Replacement bus to SJPDP on Sunday 12 May

[Bradypus]

SNCF have cancelled a couple of trains from Bayonne to SJPDP on Sunday afternoon/evening and will be running a replacement bus service.

I discovered this on Facebook today where someone made an anxious post about receiving an email from SNCF cancelling their journey from Paris. They were then unable to find a direct train from Paris to SJPDP on the SNCF website and assumed that meant no trains were running or available. It appears they were not aware of the need to change trains in Bayonne. The result is that the person posting was trying to book a flight to Biarritz at short notice simply because a bus will be running instead of the TER train. Apparently it was not clear from the email that the cancellation related only to the final leg of the journey and that a bus alternative is being provided for that sector. A problem which has happened before.

 

[Kathar1na]

@Bradypus, I saw the conversation and the less than ideal advice from people who cannot be bothered to check anything online but have to rush in and share what they are thinking . Not all of them but some.

It is a reccurring problem: A TER train for Bayonne-SJPP is replaced by a bus, with a short-term announcement. It appears to have more to do with logistics (staff availability) than engineering works. People who have booked a ticket from Paris to SJPP get an email about the cancellation of the TER train and do not know that they can start their journey without much further ado. All there is to it is the fact that the replacement bus will arrive in SJPP some 20-30 minutes later than the TER train. Their SNCF train ticket is valid for the whole journey from Paris to SJPP. The replacement bus leaves just outside of Bayonne station.

I don’t know what it says in the email that they are getting. If they are not familiar with it all, I am not surprised that they are somewhere between worry and panic.

Contrary to what the poster believes, the journey is listed on the sncf-connect website. One merely has to click on the "See only the timetable" tab and not on the "See prices" tab. For future reference. Maybe it helps. The cynic in me doubts it though ...

Connections on Sncf-connect.com for Sunday 12 May 2024:
From Bayonne - 4 journeys are listed: train; train; replacement bus; replacement bus.

From Paris - 2 journeys are listed: high speed train & replacement bus; high speed train & regional train & replacement bus

 

[Bradypus]

Contrary to what the poster claims, the journey is listed on the sncf-connect website.

My impression from his posts on Facebook was that he had searched only for direct trains to SJPDP and unsurprisingly found none. I am always surprised that people do not think to check for likely connecting trains from intermediate points. RENFE are very poor at providing information on journeys with a change of trains and at times SNCF can come close though they are generally better about it.