TGV Lyria Reviews 71

Traveled on TGV Lyria from Geneva to Paris and back, in February.
I chose it because of a particularly convenient SBB offer, but I know that usually it can get quite expensive.
First on the schedule: on the way to Paris, the train has been perfectly on time; on the way back we experienced some chaos at the departure, when delays were annouced several times but they were changing constantly - first 40min, then 20min, then 30min, then nothing. We arrived in Geneva with 30 minutes of delay in the end. The main issue that I have with the schedule is the unrealistic time for the stops: too short for a crowded 2 level TGV train; need to be realistic and consider more than 5 minutes.
On the cabin/interiors, I must say that it felt dirty and not clean and sanitized at all. Moquette everywhere: for sure warm for winter but impossible to clean, and indeed there were stains on the seats. Especially on the way back, with one of the last rides of the day, leaving at dinner time with everyone eating on the train, it was not really shining.
There is space for the luggage at the edges of every coach, but the space for small items above the seats is way too small. The small elastic net in front of the passenger was so loose that it could hold a piece of paper. Overall I've got the impression that the cabin was built 20-30 years ago and never maintained/refurbished; for the price, this is not acceptable, especially for a long distance TGV train.
On top of this (and this is not SNCF/SBB fault), people are just rude: not respecting assigned seats, eating without caring about crumbs on the seats, taking off shoes, clipping nails.

We travelled on the Basel–Paris TGV Lyria in second class and it was one of the worst long‑distance train experiences I’ve had. The carriage looked dirty, the air was stuffy, and the toilet was dirty, smelly and with no paper. Passengers were crammed in with no space, and the smell of people eating all sorts of food made the atmosphere even more unpleasant.
Despite being in a “quiet” coach, it was noisy throughout the journey. There was almost no room for luggage, overhead racks were tiny and barely fit a small backpack, and anyone with a suitcase or several bags had to improvise and block walkways or seats. Even my small dog in a carrier had no proper place and have to share half of the table since could not have it on my lap where I already had my backpack.

All of this for nearly €150 per person is a complete rip‑off. This is sold as a fast, comfortable connection between Switzerland and France, but what you get instead is an overcrowded, dirty, uncomfortable train that does not match the price or the marketing. To make matters worse, the SBB app showed the train as “empty” when I booked, while in reality it was completely packed.
This was a disgraceful level of service and I will seriously reconsider using TGV Lyria again.

We just got off the heavily delated TGV 2919 in Basel, coming from Paris and we are extremely frustrated: it is an absolute no-go, to terminate the train for reasons of delay in Basel and force everyone to change to an IR to Zürich. Shame on you! It would have been the least of courtesy, to continue the train to ZH, as announced and paid for. Don‘t even try to argue, that this was not possible. In situations like this, TGV is expected to make things possible! There is no excuse to treat customers, the way TGV just did. So don‘t be surprised, if good customers switch to Airtraffic.

We traveled from Paris to Zurich on the 16:21 train and had an unfortunate experience. My 7-year-old son needed to use the toilet, but there was no toilet paper or hand soap available in the dispenser. It was an embarrassing situation as I rushed between the toilets to find tissue, but all were occupied. My son was sitting in the toilet and ended up in tears. Finally, we managed to find an empty bottle, filled it with water, and were able to help him wash himself. This was a very unpleasant experience for us.

Not good enough. Must do better.
- Wifi does not work, or when it does it’s painfully slow.
- Aircon doesn’t work well, it’s hot in 1st class.
- Meals are ok, slightly overpriced but it’s common on trains.

Lyria is a convenient and fast way to go from Zurich to Paris, but it could be so much better in terms of comfort.

TGV Lyria 9764 Geneva to Paris 27/03/2025 8:29am was the worst train experience I’ve had (I’m writing this from the train). The digital screens on each carriage were off so nobody knew which carriage to get on. We got on one but after train had started moving, we were told it was the wrong one. There were 5 of us with suitcases and one person was elderly with low mobility. I complained to the train guy that now we have to move 2 carriages with suitcases up and down stairs, all he had to say was “sorry for you”. We had also pre booked mobility assistance but no-one was at Geneva station with a wheelchair. Once we finally got settled on the train, we ordered 5 coffees and 1 sandwich to our seats but were then told they have no sandwich so the whole order has been cancelled. Why couldn’t they still bring the coffee?

