Four months before the opening of the Olympic Games, the SNCF is not able to sell tickets for departure or arrival from three Parisian stations on July 26, the day of the opening ceremony, due to uncertainties about access (AFP/Ian LANGSDON)
Four months before the opening of the Olympic Games in France, the SNCF is not able to sell tickets for departure or arrival from three Parisian stations on July 26, the day of the opening ceremony. JO, due to uncertainties over the conditions of access to these stations.
The SNCF is thus blocking sales of trains departing from or arriving at the Paris-Gare de Lyon, Paris-Bercy and Paris-Austerlitz stations on this date, even though it is the Friday of one of the biggest holiday weekends. cross paths with vacationers next summer.
Austerlitz and Bercy, from where the Intercités leave for Clermont-Ferrand, Limoges or Toulouse and night trains, but also the Gare de Lyon, the largest station in France for main lines, are in fact located in the red zone, c i.e. where motorized access will be prohibited.
It can be accessed on foot or by public transport, but certain stations located on the banks of the Seine will be closed for security reasons, which will complicate access.
The Italian railway company Trenitalia, which operates five rotations per day between Paris and Lyon, has for its part put on sale the seats for its trains which will run on July 26.
Scheduled on the Seine, the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, which for the first time will not take place in a stadium, will see 326,000 spectators crowd the banks of the river to watch the parade of the different delegations by boat.
SNCF train tickets for these three stations “will be put on sale upon validation of the conditions for organizing the opening ceremony of Paris 2024 by the public authorities”, indicates the French railway company on its site.
Travelers stormed the SNCF website as soon as summer ticket sales opened on Wednesday. At the start of the evening, 1.5 million tickets had been sold, “unheard of”, according to a press release from the public group.
The SNCF site and application had an audience 50% higher than last year. “The peak of sales was reached from the opening around 6:00 a.m. with up to eight TGVs sold per minute”, or 3,000 to 4,000 tickets, said the SNCF.
The Trainline platform, for its part, recorded an increase in reservations of 115% on this first day compared to last year.
© 2024 AFP
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