How to book Lucerne to Paris tickets

Hi. I need some advise on travelling from Lucerne to Paris by train. Which is a better option? :-

1) Book TGV-Lyria tickets from Basel to Paris in advance. And for the portion of journey from Lucerne to Basel, just purchase the tickets over the counter on the day of departure (since sbb need not be purchased in advance)

2) Book the entire train journey (from Lucerne to Basel to Paris Gare Dy Lyon) through the sbb website. If I take this option, will there be sufficient time given to transfer train at Basel?

Thanks

Hi Ping17,

You can buy through the SBB, or your local Rail Europe shop (www.raileurope.com.sg/ train/tgv-lyria) or Rail Europe World (www.raileurope-world.com/train/tgv-lyria). The advantage of your local shop is that you can pay in your own currency (SGD), so you may save some banking fees there.

Other than that there isn't much of a difference. The SBB offers a seat reservation for Lucerne to Basel for an additional CHF 5, but it's optional and you do not need it. Both Rail Europe websites have a seat reservation included for that leg, but it's still an open ticket so you can take an earlier train as well. In any case changing trains should be doable in the proposed time, regardless where you buy.

Indeed you can also just book Basel to Paris through any of the websites and buy Lucerne to Basel locally.