Koby

And this is exactly what's so wrong with this airport. (Well, actually, there are more things wrong than just this. )

It seems that the only way to navigate it is by trial and error (or by asking on FT).

pititom

Happy is actually right. The parisian area is not so simply divided. SNCF operates suburbian trains as well as RER C, D and E in whole. And they also operate RER A West of La D�fense and RER B North of Gare du Nord. The rest of RER A and B, as well as subway system and tram system is operated by RATP. But that wouldn't be French enough without the exception of Tramway 4 being operated by SNCF. I won't discuss the buses which are not so easy

So RER B from CDG to Gare du Nord is operated by SNCF. But since last year, they discontinued "interconnexion". A funny system where the RATP driver would give the train's commands to a SNCF one at Gare du Nord and vice versa. Now, RATP drivers drive on SNCF tracks and SNCF drivers also do on RATP tracks.

But the stations remain the property of SNCF between Gare du Nord and CDG (SNCF operates booth, maintenance and signage). So you will find SNCF signs on both the TGV station and the RER station.

Now, that said, I don't find it so confusing, as RER is signed throughout the airport as "Paris by train" and TGV is signed "Railway station".

imagineertobe

Ah, yeah I know about this fuzzy distinction, and I'll take your word on signage at the A�roport Charles de Gaulle 1 station.

I think we determined that Happy was talking about the two entrances to the A�roport Charles de Gaulle 2/TGV station and how it was important to choose the correct one to catch a hotel shuttle.

Peace.

CP3

Also, note that the RER does breakdown. I left Paris from the St. Michel station towards CDG on May 28th and was told that the electrical cables or wires broke or had problems on RER B-CDG. I had to take RER B to Gare du Nord and change to another RER (10 minutes to get there) that merged two lines into one line to CDG. The train was extremely crowded but it was the cheapest way to get there.

Three hours earlier seems good.

Happy

Exactly. I pitied the gentleman who was already waiting Marriott shuttle for over an hour when we got to the wrong station. He said he had no euro on him else he would take a taxi. In his no less than 1/2 doz phone calls to Marriott, no one had ever suggested he might be waiting at the WRONG station!

Happy

Well, the day before we flew home we took RER C to somewhere just to kill time but the train did not stop at that "somewhere" and went all the way to an Interchange big station - way passed the zone 2, probably into zone 4 or even 5. Since it is an Interchange, we were able to change platform and took a train heading back to Paris... About 10-15 minutes into travel, the train stopped. Apparently there was some kind of incidents / accidents ahead on its track - the train stuck there for almost 90 minutes despite trains traveling on both sides of our track kept going and coming...

After that experience we felt very good about our decision to stay at a CDG hotel that night for our next morning flight home!

nrr

For Eurail pass holders a problem for lines with mixed ownership (like RER B) hits them in a big way. Unless they know about this situation, if they board at CDG (after activating their EP, and using the special ticket to enter the station), try to exit at Chatlet (or do a correspondance* transfer to the metro at Gare du Nord) will find themselves "locked out"--very confusing for a typical tourist.
*at Gare du Nord, there are two kinds of exits: (1)correspondance to a metro, (2)exit completely out of the system, to the main SNCF station, ie.

nrr

Some of the branches of line C link Versailles RG and Versailles Chantiers in a huge loop [these two stations are a few miles apart]--it would be like going from lga (LaGuardia) to JFK via Chicago.

anandrag

Am staying at Westin Vendome and need to get there from CDG. Where at CDG do I find the Roissybus? How much is a ticket and how does that compare to a taxi?

Mountain Trader

Google is your friend:

http://www.aeroportsdeparis.fr/ADP/e...-roissybus.htm

nrr

The price is 8.90 EU, and there are pickup points at the various terminals--look for the sign Roissybus; from the internet, there are vending machines for purchasing tickets. http://parisbytrain.com/buses-from-c...port-to-paris/
gives lots more detail. I've only used the RER, so I can't give more detail on the bus, except that it ends up at rue Scribe and rue Auber (pl. Opera).
I would guess taxis are much much more expensive.

wendySFO

Minor updates as the URL quoted above is a bit out-of-date. The ticket is 9.40 Euro now. The bus stop is just cross street after exit from the arrival hall in T1 (I usually arrive from LH flights). The bus stop used to just look like what the pictures showed in the URL. But now they are no longer under the structure but moved outside. Here is a shot I took when I first saw the changes, RoissyBus waiting booth to Opera is marked "M"




Some details of the RoissyBus:



By the way, you can pay the fee to the bus driver. I didn't find and ticket machine at the CDG stop.

Happy

I did not find ticket machine either on previous trip when we stayed at InterContinental Le Grand which is across street from RoissyBus Opera Stop. We bought tickets directly from the driver. In fact I believe he even takes CC as there are logos of the Visa/MC/AMEX displayed next to the driver's booth.

nrr

As as has been noted in other threads, using chipless cc frequently won't work--like trying to buy a RER ticket to go from cdg to Gare Du Nord from an automatique (vending machine). Do USA (chipless) cards work on the Roisybus?

imagineertobe

RATP has been pushing to make its machines mag-strip friendly, and the white or purple vending machines in the Metro and the green vending machines at CDG now accept non-chipped cards. I assume Roissybus would be the same.

SNCF, notably, has stuck to its chip-only guns at its (yellow) machines.