Paris to Basel / Bâle by train

How to travel from Paris to Basel/Bâle by train

The only direct trains between the French capital and Switzerland are these high speed Lyria services.

Connect in Basel for locations in Switzerland without direct trains from France including; Biel, Bern, Luzern and Interlaken

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Routes

From Paris Gare de Lyon/Paris Lyon to Basel SBB/Bâle CFF

Travel Information

Final Destination: Zurich or Bâle/Basel

All trains also call at: Mulhouse-Ville

Most trains also call at: Dijon-Ville

6 x trains per day

Tickets

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings open: Around 105 days ahead of the travel date*

*Yes this does seem random and apologies for not being more precise, but there doesn't seem to a firm rule for when tickets will be released for this journey.

If tickets aren't on sale yet for your travel date, then this is a journey for which it's worth signing up to the ticket availability notification service on Oui.SNCF.

Do that and you'll receive an email within moments of the tickets being released for sale. It's worth doing, as this is a journey on which the very cheapest tickets tend to sell out particularly fast.

Booking tickets

When looking for tickets on Oui.SNCF tick the 'direct trains' box, on Trainline tick the 'fastest journeys' box.

Trains departing at different times can be cheaper than others leaving on the same day, so you may need to look through the day's departures to find the cheapest fares.
There can be particularly big price discrepancies between departures on this route.

Seats will automatically be assigned when booking tickets for this journey.

Rail Pass Users:

The TGV-Lyria trains are the only direct trains from Paris to Switzerland.

However, if you will be travelling with a Eurail or InterRail pass, which is vaild in both France and Switzerland, the rail pass reservation fees for the Lyia trains are comparatively expensive.
For info on how you can avoid paying these fees, click on the TGV Lyria 'Train Details'

Where to book
Ticket Provider Approximate Cost
Trainline from €29

Trainline Guide

Oui.SNCF from €29

Oui.SNCF Guide

SNCF is the national rail operator in France and not so long ago it recently simplified both the range of tickets and the term and conditions of using them.
Therefore the cheapest tickets also become more flexible too.

Other improvements included a simple integration of travelling with bicycles and rail pass users being able to book reservations for national journeys, without paying booking fees.

Though a legacy of when SNCF sold international tickets under the Rail Europe branding is that OuiSNCF is available in multiple translations with the offerings on the site then tailored to international visitors to France.
However, some of the site's features, including the integration of mobility assistance into the booking path, are only available on the French language version.

Something else to look out for is that simplest way of travelling with tickets is to use the SNCF 'My Travel' phone app, so it's therefore often a good idea to book on the OuiSNCF mobile service.

Saveatrain from €29

Saveatrain Guide

Happyrail from €29

Happyrail Guide

Happy Rail is a Netherlands rail ticket agency which sells tickets for both national and international journeys within a range of countries including Belgium France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland.

HappyRail doesn't charge booking fees in the conventional sense, but if you're not Dutch you can expect to pay additional transaction fees, which will be added to the total cost.
That's because the most common form of online payment used in The Netherlands is 'iDEAL' and HappyRail doesn't charge a transaction fee for 'iDEAL' payments, but only Dutch residents can sign up to 'iDEAL'.
Other forms of payment include Visa debit cards will incur a fee.

Happyrail from €29

Happyrail Guide

Happy Rail is a Netherlands rail ticket agency which sells tickets for both national and international journeys within a range of countries including Belgium France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland.

HappyRail doesn't charge booking fees in the conventional sense, but if you're not Dutch you can expect to pay additional transaction fees, which will be added to the total cost.
That's because the most common form of online payment used in The Netherlands is 'iDEAL' and HappyRail doesn't charge a transaction fee for 'iDEAL' payments, but only Dutch residents can sign up to 'iDEAL'.
Other forms of payment include Visa debit cards will incur a fee.

On this journey

Journey Features

Scenic - NoHigh Speed (partial)

This is a journey of four distinct parts.

1: Around seven minutes after departure, the train will move on to the high speed line south from Paris and it will then travel at more than 270 km/h for around 1hr 10mins.
The video was taken from a train travelling in the opposite direction, but it gives an idea of the journey experience on this part of the trip.

2. The train switches to conventional tracks north of Dijon, and this is the the most scenic part of the journey
3. Between Dijon and Mulhouse there is another high speed line.
4. Then the final part of the journey from Mulhouse to Basel is back on conventional tracks.

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