Is this a recent thing? I got the Yellow train up to Latour and then the RENFE train down to Barça in May 2022 and it was fine. Or is it down to the time of day and when the RENFE staff need their breaks?
Finally! I want to see how is like to travel Paris to Barcelona via La Tour de Carrol Thanks .And at 17:25 It was oficially the BIGEST bruh moment on the railway that I ever seen In my life
Merci pour cette magnifique vidéo. Il y a 10 ans j’avais fait Namur-Camallera (entre Figueres et Girona) uniquement en train. Un train IC jusqu’à Bruxelles puis un Thalys jusqu’à Paris Nord puis un RER pour Paris Lyon puis un TGV pour Perpignan puis un TER jusqu’à Portbou et finalement un Rodalies jusqu’à Camallera. Long mais un merveilleux souvenir! Le matin les voyageurs allaient au travail à Bruxelles sous la grisaille et en fin d’après-midi les ados revenaient de la plage avec le Rodalies sous le soleil! Seul le train permet celà! Tes recits, Thibaut, sont un moment que j’attends avec impatience chaque vendredi. Un petit moment de bonheur pour bien commencer le WE… Merci!!!
This brought back memories. We did this trip in November 2017. After travelling to Paris from London by Eurostar and spending the day there, the two of us shared a couchette with a couple of other guys who were both gone by Andorra so we had much of the Pyrenes to ourselves. No breakfast on the train, the café at Latour was closed and the wait for the Barcelona train was longer. But the view from the train in the snow was magical. Your video shows some of the detail we missed because of the weather so it was great to see. It was at a time when there was a lot of activity in support of Catalonia independence. The faster trains going into Barcelona were disrupted because people were occupying the tracks at the terminus, but our commuter train arrived without a problem. The following day we took a direct train across Spain to Seville. All-in-all a great journey.
There used to be a Barcelona-Paris trenhotel Elipsos run by Renfe with sncf, had proper private rooms, and excellent alla carte breakfast, they decomissioned when the high speed train took it's place, it was great service and good value if bought in advance. And now they dont' even sell the high-speed one anymore.
High Speed continues running 2 round trips daily provided only by SNCF. But, prepare your wallet if don't buy time ahead / promo is in place. The thing that has been discontinued is Elipsos, the joint company between Renfe and SNCF (re-branded to Renfe - SNCF En Cooperation in high speed stock operations)
@@flopunkt3665 Yes, on the (20th Century) 90's those night trains connected Barcelona with Paris, Milan and Zurich. They were Talgos called "Tren hotel" and departed /arrived to Barcelona estació de França. During the day there was also the Catalan Talgo that connected Geneve with Barcelona daily ua-cam.com/video/o73setH1f_4/v-deo.html With the arrival of the high speed they were all cancelled...Biggest error in life. Meanwhile the Barcelona Estació de França is decaying as days pass by.
A few weeks ago on newspapers one could read its become a usual situation to have to travel from La Tour to Puigcerdà due to problems between SNCF and Renfe. They also stopped doing the TGV together from Barcelona to Paris. and are now competitors on the route from Barcelona to Madrid, having diferent trains each one. Actually Renfe is not allowed by SNCF to operate in France.
I'm doing this exact same journey to attend my friend's wedding in Spain next year and I can't wait, so it's great to see you endorsing it. Merci Thibault!
I was actually fortunate enough to make the exact same trip with a friend this past summer. Similar to you I had trouble with the connection in Latour de Carol resulting in a grueling 3 hour wait at 40 degree temperature. Completely worth it nonetheless, as the views were fabulous!
Hi Thibault, great production values. A thoroughly entertain and informative feature. Thanks as always for the bike information, I think the taxi ride with my bike to make the connection would have been something of a challenge.
I did have a positive impression of SNCF - having ridden it several times over ~ 20 years. BUT, this story puts them in a different light. I've never been on such route as this one but had thoughts of doing so one day. Good to know how screwed up SNCF makes it beforehand.
Terrific video, and as it happens, I'm watching it from one of your favorite cities, Boulder. So, your mention of Rocky Mountain National Park was especially appreciated.
Actually, the 447 unit you took is the regional version, which was refurbished with “more comfortable” seats to run regional services (they are the worst but at least accessible). The commuter version is even less comfortable and for some reason is still often used for regional trips.
I have no issues with the Rodalies trains. They work well (most of the times :-D ) and they are quite okay regarding comfortability. PLUS!!! They are for free! The government of Pedro Sanchez is paying for all the commuter tickets (yeah, yeah, we pay it basically ourselves by the tax system, but still). The Netherlands, where I originally come from, are crazy expensive (trains) and the regional trains don't even have toilets on board (ok, I never use toilets in trains but some people do, sometimes even 3 or 4 people all together....)
Merci pour cet incroyable périple. En tant que ferrovipathe "light", je suis abonné à ta chaîne depuis longtemps. Je n'ai pas vu tout ton contenu, mais parfois certains sujets m'appellent plus que d'autres. J'aime énormément ce que tu proposes, mais c'est surtout le fait d'offrir autant de différents "trains reports" qui me sidère. Je suis surtout impressionné par cette quantité de rides à l'international, et qui plus est, si rapprochés les uns des autres (je me demande souvent comment tu fais). Mais merci, c'est si riche de nous offrir tous ces trajets, qui pour certains (dont je fais partie) ne seront peut-être jamais possible. Voici donc mon premier commentaire, sur ce train report, car ce dernier a remué beaucoup de souvenirs. Non seulement les voyages en trains de nuit de quand j'étais enfant, mais aussi mon tout dernier il y a une quizaine d'année, pour Barcelone justement (alors tout jeune adulte). Mais dans mon souvenir j'étais passé par le trajet Limoges/Toulouse/Cerbère. Je ne savais pas du tout que ce trajet par Latour-de-Carol était possible. Et en plus je ne savais pas que les Corails de nuit avait des emplacements vélos disponibles. Merci pour tout ce que tu fais c'est top!
This year, I took a train from Paris Austerlitz to Brive-la-Gaillarde. A very comfortable and scenic 4.5hr trip, exactly on-time and very cheap at €19,-! Loved it.
