Related Content
Content
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
Share
Routes
From Paris Gare de Lyon/Paris Lyon to Basel SBB/Bâle CFF
Journey Summary
3hr 4min (approx)
Daily
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: up to 6 months 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 SNCF Connect
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
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 Guide'.
Where to book
| Ticket Provider | Approximate Cost | |
|---|---|---|
| Trainline | from €29 | |
| SNCF Connect | from €29 | |
| Save A Train | from €29 | |
| Happy rail | from €29 | |
| Happy rail | from €29 |
On this journey
Travelling On
Journey Features
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.
This second version of ShowMeTheJourney is exciting and new, so we are genuinely thrilled that you are here and reading this, but we also need your help.
We’re striving not to let anything get in the way of providing the most useful service possible, hence a facility has been set up with DonorBox which can be used to support the running costs and make improvements.
Instead of advertising or paywalls, your financial support will make a positive difference to delivering an enhanced service, as there’s a lot of ideas which we want to make happen.
So if you have found the info provided here to be useful, please consider saying thank you.
See if there’s a unique journey guide for your trip, featuring info on the trains, tickets & stations.
This is one of more than 100 train travel guides available on ShowMeTheJourney, which will make it easier to take the train journeys you want or need to make. As always, all images were captured on trips taken by ShowMeTheJourney.
