Public transport access to Pyrenees (GR10)

Question

I am interested in hiking the GR10, a long hike crossing the Pyrenees mountain range from west to east. I will not hike it all at once but in sections I can cover in about a week at most.

I have no car and so far, I have just started looking at the western beginning part. I have only found the trail to be accessible by public transport (train) in 3 places : Hendaye (the start), Bidarray and St-Jean-Pied-de-Port. I have used the local trains map to figure that:

Given the few places the trail seems accessible with public transport near its beginning, I am afraid the trail is barely accessible once it reaches the mountains.

My question is therefore, where is the GR10 trail accessible by public transport? I expect only a handful of places actually are.

Answer 1

Some parts of the GR10 are indeed reachable by public transport usually involving a combination of train and bus. The railway network takes you to the larger cities which are found at the lowest altitudes near the GR10. From these you'll need a bus/coach to reach higher altitudes. In addition, the bus might drop you several km away from the marked trail so prepare to walk (ha).

Since you mention the western part of the trail, various stages of the trail in the region of Hendaye are reachable by train:

SE RENDRE ET SE DÉPLACER DANS LA RÉGION

• En train

  • Le sentier GR® 10 est accessible en train à partir des gares de : Hendaye, Pont-Noblia (Bidarray) et Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, et aussi par les services de cars TER-SNCF depuis les gares de Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry et d’Oloron-Sainte-Marie.
  • Le GR® 10 est accessible en train depuis les gares de Lourdes (ligne Paris – Tarbes) et Lannemezan (ligne Toulouse – Tarbes) puis en cars TER-SNCF (voir ci-dessous) ; également à partir de la gare de Bagnères-de-Luchon (ligne Toulouse – Montréjeau puis Montréjeau – Bagnères-de-Luchon).

  • Le GR® 101 est accessible en train à partir de la gare de Lourdes.Le GR® 10C est accessible par les services de cars TER-SNCF depuis la gare de Tarbes.

  • Le GR® 10 est accessible en train à partir des gares de Bagnères-de-Luchon (ligne Toulouse – Montréjeau-Gourdan-Polignan puis Montréjau – Bagnèresde- Luchon) et Mérens-les-Vals (ligne Toulouse – La Tour-de-Carol).

  • Gares SNCF de :

    • Perpignan, tél. 08 92 35 35 35.
    • Banyuls-sur-Mer, tél. 04 68 88 30 64.
    • Bourg-Madame, tél. 04 68 04 53 29.
    • Villefranche-de-Conflent, tél. 04 68 96 63 62.
    • Enveitg-Latour-de-Carol, tél. 04 68 30 85 02.
    • Font Romeu Odeillo Via, tél. 04 68 30 03 12.
    • La Cabanasse, tél. 04 68 04 23 27.

Renseignements SNCF : tél. 36 35 ou www.voyages-sncf.com

This list is by no means exclusive. Most of the trail stages seem to be reachable by public transport, with the bus/coach being the most commonly used mean of transportation. The table below is a screenshot from the afore-linked website. It shows which cities are reachable by train, bus or both.

If you click on the bus and train icon you should be redirected to the SNCF page containing information on that transportation line and how to book. This information should help you plan your journey to and from the GR10.