The second Phantograph lifted up because they drive under DC and the voltage is really low, so there is a high current. When the train climbs a hill, the current is to high for one Phantograph. In the Netherlands, the broken nose lift up the second phonograph each time the train accelerate.
This is a wonderful post. I went on a school trip from Birmingham to Barcelona with Couchettes when I was 16. I am now 60 and I can feel the excitement of that trip yet again Superb work Kieran
The Tunnel de Puymorens has doors at the Hospitalet end to avoid the contact wire from icing up and exits at the highest standard gauge railway station in Europe (Porté-Puymorens) whence the line descends the steepest non-rack gradient (4%) to the old station at Porta. Pity you were transferred by taxi to Puigcerda (the Peak of Cerdagne, the wide mountain plain at 1300m stretching all the way to Mont Louis at the head of the Têt valley), since the line between Enveitg and Puigcerda also has its peculiarity - two tracks, two gauges, two powers supplies - allowing at one time French trains to arrive in Spain, similar to Portbou, Irun and, at one time, Canfranc.
We did the same trip but from a different station in Paris. We go to La Tour at the ungodly hour of 6 am! But the transfer to Spanish train was fine. They did not accept credit cards and we did not have Euros. The conductor lady was a sweetheart and let us travel. She accompanied us at Barcelona Sants where we bought tickets and gave to her. Nice way to travel from Paris to Barcelona
I just watched this video because my friend wanted to see it, I must say I really enjoyed it, as I´m from Catalonia and brings back memories, I didn´t even know one could go to Andorra by train!!! You give good information, very good described, I wish all tourists were like you.🙂
Those seats in the 447 EMU of Rodalies are the refurbished ones . Is uncommon, but it could be a unit with the regular seat for shorter journeys. A UK Ironing board is slighty better than a 447 grey seat.
This looks like a spectacular trip. That said, I honestly don't know if I could share a compartment with strangers to sleep. I think I would be too worried about safety. I will just have to find a few friends to come with me!
@@pabloata4708 awwww...adorable. I'm a cancer patient. So let me worry about my own health and you keep your opinions about what I should do all to yourself. I have friends who have died of covid. Just trying to stay alive, here. I have taken many train trips in private cars in the past 3 years.
It´s a pity that SNCF is such an arrogant operator and feels superior to everyone else in Europe, not just to Renfe. I am from Barcelona and the corridor for both freight and passenger has so much potential but because of SNCF it is severely underused. A recent study showed that the Mediterranean road corridor from Valencia all the way up to the border with France is the third busiest in Europe for road freight. There is huge potential to both free the highways and less contamination but SNCF says nope. By the way, if you haven´t tried ¨Le petit tren jaunne¨ in the Pyrenees it is an absolute gem. You need to take it both now in the winter and in the summer for the complete experience. The problem is that sometimes it doesn´t run and you go there because they don´t inform you in advance and you find out that you need to take a bus instead which doesn´t compare at all. People take the train for the views, it´s not a regular service to simply replace it with a bus service but being operated by SNCF they don´t want to lose the money and they don´t care much if you´re happy or not. It happened to a friend a few weeks ago. And also, new Rodalies train sets arrive next year, you need to come and review them. There will be both commute and medium distance ones. :) Take care.
@@Asenay22 It's not quite true. In Spain, a foreign operator obtains a national license and SNCF obtained with ease a long time ago. In France, the licenses are per lines which creates more bureaucracy, delays, leaves more room for the national operator to influence competition. SNCF is one of the worst operators and looking at their refund policy for high speed trains will show how insulting that is. Renfe had one of the best until competition and a degraded infrastructure made them change it earlier this year. They are definitely not at the same level.
A brilliant video. Nice that SNCF has night trains back on track. Always wanted to get from Berlin to Barcelona by train, now I know, how this can be done while sleeping.
It's such a shame that SNCF has such petty relationships with other operators. And when I had to buy train tickets from Basel to Strasbourg and return, I had to book it with the Swiss Railways because apparently the SNCF website doesn't accept some credit cards
SNCF is a dinosaur. Can't understand why the State still wants to operate trains instead of letting a private company do so. A waste of public money for poor return and lots of strikes.
👏 another great coverage ! It's a nice way, to avoid the poor frequency of cross-border trains on the Cebère/Portbou border. However I wouldn't like to relie on a (tight) bus replacement connection on the opposite direction ... I really like the SNCF night train philosophy of using a modular couchette based offer(6beds, 4beds, private compartement etc) . It helps to keep the high costs of a wider overnight offer more affordable . 2 & 1 seating for 2nd-class tickets(?) is a nice touch too . Another great singularity towards modern night stock(Trenitalia, NJ) are the openable windows ! A private couchette compartment with a certain plus in service isn't really that much worse than a narrow, stinky and humid "luxury" sleeper cabin ...
If you don’t have much luggage it is pleasant to walk between Puigcerda and LaTour. It’s 4km flat walk along country tracks. Puigcerda is a pretty town worth spending an hour or two.
Super sympa comme voyage à faire et refaire je pense ! Intéressant d'ailleurs que l'Intercités de nuit passe par Bordeaux (si j'en juge par le tracé que tu as mis au début de la vidéo) au départ d'Austerlitz, je m'étais figuré qu'il passerai par Vierzon, Limoges, et Cahors pour rejoindre Toulouse :) Mais bon c'est un détail ! Très sympa vraiment comme vidéo encore une fois !
Like you said, very scenic indeed. Nés Cassé was a new name on that beautiful beast you have only in France. Couchettes was my youth too, Copenhagen to Paris with small variations. Happy New Year !
