Strasbourg by train from Paris and from London

Strasbourg has an advantage few French cities share: its station is inside the city, not beside it. You walk out of the hall, go straight on for twelve minutes, and you are in front of the cathedral.

That single fact is why the train is the right way to arrive here, and why a hire car is dead weight. The centre is pedestrian, parking is expensive, and the train puts you in the right place.

This page covers the two journeys that matter to a British visitor: from Paris, and from London. Everything else on the network is a variation on those.

From Paris: 1 hr 45 min direct

This is the fastest and most frequent link in the country's east. TGV inOui services leave Paris Gare de l'Est throughout the day and take 1 hr 45 min on the most direct runs.

OUIGO, the low cost operator on the same network, also serves Strasbourg from €16 for an adult, with more variable journey times depending on the stops.

Watch one detail the comparison sites display badly: not every OUIGO leaves from the same Paris station. Some run from Marne-la-Vallée Chessy, out at Disneyland, which is a very different proposition if you have just come in on the Eurostar. Check your departure station at the payment screen, not the night before.

From London: the two honest options

There is no direct train from London to Strasbourg. You change once, either in Paris or in Lille, and the choice between them is a choice between speed and simplicity.

Via Paris, the faster route

Eurostar arrives at Paris Gare du Nord. Gare de l'Est, where the Strasbourg trains leave from, is the next station along: the two are neighbours, and the walk between them takes under ten minutes at a normal pace with a suitcase.

From there it is 1 hr 45 min to Strasbourg. This is the route we would book, and the station change is genuinely the easiest in Paris, but leave a real margin between the two trains rather than the minimum a booking engine will sell you.

Via Lille, the simpler one

Eurostar also stops at Lille Europe, and there is a direct train from Lille Europe to Strasbourg in 4 hr 54 min, without going near Paris.

Be clear about the trade-off. It is a long ride and there are only a handful of these services, so the timings have to line up with your Eurostar. What you buy is no station change, no crossing a city with luggage, and no missed connection stress. For travellers who dislike Paris transfers, that is worth an hour.

Is Strasbourg a day trip from London?

No, and we would rather say so plainly than sell you an itinerary that does not work.

Count it honestly: the Channel crossing, a transfer in Paris, then 1 hr 45 min onwards. You arrive in Strasbourg in the middle of the afternoon at the very best, and the last workable return leaves you a couple of hours in the city.

Two nights is the realistic minimum, three if you also want a day in Colmar or the vineyards. Our page on how many days you need in Strasbourg sets out what fits into each length of stay.

From Paris, on the other hand, a day trip does work: out on an early train, back on a late one, and 1 hr 45 min each way leaves a full day on the ground.

Paying less: the levers that actually exist

Book early on the main lines

TGV and OUIGO fares have no counter logic: they rise with how full the train is, not with how close the date is. Two periods tighten badly on Strasbourg, the summer and above all December, when the trains fill weeks ahead.

Our rule is simple: book the train the same day you book the hotel, not after. If you are coming in December, the whole month has its own rules, gathered in our Christmas pages.

OUIGO from Paris

From €16 for an adult, which is the cheapest way into Strasbourg from Paris by some distance. Fewer services, less comfort, and the departure station warning above applies. Worth it if your dates are flexible.

Regional fixed-price tickets, once you are here

This is the offer almost no visitor knows about, and it is the best value in the region. TER Grand Est sells fixed-price seats from €4, then in steps up the distance scale.

Two conditions to know: the number of seats is limited per train and per destination, and sales close the day before departure. They are only sold on the TER Grand Est website, not at the ticket office on the day. Plan your Colmar or Sélestat day trip the evening before and you travel for the price of a coffee.

Arriving: getting out of the station

Strasbourg's station is easy to recognise, a contemporary glass shell laid over an 1883 sandstone facade. Place Kléber is about a kilometre (0.6 miles) away.

On foot: twelve minutes straight along rue du Maire-Kuss and over the Ill. This is the default we recommend. There is no gradient, and you enter the Grande Île from the right side.

By tram: lines A and D leave from the underground Gare Centrale station beneath the forecourt. Four minutes to Homme de Fer, then two minutes on foot. Fares and lines are in getting around Strasbourg.

With luggage: there are automatic left luggage lockers inside the station, by platform 1, charged per 24 hours according to locker size, and a private locker room a couple of minutes away on boulevard du Président-Wilson. If you arrive before hotel check-in, use them. The Grande Île is no fun with a suitcase on cobbles.

If you have flown in: the same station is linked to Strasbourg-Entzheim airport by a shuttle train of 9 minutes, and the whole question of which airport to choose is in flying to Strasbourg.

The train as a way of seeing Alsace

This is the argument that tips a lot of trips. From Strasbourg, with no car at all, you reach a good part of the Alsace plain in under an hour.

• Colmar in 26 to 35 minutes, with trains every 30 minutes and the old town ten minutes from the station.
• Sélestat in 20 minutes, the gateway to the Haut-Koenigsbourg castle and the humanist library.
• Saverne in 25 minutes, on the best served line of the network.
• Germany, either by tram to Kehl or by direct train onwards.

And the limit, stated as clearly as the rest: the wine villages are almost never on the railway. Riquewihr, Eguisheim and Kaysersberg need a bus, a bike or an organised trip, which is the whole subject of do you need a car in Alsace.

Where to stay if you arrive by train

The station quarter is convenient but charmless, and it gets noticeably rougher as you move away from the forecourt. The good compromise, arriving by rail, is the strip between the station and the Grande Île: ten minutes on foot, and the historic centre within reach.

Our map of the quarters shows exactly where that strip sits, and what each of the four visitor quarters is actually like.

Once you have arrived, our guide to things to do in Strasbourg takes over, and it starts from the station too.

Sources: SNCF Connect and TER Fluo Grand Est (journey times, frequencies, fixed-price regional fares); OUIGO (fares and Paris departure stations); Omio and Trainline (Lille and Paris services); SNCF Gares et Connexions (left luggage); CTS (tram). Times checked in August 2026: rail timetables and fares change constantly, so check when you book.