Rail tickets on sale today
Wednesday October 14, 2009 - Email this article to a friend

The first tickets for winter trains to The French Alps go on sale on Wednesday 14th. Rail travel is becoming increasingly popular, but booking a ticket seems another matter.

Rail Europe is now selling tickets on the new winter timetable to the French Alps covering the dates 13^th December 2009 to 13^th January 2010.

There is a rather strange booking rule on French trains that tickets can only be booked 3 months in advance, except now, when it is 2 months.

This is the message that greets you on the Rail Europe web site.

"Currently, trains in France can be booked until 12 December 09. From 14 October 09 onwards, it will be possible to book trains departing on 13 December 09 and up to 3 months in advance."

So if you want to book a rail ticket from mid-January onwards then you can't. Why not?

Now we are huge fans of train travel to The Alps, but can never quite understand why it is made so complicated to book.

Flying has become a fairly unpleasant way to travel in our opinion but at least it is simple to book a ticket over the internet.

Maybe the new rail web site, Snowcarbon, which is launching soon will help.

Anyway tickets are now on sale and we will be bringing you a special feature later on train travel to The Alps so do check back and hopefully we will have a response as to why there is this 3 month rule.