I took the Paris - Cerbere TN in April, a great experience but the shunter staff at Narbonne was late for work so we had to wait an hour there before 7200 could run around its train :-(
Thanks Thibaut! Fascinating "secret" route from Paris to Barcelona. Shame about the RENFE/SNCF issue. Do you know if this is something with a long story behind it?! Could be a whole other video. 🙂. If you know anything about it being sorted, please do post about it too. Does the RENFE EMU have a 1er class bit with better leg room? Absolutely LOVE the fact you can STILL stick your head out the window and breathe the countryside. Completely VERBOTEN now in the UK and sadly missed by those like me that grew up with it. Linesides are no longer routinely cut back now, so even if you could open the window, you'd just get a face full of Buddleia bush. 😵🌳🍃
Barcelona / Paris and Barcelona / Milan would be good high speed routes to have. I am not certain if high speed track is available on the entire length of these two routes. Both would be under 4 hours and would replace a lot of planes. That would require co-operation which SNCF seems to lack.
Barcelona - Paris is actually active right now, but it is like 200 euros per trip and it takes like 6h so not competitive with planes at all. Barcelona-Milan is actually in Trenitalia and the Spanish gov. plans to implement in the near future through Iryo or Trenitalia, sadly they would have to cross through Southern France line which is not high speed (And Sncf doesn't seem interested in upgrading it anytime soon).
@@alfrredd I don't think HSR should designed to be competitive between cities like Barcelona and Paris. It should be designed to be competitive to link those two cities to everything in the middle, like Girona, Montpellier, Lyon etc
@@abelsuisse9671 Yeah that's true, but if you live in Girona you are better off taking a 20€ Ryanair trip that will get you to Paris in 1h rather than paying 200 and losing half your day in the train.
@@abelsuisse9671 Why not? The problem is France that tries to block competition, especially from Spain. SNCF is competing in Spain with their OuiGo low cost high speed service with prices starting at 9€ to Madrid, which is 630 km that takes 2h30 for a direct train. To Paris it's about 1000 km so a direct train on a fully high speed rout can take about 4h but they don't want this to happen so since the line was opened it was full high speed capable of speed of up to 350 kph (operational speed is 300 kph) and in France they built 25 km up to Perpignan and that was 12 years ago.The rest of the line that should connect to the Paris/Lyon/Marseilles is always "a few years away (they did get a 220 kph up to Nimes but the high speed train still uses the regular line). It's the same on the other side, as the high speed line from the Spanish side is nearing completion to Basque Country with a connection to France in Irún but the French side has no such plans for the foreseen future. As for the Barcelona-Paris train. SNCF lwft the agreement that they had with RENFE so now only SNCF offers 2 daily train on this rout as the French are dragging their feet to approve Spanish train to run on their tracks (something that was done for years by RENFE when they cooperated with SNCF). The new Talgo Avril train is in France for a few weeks now for approval, we'll see how long it takes. Spain allows SNCF trains to operate in Spain. Fortunately this cannot last as they will have to open their network as EU low obligates and once more operators will have free passage prices will go down and France will complete their side of the high speed lines.
I did this trip the other way around this fall, sadly the french part of this journey was in complete darknes, and the conductor got angry with me after I opend the door to have a quick peek outside on one of the pyrenese stations (I just opend the door and leaned out, didn't get out). But I was also lucky, thanks to a misunderstanding with in a sncf ticket office when I bought the reservation, I got to ride in 1st class with my 2nd class interrail pass, so only 3 other people (though they were all old and snoring).
17:02 please note, this happens also at the border of Portbou. Don’t expect that there will be a train from SNCF or it’s regional counterpart. We got stuck and were forced to leave the station due closure. We had to arrange a taxi to get to Perpignan. Very bad service!
Belle video. J'apprends des choses avec vous. Un ou une couchettiste, c'est nouveau et c'est un effort de la SNCF envers ses clients qui peuvent y voir un référent pour le voyage. Ce n'est pas un manager type wagon-lit, mais c'est assez nouveau et bienvenu. Le petit dej n'est pas terrible mais il a le mérite d'exister et parfois vaut mieux quitter le train avec quelque chose dans l'estomac, surtout à la montagne. Par contre, même en bisbille, la SNCF le joue mauvais esprit avec la RENFE en gare de La Tour et ce sont aussi ses clients qui en pâtissent. En tout cas, merci pour ce voyage.
Great video! In July I travelled from Latour back to Barcelona (I live one hour south of Barna in the magnificent beach resort called Calafell) and if I can recall well there was an issue as well. But that was actually due to the Tour de France. Not from Latour into Spain but from Latour towards Foix. There were no trains at all. Luckily, the SNCF took care of a bus that drove all the way into Ax les Thermes (and further to Foix), although I cycled from Ax to Tarascon and back to watch the Tour. If I can recall well, there was a train from Latour back into Spain. By the way, it's absolutely stunning. The Pyrenees are so beautiful, and La Molina (the place that reminded you of the Rocky Mountains) is a hard climb from Puigcerda, but also a nice ski resort. Anyway, keep going on with making these great videos :-)
Grâce à vous, je vais prendre ce train bientôt jusque Andorra et retour vers Paris et puis Leuven (où j'habite) via Bruxelles. Pour l'aller,/retour j'ai trouvé un tarif à €140 de Paris-Austerlitz vers Andorra ce qui est encore raisonnable. Donc, ce sera un Thalis de Bruxelles vers Paris-Nord (sans doute une nuit d'hôtel sur place) et le métro vers Paris-Austerlitz. Maintenant, il ne me reste plus qu'à voir les possibilités de logement à Andorra. Merci pour le magnifique reportage !
The Madrid commuter transportation has some trains like that Rodalies you took but the seats are in a configuration of four (two and two facing each other) or three in a row which means that you can strech your less and feel less crowded.
That’s a Loooooooooooong Journey!. Nice to see old locomotive hauled trains. The Swiss still use them as do the U.K.’s operators. Probably would appeal to the young on a budget but too long for we oldies. Thank you for your excellent videos which bring the world to our screens. 👍🏻🏴🇫🇷
I think that I might have written this previously but in the U.K. and I expect elsewhere most people wouldn’t tolerate sharing overnight accommodation with strangers. In today’s world that is unsafe and seems a legacy of backpacking Interailer’s cheap European travel. Surely S.N.C.F. has the money to convert these carriages to modern standards especially with the Austrian train operator’s success in trans European NiughtJet travel. 👍🏻🏴
Utterly petty nonsense from S.N.C.F.!. However, real customer service from R.E.F.E.. What kind of advertisement is that. Does your National train operator imagine that they are too BIG to fail?. They need look no further than across the Channel where despite the current attempts to revisit the 70’s and 80’s anyone with an Economics training will confirm that there is no bottomless pit of money to subsidise services that don’t satisfy passengers needs. They will vote with their feet (Lenin). 👍🏻🏴
SNCF and RENFE need to get their shit together and cooperate to serve hordes of people flocking to night trains. There should be overnight trains between Paris and Barcelona/Madrid and between Madrid and Lisboa.
