All aboard! Thousands of cut-price French rail tickets put on sale
Up to 200,000 tickets, priced at 鈧�19, are being made available for travel in July and August
The tickets could take you across the country to over 100 towns and cities
Eo naya / Shutterstock
Tens of thousands of cheaper French railway tickets were put on sale on Friday (July 7).
Transport Minister Cl茅m茅nt Beaune announced up to 200,000 would be made available, priced at 鈧�19.
The tickets - for France鈥檚 滨苍迟别谤肠颈迟茅蝉 trains - are on average half the normal price and the initiative is being financed by the government.
The sale is 鈥渁 popular measure, helping to ease holidaymakers' wallets and encouraging an environmentally-friendly mode of transport,鈥� said Mr Beaune at Gare d鈥橝usterlitz in Paris.
The tickets will be available for journeys between today and August 31, covering dozens of lines.
Eager travellers will have to be quick, however, as the tickets will only be on sale until July 15, if they are not all scooped up before then.
Tickets can be purchased via the .
Where could the tickets take you?
The tickets are for 滨苍迟别谤肠颈迟茅蝉 routes 鈥� non high-speed rail lines linking French cities, including Paris, Nantes, Bordeaux, and Toulouse.
In total, 135 cities will be served by the discounted tickets, with these routes often stopping at smaller towns bypassed by more direct high-speed services.
The discounted tickets will also be available for French night trains 鈥� all of which run as 滨苍迟别谤肠颈迟茅蝉.
The long-awaited announcement is part of the government鈥檚 response to criticism over high train ticket prices this year.
Despite the increased cost, rail travel is becoming more popular, with an estimated extra 500,000 tickets sold on TGV services alone compared to last year.
SNCF has offered an extra 450,000 tickets on high-speed routes (to make up for the increased demand not covered by last year鈥檚 empty seats), equating to an extra 900 trains being run this summer.
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