low income you have to book with Bourgogne solidaire card on chalon-dijon. Then the only accepted discount card on Dijon-culmont is the regular mobigo discount card. Then culmont-nancy is the Ter fluo solidaire discount card. 3 different cards. If you don't book separately SNCF only offers you the regular price, accepting none of the discount cards.

[technicalotter@glammr.us]

@jon "Not my problem" thought in a nutshell.

[jon@gruene.social]

And as the train is (partially?) compulsory reservation, but of course they don’t show what’s reserved on signs on board… they do have a website to tell you https://www.maplaceabord.com/maplacelibre/details?service-name=839552&from-station=87142000&to-station=87113001&travel-date=2026-02-18

[timwardcam@c.im]

@jon How TF is a one-off user (eg tourist) supposed to navigate that?

[kkarhan@infosec.space]

@jon wtf!?

[jon@gruene.social]

Ah

There’s a regional train (to the right) running as an Intercités (Nancy-Lyon)

And an intercity train (to the left) running as a TER (Belfort-Paris)

The Intercités is not compulsory reservation. The TER is

[jon@gruene.social]

@TimWardCam why are tourists taking trains? They drive like any normal person.

[maartje@blahaj.social]

@jon how low effort is that site.... give me 10 minutes with that data and you get at least a visual seat map.....

[hopla@zug.network]

@jon hosted by "e-Voyageurs Technologies (groupe SNCF)"

Days since I last discovered yet another dedicated for-profit company within the public group: 0
*sigh*

[meganl@mas.to]

@jon I'm starting to try to plan train travel and this stuff is giving me agita...

I always had admiration for you train advocate folks...deep knowledge. But now I'm really bowled over by how long and hard you must have worked to amass the skills to pierce all this stuff...

[jon@gruene.social]

I’ve seen some pretty weird stuff on #CrossBorderRail but for the sheer “no one even thought about the passengers”-ness this is one of the most extreme cases I’ve seen. Anywhere.

[grlodi@mastodon.social]

@jon the URL looks so shady as well - at least make it a subdomain of sncf-voyageurs or something…