As mentioned, it's not the best to Barcelona and a bit long even for Madrid (shortest 5h10). but once the new high speed line opens (depending who you ask it is schedule to open in 2023, at leas pats of it, the local government says 2025) it will be much faster to both Madrid and Barcelona. The French side will not be high speed in the foreseen future.
These SNCF Nez Casse locos look so wild to me. Even crazier that Alstom was in the competition to supply the locos for the Northeast Regional service for Amtrack back in the day. We would have gotten these instead of the EMD AEM-7 "toasters" that served on the Northeast Corridor for years...
I guess this bad relation between sncf and renfe comes from the liberalization of railroad transportation meaning the end of monopoly for sncf. Last december I took the tgv from barcelona to perpignan and a month before the trip, no tickets sale was available still...I read that came down to renegotiation exploration contract at the end of 2022, and sncf being " not cooperative " to say the least. Great vid, this nigh trains from Port Bou to Austerlitz brought be back decades ago in the late 70s when I was visiting Paris as a child...
Have you tried the Euro Express yet? I dont know if it still runs, on between Stockholm and Venice. Same you recorded 3 years ago or something in Stockholm
Bonjour, est ce que cette ligne entre latour carol, puigcerda et barcelone est saisonnière ? je ne trouve rien sur le site de la SNCF ou de la RENFE ce jour
So, SNCF hasn't changed much in the 40 years I've been using them. No water in the coaches, bad on board food and a complete disregard of passenger convenience. If it's not a TGV, they really don't care.
Vidéo très intéressant. Merci! Juste une question, combien coûte ce voyage en 1er classe svp? Et quelle est la différence de confort appart les couchettes à 3 personnes ?
The bad feelings between RENFE and SNCF is quite petty. I wonder if it's in the official guidebook for SNCF staff to be awkward towards their RENFE counterparts. So much for neighbourly co-operation.
I took this route this summer from the north of the Netherlands all the way to Barcelona. Really pretty route and oh my yhose last three hours of sunrise in the Pyrenees are just wonderful. But such a shame with hassle between Latour and Barca. Took almost 5 hours with busses and trains to get there....
You can select the 'sole occupancy' option (called Espace Privatif) at the time of booking. This come at an extra cost though. The alterantive, which may or may not work out cheaper, is to book 2 or 3 "phantom" kid tickets as suggested by Mark from "The man in Seat 61"
@simply railway - when you are traveling around, what do you travel with and pack? I know a skateboard recommended. TY (I've watched your Alaskan trips about 5 times. I'm heading up there in April.)
That looks a great sleeper trip. You dont want mega high speed running on these and you get to traverse some of the classic lines. Plus a train you can still open the windows on and peek out into the fresh air. Lovely. The line up of classic electrics at Paris Austeritz was a time warp. Shame the sleep dudnt go to the heart of Barcelona for for 49 euros for 518 miles in your own couchette was a bargain.
The part about the break is quite petty by sncf, I take they don't realise or care how it affects the passengers
They don't care because those passengers aren't paying sncf so they might as well crash for all they care.
Is this a recent thing? I got the Yellow train up to Latour and then the RENFE train down to Barça in May 2022 and it was fine. Or is it down to the time of day and when the RENFE staff need their breaks?
Hillohappy dag god all wersh bless far you Lucia
@@robblissism lan tarbre in malaysia
On feb
Finally! I want to see how is like to travel Paris to Barcelona via La Tour de Carrol Thanks .And at 17:25 It was oficially the BIGEST bruh moment on the railway that I ever seen In my life
Merci pour cette magnifique vidéo. Il y a 10 ans j’avais fait Namur-Camallera (entre Figueres et Girona) uniquement en train. Un train IC jusqu’à Bruxelles puis un Thalys jusqu’à Paris Nord puis un RER pour Paris Lyon puis un TGV pour Perpignan puis un TER jusqu’à Portbou et finalement un Rodalies jusqu’à Camallera. Long mais un merveilleux souvenir! Le matin les voyageurs allaient au travail à Bruxelles sous la grisaille et en fin d’après-midi les ados revenaient de la plage avec le Rodalies sous le soleil! Seul le train permet celà! Tes recits, Thibaut, sont un moment que j’attends avec impatience chaque vendredi. Un petit moment de bonheur pour bien commencer le WE… Merci!!!
This brought back memories. We did this trip in November 2017. After travelling to Paris from London by Eurostar and spending the day there, the two of us shared a couchette with a couple of other guys who were both gone by Andorra so we had much of the Pyrenes to ourselves. No breakfast on the train, the café at Latour was closed and the wait for the Barcelona train was longer. But the view from the train in the snow was magical. Your video shows some of the detail we missed because of the weather so it was great to see. It was at a time when there was a lot of activity in support of Catalonia independence. The faster trains going into Barcelona were disrupted because people were occupying the tracks at the terminus, but our commuter train arrived without a problem. The following day we took a direct train across Spain to Seville. All-in-all a great journey.
There used to be a Barcelona-Paris trenhotel Elipsos run by Renfe with sncf, had proper private rooms, and excellent alla carte breakfast, they decomissioned when the high speed train took it's place, it was great service and good value if bought in advance. And now they dont' even sell the high-speed one anymore.
High Speed continues running 2 round trips daily provided only by SNCF. But, prepare your wallet if don't buy time ahead / promo is in place.
The thing that has been discontinued is Elipsos, the joint company between Renfe and SNCF (re-branded to Renfe - SNCF En Cooperation in high speed stock operations)
There even used to be sleeper trains from Barcelona to Milan and Zurich 🥲
@@flopunkt3665 Yes, on the (20th Century) 90's those night trains connected Barcelona with Paris, Milan and Zurich. They were Talgos called "Tren hotel" and departed /arrived to Barcelona estació de França.
