What types of foreign tickets are there?

Three types of ticket can be encountered in the European rail ticket booking system.

Reserved ticket

This is a ticket valid for travel on a particular route on a particular day. Such a ticket always includes the train number, departure time, carriage number and seat. Such a ticket cannot be used to travel on another train - even on the same route. Reserved tickets are sent to the customer electronically as a single document or as two documents. One document is valid for trains such as the TGV or Eurostar, for example.

Open ticket

This is a ticket that is purchased for a particular route, but without specifying the departure time of the train. The passenger can choose any train on the route, provided that no reservation is required on that train. Such a ticket does not include a seat number - the traveller chooses his or her own seat in the booking class purchased.

Mixed tickets

It is possible that a traveller may have to use two or even three types of ticket on a given route. For example, when travelling from Lyon to London, on the Lyon-Paris route, the passenger will need to use a TOD ticket for the TGV and from Paris to London a printed e-ticket for the Eurostar train.