The worst train ride I've ever paid for. Old, dirty train, with disgusting toilets with no working Wi-Fi TO AND FRO. Thinking of using your phone to access the internet? Good luck. 70% of the ride your phone will either be on SOS or Edge connection. Never again.

First of all, the trains Geneva-Paris are always late.
Secondly, you offer free Wi-Fi but the connection is so bad and so low speed that it is impossible to work, even the simple webside is loading like 5 min.
At least this you could improve as most people would appreciate to work from the train.

This is a terrible company.
My experience : I was travelling from Geneva to Paris. Our train was cancelled. The train was no longer leaving from Geneva. We had to take another train from Geneva to Bellegarde were we could not seat. In Bellegarde we had to wait for 30 minutes for another train. We the train picked us, it kept on stoping every 30 minutes. The overall latency of this train was 2 hours. I really do not advise this company. It is a terrible experience. I am only giving 1/5 because we cannot go to 0.

Comfortable, sometimes late but often, oh so often it runs out of toilet paper, soap (there was none this time) and hand sanitizer. Why aren’t these amenities being dealt with by the staff?

The meal is pure garbage. I bought two menus for 15€ each for my kids today (03 /10/2023) in the train 9234. The “croque monsieur “ were burned and absolutely disgusting, you can just open one to see the poor quality. The coconut cookies were hard , my kids could not even finish them , so hard to chew, very poor quality as well. Finally the apple juice saved this horrible menu . Avoid the restaurant or ask the waitress if she has eaten this food before in the train.

-wifi connection is horrible
-Not german and bad english speeking „driver“ and staff
-we arrived 1.5 hours to late in paris.
-dirty

It is apparently impossible to buy from the website. I click "reserve this trip" and it just doesn't go forward. Instead, it makes me start the whole process again.

If you want an expensive train ride with ADSL-era wifi speed, bathrooms with scarce amenities and frequent malfunctions, and tight seating: look no further. Lyria has what you need.

Do not book eurail pass! Can’t use on TGV. If you don’t listen—then you deserve the hassle coming your way! Everything documented.

One time TGV is enough for my whole life!
Train stations without toilet
Train stations without English speaking staff
Many hours of delay
Missed train connections and had to sit on the floor with a 1st class ticket!
No reimbursement !
Nightmare- never never again!!!!

Indeed - TGV Lyria, what a sad story. Dirty, unfriendly staff and a bar service which is a joke (metro tickets were sold out within 20 minutes after departure from Mulhouse).

TGV Lyria is an embarrassment to 21st century train travel. Rarely have I ever seen train carriages so poorly designed and constructed, without any thought given to passenger comfort, passenger accessibility and simple ergonomics. This looks like a project where customer care and customer satisfaction plays no role whatsoever, from start to finish, based on a philosophy where researching customer needs is deemed unnecessary. I have taken Lyria four times over the past six months and each experience is as bad. Today's train had no toilet paper in the toilets, no soap and no running water. Toilets were overflowing and stinking. When remarking on this to the train manager, the answer by the French "manager", copied from the old Soviet playbook, the customer is always wrong was, "that's the way it is." Even the old Soviet trains were more intelligently constructed and far more comfortable. TGV Lyria is a disgrace to travel, a disgrace to any lover of traveling by train, a disgrace to France and a disgrace to Switzerland, a country that certainly knows better, but apparently can not convince the French SNCF to do something. I would strongly advise any person to take the plane and not subject yourself to such a terrible travel experience.

Hi fellow tgv travellers,
I'd like to write an honest review here, if I seem a little pissed off then it is because I am. I am sitting in the train right now and I wanna get out. The air conditioning seems not to be working because it's so hot in this wagon..., there's little to no room for legs (in case you're over 6.0").
The WiFi connection is horrible, both ways..., and it's impossible to travel and work at the same time.
The only good parts are, that it's relatively cheap, and that it's fast. But if you can choose, take a plane.

Sincerely, Dave

I selected the TGC Lyria in between Paris and Geneva as it seemed a convenient way to quickly travel in bet-ween the 2 places whilst being able to work.

First statement is indeed correct as it takes a bit more than 3H which is great.

However the wifi connection is a disaster and I haven't been able to work as planned. This wasn't a "one time issue" as I struggled both ways.

I'll try to find an alternative next time I need to hop to Geneva.