During the day there was also the Catalan Talgo that connected Geneve with Barcelona daily ua-cam.com/video/o73setH1f_4/v-deo.html
With the arrival of the high speed they were all cancelled...Biggest error in life. Meanwhile the Barcelona Estació de França is decaying as days pass by.
@@flopunkt3665 The Zurich-Barcelona is about to be reinstated by OEBBs Nightjet in 2024!
I would love this train journey in winter! And first class with private accommodations and meals included.
Thank you Thibault. 😀🎄💚
A few weeks ago on newspapers one could read its become a usual situation to have to travel from La Tour to Puigcerdà due to problems between SNCF and Renfe. They also stopped doing the TGV together from Barcelona to Paris. and are now competitors on the route from Barcelona to Madrid, having diferent trains each one. Actually Renfe is not allowed by SNCF to operate in France.
Renfe will be operating in France very shortly, all legal challengers have been overcome.
I'm doing this exact same journey to attend my friend's wedding in Spain next year and I can't wait, so it's great to see you endorsing it. Merci Thibault!
I was actually fortunate enough to make the exact same trip with a friend this past summer. Similar to you I had trouble with the connection in Latour de Carol resulting in a grueling 3 hour wait at 40 degree temperature. Completely worth it nonetheless, as the views were fabulous!
Hi Thibault, great production values. A thoroughly entertain and informative feature. Thanks as always for the bike information, I think the taxi ride with my bike to make the connection would have been something of a challenge.
I did have a positive impression of SNCF - having ridden it several times over ~ 20 years. BUT, this story puts them in a different light. I've never been on such route as this one but had thoughts of doing so one day. Good to know how screwed up SNCF makes it beforehand.
The coach looks more comfortable than a crowded couchette. I need a private room all by myself.
Je n'aurais jamais pensé à aller à Barcelone en passant par Latour-de-Carol. Merci pour la vidéo.
Terrific video, and as it happens, I'm watching it from one of your favorite cities, Boulder. So, your mention of Rocky Mountain National Park was especially appreciated.
Actually, the 447 unit you took is the regional version, which was refurbished with “more comfortable” seats to run regional services (they are the worst but at least accessible). The commuter version is even less comfortable and for some reason is still often used for regional trips.
I have no issues with the Rodalies trains. They work well (most of the times :-D ) and they are quite okay regarding comfortability. PLUS!!! They are for free! The government of Pedro Sanchez is paying for all the commuter tickets (yeah, yeah, we pay it basically ourselves by the tax system, but still). The Netherlands, where I originally come from, are crazy expensive (trains) and the regional trains don't even have toilets on board (ok, I never use toilets in trains but some people do, sometimes even 3 or 4 people all together....)
Merci pour cet incroyable périple.
En tant que ferrovipathe "light", je suis abonné à ta chaîne depuis longtemps.
Je n'ai pas vu tout ton contenu, mais parfois certains sujets m'appellent plus que d'autres.
J'aime énormément ce que tu proposes, mais c'est surtout le fait d'offrir autant de différents "trains reports" qui me sidère.
Je suis surtout impressionné par cette quantité de rides à l'international, et qui plus est, si rapprochés les uns des autres (je me demande souvent comment tu fais). Mais merci, c'est si riche de nous offrir tous ces trajets, qui pour certains (dont je fais partie) ne seront peut-être jamais possible.
Voici donc mon premier commentaire, sur ce train report, car ce dernier a remué beaucoup de souvenirs. Non seulement les voyages en trains de nuit de quand j'étais enfant, mais aussi mon tout dernier il y a une quizaine d'année, pour Barcelone justement (alors tout jeune adulte).
Mais dans mon souvenir j'étais passé par le trajet Limoges/Toulouse/Cerbère.
Je ne savais pas du tout que ce trajet par Latour-de-Carol était possible. Et en plus je ne savais pas que les Corails de nuit avait des emplacements vélos disponibles.
Merci pour tout ce que tu fais c'est top!
Fantastic scenery but don’t think I could handle six strangers in my room. Love tagging along on your journeys,
same
Truly a bruh moment from SNCF
This year, I took a train from Paris Austerlitz to Brive-la-Gaillarde. A very comfortable and scenic 4.5hr trip, exactly on-time and very cheap at €19,-! Loved it.
The second Phantograph lifted up because they drive under DC and the voltage is really low, so there is a high current. When the train climbs a hill, the current is to high for one Phantograph.
In the Netherlands, the broken nose lift up the second phonograph each time the train accelerate.
This is a wonderful post. I went on a school trip from Birmingham to Barcelona with Couchettes when I was 16. I am now 60 and I can feel the excitement of that trip yet again
Superb work
Kieran
Another fantastic video, one of many. Wishing you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and a prosperous and healthy New Year, God be with you.
Okay I absolutely have to take that train when I visit Andorra one day! :)
These trains haven’t changed much since the 80’s when I was in my early teens
The Tunnel de Puymorens has doors at the Hospitalet end to avoid the contact wire from icing up and exits at the highest standard gauge railway station in Europe (Porté-Puymorens) whence the line descends the steepest non-rack gradient (4%) to the old station at Porta.
Pity you were transferred by taxi to Puigcerda (the Peak of Cerdagne, the wide mountain plain at 1300m stretching all the way to Mont Louis at the head of the Têt valley), since the line between Enveitg and Puigcerda also has its peculiarity - two tracks, two gauges, two powers supplies - allowing at one time French trains to arrive in Spain, similar to Portbou, Irun and, at one time, Canfranc.
We did the same trip but from a different station in Paris. We go to La Tour at the ungodly hour of 6 am!
But the transfer to Spanish train was fine.
They did not accept credit cards and we did not have Euros.
The conductor lady was a sweetheart and let us travel. She accompanied us at Barcelona Sants where we bought tickets and gave to her.
Nice way to travel from Paris to Barcelona
The pettiness of SNCF reminds me of some of the freight roads in the U.S.!
