Getting around by train Rhône-Alpes

The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regional Council as manager and the SNCF as operator are working together to improve mobility in the region. The TER Internet portal provides information on all the services and benefits: timetables, fares, station network, online purchases, about thirty ticket machines, traffic information, TER + bike, TER + car, student road network, additional services, events and good deals with partners upon presentation of a TER ticket. The site also gives some ideas for outings accessible with the TER.

This station is a crossroads of connections. It serves the Auvergne region well, and provides easy access to other towns outside the region. You can travel by train or coach. You'll reach nearby towns like Murat, Le Lioran or Saint-Flour, usually by coach. Further afield, lines serve Aurillac, Figeac and Toulouse, Béziers, Clermont-Ferrand and Paris. Unfortunately, as with many stations of this size, there is no longer a ticket office. It's a good starting point for exploring the Cantal region.

Less than 3 hours from Paris and 1 hour from Lyon, the Bellegarde-sur-Valserine TGV station is located on the Paris-Geneva line, whose Nantua-Bellegarde section, dubbed the "Carpathian Line" for its magnificent panorama of the Nantua gorge, was renovated in 2011 to reduce the 47 km line and bring the total journey time to 3 hours 05 only. Bellegarde is a good point of access to the winter stations of Haute-Savoie and Ain: from there, TER and bus take you directly to the Mont Blanc massif.

The station has been recently renovated to improve the reception of travellers who pass through it. The main entrance houses self-service kiosks. On the Union-Soviétique side, there are the C-Vélos, the taxi rank and the intermodal hub with T2C buses (lines B, 3, 4, 35 and 36), SNCF TER buses and Transdôme intercity buses. On the Anatole-France side, there is a car park with 420 spaces and a drop-off point. From Clermont, trains reach Paris-Bercy in 3 hours (Intercités), Nîmes in 5 hours, Toulouse in 6 hours and Lyon-Part-Dieu in 2 hours 25 minutes.