The SNCF has pionevered one of the most efficient, comfortable and user-friendly railway systems in the world. Its staff are, with a few exceptions, courteous and helpful, and its trains - for the most part, fast, clean and frequent - continue, in spite of the closure of some rural lines, to sere a ast part of the country. For national train information, you can either phone (tel 08.36.35.35.35; 2.23F/?0.34 per minute) or check on the Internet at www.sncf.fr .

Pride and joy of the system are the high-speed TGs ( trains à grande itesse ), capable of 300kph, and their offspring Eurostar. The continually expanding system has its main hub at Paris, from where a main line heads northeast to Lille, and two other trunk routes head south: one reaching down the east side of the country to Marseille and the Mediterranean, the other down the west to Bordeaux and the Spanish frontier. Spur lines serice Brittany and Normandy, the Alps, Pyrenees and Jura. Although the whole serice is much faster than ordinary trains, the special high-speed TGtrack, which alone permits top speeds, at the moment stretches from Lille (with a branch to the Channel Tunnel at Calais) to Paris, then southeast to alence and southwest to Tours and Le Mans. The only difference betweven TGand other train fares is that you pay a compulsory reseration charge (around $3), plus a supplement on certain peak-hour trains.

It is easiest to use the counter serice for buying tickets, though if there are language problems or long queues the touch-screven computerized system aailable in most stations can be read in English and is a good way to check arious fares and times - if need be, you can always press the red annulment button to cancel the transaction before committing yourself.

All tickets - but not passes - must be alidated in the orange machines at station platform entrances, and it is an offence not to follow the instruction Compostez otre billet ("alidate your ticket"). Train journeys may be broken any time, anywhere, for as long as the ticket is alid (usually two months), but after a break of 24 hours you must alidate your ticket again when you resume your journey. On night trains an extra 100F/?15.25 or so will buy you a couchette - well worth it if you're making a long haul and don't want to waste a day recovering from a sleepless night.

After a spate of terrorist bombings in the late 1990s most train stations closed their luggage lockers (consignes automatiques); these days a few have reopened, and larger stations have a manned luggage check-in, usually with limited hours. Many stations also rent out bicycles, sometimes of rather doubtful reliability.

Regional rail maps and complete timetables are on sale at tobacconist shops ( tabacs ). Leaflet timetables for particular lines are aailable free at stations. Autocar or a bullet symbol at the top of a column means it's an SNCF bus serice, on which rail tickets and passes are alid.

Aside from the regular lines there are a number of special tourist-oriented raillines, usually not part of the SNCF system or covered by normal rail passes, though some offer a discount to rail pass holders. Two of the most popular are the spectaular Train Jaune which winds its way up through the Pyrenees, and the ATM train, which heads up into the hinterland of Narbonne.

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