I just watched this video because my friend wanted to see it, I must say I really enjoyed it, as I´m from Catalonia and brings back memories, I didn´t even know one could go to Andorra by train!!! You give good information, very good described, I wish all tourists were like you.🙂
Those seats in the 447 EMU of Rodalies are the refurbished ones .
Is uncommon, but it could be a unit with the regular seat for shorter journeys. A UK Ironing board is slighty better than a 447 grey seat.
This looks like a spectacular trip. That said, I honestly don't know if I could share a compartment with strangers to sleep. I think I would be too worried about safety. I will just have to find a few friends to come with me!
When you buy a night train ticket you can specifically request a women's only car with a single checkbox, if that helps !
my god... Please stop watching sensational news and go out into the world more... you will see that it is a much better place than what you are sold.
@@pabloata4708 awwww...adorable. I'm a cancer patient. So let me worry about my own health and you keep your opinions about what I should do all to yourself. I have friends who have died of covid. Just trying to stay alive, here. I have taken many train trips in private cars in the past 3 years.
It´s a pity that SNCF is such an arrogant operator and feels superior to everyone else in Europe, not just to Renfe. I am from Barcelona and the corridor for both freight and passenger has so much potential but because of SNCF it is severely underused. A recent study showed that the Mediterranean road corridor from Valencia all the way up to the border with France is the third busiest in Europe for road freight. There is huge potential to both free the highways and less contamination but SNCF says nope.
By the way, if you haven´t tried ¨Le petit tren jaunne¨ in the Pyrenees it is an absolute gem. You need to take it both now in the winter and in the summer for the complete experience. The problem is that sometimes it doesn´t run and you go there because they don´t inform you in advance and you find out that you need to take a bus instead which doesn´t compare at all. People take the train for the views, it´s not a regular service to simply replace it with a bus service but being operated by SNCF they don´t want to lose the money and they don´t care much if you´re happy or not.
It happened to a friend a few weeks ago.
And also, new Rodalies train sets arrive next year, you need to come and review them. There will be both commute and medium distance ones. :)
Take care.
The problem is the exact same with Renfe on the other side for a lot of routes. The relationship between the two is very bad.
@@Asenay22 It's not quite true. In Spain, a foreign operator obtains a national license and SNCF obtained with ease a long time ago.
In France, the licenses are per lines which creates more bureaucracy, delays, leaves more room for the national operator to influence competition.
SNCF is one of the worst operators and looking at their refund policy for high speed trains will show how insulting that is. Renfe had one of the best until competition and a degraded infrastructure made them change it earlier this year.
They are definitely not at the same level.
A brilliant video. Nice that SNCF has night trains back on track. Always wanted to get from Berlin to Barcelona by train, now I know, how this can be done while sleeping.
It's such a shame that SNCF has such petty relationships with other operators. And when I had to buy train tickets from Basel to Strasbourg and return, I had to book it with the Swiss Railways because apparently the SNCF website doesn't accept some credit cards
Trainline App will help you
SNCF is a dinosaur. Can't understand why the State still wants to operate trains instead of letting a private company do so. A waste of public money for poor return and lots of strikes.
@@DR-pj7sr never fucking privatise, ruined Great Britain’s railways
@@DR-pj7sr Seeing how private companies run the UK, thanks but no thanks.
👏 another great coverage ! It's a nice way, to avoid the poor frequency of cross-border trains on the Cebère/Portbou border. However I wouldn't like to relie on a (tight) bus replacement connection on the opposite direction ...
I really like the SNCF night train philosophy of using a modular couchette based offer(6beds, 4beds, private compartement etc) . It helps to keep the high costs of a wider overnight offer more affordable . 2 & 1 seating for 2nd-class tickets(?) is a nice touch too . Another great singularity towards modern night stock(Trenitalia, NJ) are the openable windows ! A private couchette compartment with a certain plus in service isn't really that much worse than a narrow, stinky and humid "luxury" sleeper cabin ...
If you don’t have much luggage it is pleasant to walk between Puigcerda and LaTour. It’s 4km flat walk along country tracks. Puigcerda is a pretty town worth spending an hour or two.
Corail coaches are the best ! Hope to see one day on nightjet train 😍
Super sympa comme voyage à faire et refaire je pense ! Intéressant d'ailleurs que l'Intercités de nuit passe par Bordeaux (si j'en juge par le tracé que tu as mis au début de la vidéo) au départ d'Austerlitz, je m'étais figuré qu'il passerai par Vierzon, Limoges, et Cahors pour rejoindre Toulouse :) Mais bon c'est un détail ! Très sympa vraiment comme vidéo encore une fois !
Thank you mr Thibault for an exelente journey so beutiful. A lok allways on your wideos. Regards from Sweden ! Roger
Well done, thank you for discovering this option
Like you said, very scenic indeed. Nés Cassé was a new name on that beautiful beast you have only in France. Couchettes was my youth too, Copenhagen to Paris with small variations. Happy New Year !
Great trip report 😉... Simply Railway always inspiring...
Top class report and analysis I wouldn’t mind doing this trip and thanks for highlighting the problem with the change of train
I took the Paris - Cerbere TN in April, a great experience but the shunter staff at Narbonne was late for work so we had to wait an hour there before 7200 could run around its train :-(
I did this trip last week and there are no problem with the rodalies any more. I took it easily from Lator de Querol to Barcelona
Thanks Thibaut! Fascinating "secret" route from Paris to Barcelona. Shame about the RENFE/SNCF issue. Do you know if this is something with a long story behind it?! Could be a whole other video. 🙂. If you know anything about it being sorted, please do post about it too. Does the RENFE EMU have a 1er class bit with better leg room? Absolutely LOVE the fact you can STILL stick your head out the window and breathe the countryside. Completely VERBOTEN now in the UK and sadly missed by those like me that grew up with it. Linesides are no longer routinely cut back now, so even if you could open the window, you'd just get a face full of Buddleia bush. 😵🌳🍃
No first class on the 447. But Renfe just ordered new regional trains for Catalunya, so this should be fixed soon.
Very interesting to say the least, Thanks Thibault!
