Paris to Lausanne by train

How to take a train journey from Paris to Lausanne

High speed trains link Paris and Lausanne on two routes, via Frasne or Geneva, the latter is slightly longer in journey time, but what will matter more are the departure and arrival times of each specific train.

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Routes

From Paris Gare de Lyon/Paris Lyon to Lausanne

Travel Information

The usual schedule

Three of the six departures, those usually scheduled to leave Paris at 08:18; 12:18 and 18:18 will be taking the longer route via Geneve, so will have a journey time of just under four hours.

The departures usually scheduled for 07:56; 11:56 and 17:56 take the more direct route - though it is faster by under 20 minutes.

Final Destination: Lausanne

Note that these trains depart from the Gare De Lyon in Paris.

If you're heading to stations on the route between Geneve and Brigue/Brig, including Montreux, Martigny, Vevey, Sion and Visp, then the optimum journey is to take these trains and make connections in Lausanne, rather than Geneve.

Which of the two routes the trains take from Paris, doesn't impact on the availability of the onward connections; though if you take the trains which travel via Geneve, you'll have only 6 minutes to transfer into the onward trains towards Brig.

3 x trains per day

Tickets

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings usually open: 4 months ahead of the travel date

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.

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 valid in both France and Switzerland, the rail pass reservation fees for the Lyria trains are comparatively expensive.

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.

On this journey

Journey Features

Scenic - NoHigh Speed (partial)

Good to Know

Travelling via Frasne:

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 give an idea of the journey experience on this part of the trip.

The train switches to conventional tracks for the remainder of the journey north of Dijon.

Travelling via Geneve:

The first two thirds of the journey is on the same high speed line, but the trains to Geneve leave it farther along

The train will inevitably slow down when it leaves the high speed line, but the journey the becomes a lot more scenic once the train has passed through Bourg-en-Bresse.
Though the views are pleasant rather than amazing; this isn't a route to single out because you want to take a scenic rail journey.

If your reserved seat is on the right of the train (when facing the direction of travel) and you're on the upper deck , there are views of the river valley to be enjoyed, once the train has departed Bellegarde; and some glimpses of Lake Geneva for the final 25 minutes of the journey.

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