Barcelona / Paris and Barcelona / Milan would be good high speed routes to have. I am not certain if high speed track is available on the entire length of these two routes. Both would be under 4 hours and would replace a lot of planes. That would require co-operation which SNCF seems to lack.
Barcelona - Paris is actually active right now, but it is like 200 euros per trip and it takes like 6h so not competitive with planes at all. Barcelona-Milan is actually in Trenitalia and the Spanish gov. plans to implement in the near future through Iryo or Trenitalia, sadly they would have to cross through Southern France line which is not high speed (And Sncf doesn't seem interested in upgrading it anytime soon).
@@alfrredd I don't think HSR should designed to be competitive between cities like Barcelona and Paris. It should be designed to be competitive to link those two cities to everything in the middle, like Girona, Montpellier, Lyon etc
@@abelsuisse9671 Yeah that's true, but if you live in Girona you are better off taking a 20€ Ryanair trip that will get you to Paris in 1h rather than paying 200 and losing half your day in the train.
@@abelsuisse9671 Why not?
The problem is France that tries to block competition, especially from Spain.
SNCF is competing in Spain with their OuiGo low cost high speed service with prices starting at 9€ to Madrid, which is 630 km that takes 2h30 for a direct train. To Paris it's about 1000 km so a direct train on a fully high speed rout can take about 4h but they don't want this to happen so since the line was opened it was full high speed capable of speed of up to 350 kph (operational speed is 300 kph) and in France they built 25 km up to Perpignan and that was 12 years ago.The rest of the line that should connect to the Paris/Lyon/Marseilles is always "a few years away (they did get a 220 kph up to Nimes but the high speed train still uses the regular line).
It's the same on the other side, as the high speed line from the Spanish side is nearing completion to Basque Country with a connection to France in Irún but the French side has no such plans for the foreseen future.
As for the Barcelona-Paris train. SNCF lwft the agreement that they had with RENFE so now only SNCF offers 2 daily train on this rout as the French are dragging their feet to approve Spanish train to run on their tracks (something that was done for years by RENFE when they cooperated with SNCF). The new Talgo Avril train is in France for a few weeks now for approval, we'll see how long it takes. Spain allows SNCF trains to operate in Spain.
Fortunately this cannot last as they will have to open their network as EU low obligates and once more operators will have free passage prices will go down and France will complete their side of the high speed lines.
I did this trip the other way around this fall, sadly the french part of this journey was in complete darknes, and the conductor got angry with me after I opend the door to have a quick peek outside on one of the pyrenese stations (I just opend the door and leaned out, didn't get out). But I was also lucky, thanks to a misunderstanding with in a sncf ticket office when I bought the reservation, I got to ride in 1st class with my 2nd class interrail pass, so only 3 other people (though they were all old and snoring).
How immature is SNCF? What did RENFE ever do to them to make them this petty?
The French. Arrogance runs in their blood
What you mean by immaturely?
@@xr6ladnot the xenophobic steryotyping
17:02 please note, this happens also at the border of Portbou. Don’t expect that there will be a train from SNCF or it’s regional counterpart. We got stuck and were forced to leave the station due closure. We had to arrange a taxi to get to Perpignan. Very bad service!
@@xr6ladthat’s because we’ve been in a dictatorship since 1789
Fantastic video, thank you. Greetings from the netherlands
This is such a fantastic idea. Thank you for sharing. I do hope sncf gets their shit together but still it seems worth the risk. ❤🥂
Belle video. J'apprends des choses avec vous. Un ou une couchettiste, c'est nouveau et c'est un effort de la SNCF envers ses clients qui peuvent y voir un référent pour le voyage. Ce n'est pas un manager type wagon-lit, mais c'est assez nouveau et bienvenu. Le petit dej n'est pas terrible mais il a le mérite d'exister et parfois vaut mieux quitter le train avec quelque chose dans l'estomac, surtout à la montagne. Par contre, même en bisbille, la SNCF le joue mauvais esprit avec la RENFE en gare de La Tour et ce sont aussi ses clients qui en pâtissent. En tout cas, merci pour ce voyage.
What a great tip for my upcoming euro trip, thank you!
Cracking route - definitely one for the bucket list! 😁
I went from Barcelona-Estació de França to Paris-Gare de Lyon in 1998. It was excellent back then.
Great video! In July I travelled from Latour back to Barcelona (I live one hour south of Barna in the magnificent beach resort called Calafell) and if I can recall well there was an issue as well. But that was actually due to the Tour de France. Not from Latour into Spain but from Latour towards Foix. There were no trains at all. Luckily, the SNCF took care of a bus that drove all the way into Ax les Thermes (and further to Foix), although I cycled from Ax to Tarascon and back to watch the Tour. If I can recall well, there was a train from Latour back into Spain. By the way, it's absolutely stunning. The Pyrenees are so beautiful, and La Molina (the place that reminded you of the Rocky Mountains) is a hard climb from Puigcerda, but also a nice ski resort. Anyway, keep going on with making these great videos :-)
Grâce à vous, je vais prendre ce train bientôt jusque Andorra et retour vers Paris et puis Leuven (où j'habite) via Bruxelles. Pour l'aller,/retour j'ai trouvé un tarif à €140 de Paris-Austerlitz vers Andorra ce qui est encore raisonnable. Donc, ce sera un Thalis de Bruxelles vers Paris-Nord (sans doute une nuit d'hôtel sur place) et le métro vers Paris-Austerlitz. Maintenant, il ne me reste plus qu'à voir les possibilités de logement à Andorra. Merci pour le magnifique reportage !
The Madrid commuter transportation has some trains like that Rodalies you took but the seats are in a configuration of four (two and two facing each other) or three in a row which means that you can strech your less and feel less crowded.
That’s a Loooooooooooong Journey!. Nice to see old locomotive hauled trains. The Swiss still use them as do the U.K.’s operators. Probably would appeal to the young on a budget but too long for we oldies. Thank you for your excellent videos which bring the world to our screens. 👍🏻🏴🇫🇷
I think that I might have written this previously but in the U.K. and I expect elsewhere most people wouldn’t tolerate sharing overnight accommodation with strangers. In today’s world that is unsafe and seems a legacy of backpacking Interailer’s cheap European travel. Surely S.N.C.F. has the money to convert these carriages to modern standards especially with the Austrian train operator’s success in trans European NiughtJet travel. 👍🏻🏴
Utterly petty nonsense from S.N.C.F.!. However, real customer service from R.E.F.E.. What kind of advertisement is that. Does your National train operator imagine that they are too BIG to fail?. They need look no further than across the Channel where despite the current attempts to revisit the 70’s and 80’s anyone with an Economics training will confirm that there is no bottomless pit of money to subsidise services that don’t satisfy passengers needs. They will vote with their feet (Lenin). 👍🏻🏴
It is a great pleasure to travel by train on this delightful itinerary!
The breakfast thing is a great improvement, I agree it's overpriced but it's nice that it's there. Just because I love this to stay I'd pay for it.
SNCF and RENFE need to get their shit together and cooperate to serve hordes of people flocking to night trains. There should be overnight trains between Paris and Barcelona/Madrid and between Madrid and Lisboa.
First time watching your channel really good no bullshit say it as it is keep them coming
Shame on SNCF for acting like spiteful children . Great scenery BTW .
Won’t let the person in their break room. How juvenile! What a great example of monopoly power in action.
what about cross to Spain via Bordeaux trough Hendaya - Irun stations?
Probably not very useful if you are headed to Barcelona, but could be good for north, northwest or Madrid.
As mentioned, it's not the best to Barcelona and a bit long even for Madrid (shortest 5h10). but once the new high speed line opens (depending who you ask it is schedule to open in 2023, at leas pats of it, the local government says 2025) it will be much faster to both Madrid and Barcelona. The French side will not be high speed in the foreseen future.
Sehr gutes Video!
Very good indeed!
Thanks a lot for the video ! ! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Great video one of your best. BTW are there any daytime trains from Paris and La Tour De Carol?
Nope... day train to Toulouse and then a TER to La Tour de Carol
These SNCF Nez Casse locos look so wild to me. Even crazier that Alstom was in the competition to supply the locos for the Northeast Regional service for Amtrack back in the day. We would have gotten these instead of the EMD AEM-7 "toasters" that served on the Northeast Corridor for years...
Would be nice to get a shot of when you walk out of the station to end the video with
The surroundings of Sants station in Barcelona are very dirty and rundown. Not exactly a nice view to end the trip with
@@osasunaitor All the more reason to film it. Cinéma vérité 🙂
Hahaha, this just popped up on my phone, I'm watching it on my TV. Cheers!
I guess this bad relation between sncf and renfe comes from the liberalization of railroad transportation meaning the end of monopoly for sncf. Last december I took the tgv from barcelona to perpignan and a month before the trip, no tickets sale was available still...I read that came down to renegotiation exploration contract at the end of 2022, and sncf being " not cooperative " to say the least.
Great vid, this nigh trains from Port Bou to Austerlitz brought be back decades ago in the late 70s when I was visiting Paris as a child...
can i ask why the relationship is poor between sncf and renfe?
Have you tried the Euro Express yet? I dont know if it still runs, on between Stockholm and Venice. Same you recorded 3 years ago or something in Stockholm
Bonjour, est ce que cette ligne entre latour carol, puigcerda et barcelone est saisonnière ? je ne trouve rien sur le site de la SNCF ou de la RENFE ce jour
Have you ever try the Tohoku Shinkansen one in Japan
Un video perfecto, buen trabajo.
Hi, How Safe is the luggage in this night train route?
Also any suggestions on how to tie or lock them if needed?
Thanks in advance. 🙌
15:54 "OHHH, ENFOIRÉ" 🤣🤣
I got scared to look when you opened the toilet. As if I was expecting some horrendous things in there but good thing, they are clean 😂❤
yeah, looks hundred times better, than Paris-railway-stations "standing-shit-hole". Unbelievable.
So, SNCF hasn't changed much in the 40 years I've been using them. No water in the coaches, bad on board food and a complete disregard of passenger convenience. If it's not a TGV, they really don't care.
Great video!
Vidéo très intéressant. Merci! Juste une question, combien coûte ce voyage en 1er classe svp? Et quelle est la différence de confort appart les couchettes à 3 personnes ?
Where do you buy the tickets between Barcelona and Latour?? The ones I found are more expensive than the train between Paris and Latour
that scene at 12:15 with the incline! wow! 😍
Very fast! Love that this is thr updated prestige. Any chance you can show the changes between the old and updated prestige?
Wow thats amazing 👍👍👍👍
17:27 I wonder if SNCF management or staff take more blame for this
The bad feelings between RENFE and SNCF is quite petty. I wonder if it's in the official guidebook for SNCF staff to be awkward towards their RENFE counterparts. So much for neighbourly co-operation.
I took this route this summer from the north of the Netherlands all the way to Barcelona.
Really pretty route and oh my yhose last three hours of sunrise in the Pyrenees are just wonderful. But such a shame with hassle between Latour and Barca. Took almost 5 hours with busses and trains to get there....
Excellent video 👌👌
Great video! Congratulations
So, no private one or two person couchettes? I was interested in this night train years ago but not used to share couchettes...
You can select the 'sole occupancy' option (called Espace Privatif) at the time of booking. This come at an extra cost though. The alterantive, which may or may not work out cheaper, is to book 2 or 3 "phantom" kid tickets as suggested by Mark from "The man in Seat 61"
@simply railway - when you are traveling around, what do you travel with and pack? I know a skateboard recommended. TY (I've watched your Alaskan trips about 5 times. I'm heading up there in April.)
Magnifique !
That looks a great sleeper trip.
You dont want mega high speed running on these and you get to traverse some of the classic lines.
Plus a train you can still open the windows on and peek out into the fresh air. Lovely.
The line up of classic electrics at Paris Austeritz was a time warp.
Shame the sleep dudnt go to the heart of Barcelona for for 49 euros for 518 miles in your own couchette was a bargain.
Are you sure the service goes via Bordeaux? In my experience, night trains to Toulouse and Latour de Carol go via Limoges.
This is very beautiful ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
What a trip !!!