Train Stations in Lyon: Which One You Actually Need

If your booking screen just says “Lyon” and you have not opened the train details, you may be about to buy a ticket to the wrong station. Lyon has one clear main station, one historic city station that still handles long-distance trains, an airport TGV station that some Paris and Italy trains use instead of the city, and two regional stops you may see on a booking screen. This guide explains which Lyon station you actually need and how to use each one.

Which Lyon train station you actually need

For almost every traveller, book Lyon Part-Dieu. The station is also written Lyon Part Dieu and Gare de la Part-Dieu; the city’s TGV trains, TGV Lyria services to Switzerland, the post-merger Eurostar via Lille and Brussels, Frecciarossa to Italy, Ouigo, Intercités and TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional trains all use it.

Choose Lyon Perrache only if your hotel is on the south Presqu’île or the Old Town side of the river, or your booked train actually starts there. Choose Lyon Saint-Exupéry only if you are flying into the airport, or the long-distance train you booked uses Saint-Exupéry rather than Part-Dieu. A handful of Paris-Torino and Paris-Milano TGVs and some Paris Ouigo services skip Part-Dieu and call only at the airport TGV station, so the station choice is not just about how you arrive in Lyon. If your booking just shows “Lyon”, open the train details and confirm the exact arrival station and time before you pay.

Lyon’s train stations at a glance

Most travellers only need to recognise five station types: the main long-distance station, the historic second station, the airport TGV station, and two regional stops.

The rest of this guide focuses on Part-Dieu, Perrache and Saint-Exupéry, with a short Rhônexpress section for the airport link and a short pass-and-reservation block.

Lyon Part-Dieu, the main station

Part-Dieu is the station nearly everyone wants. It opened in 1983 and has 12 platforms and 12 tracks, all on a single concourse level below the tracks. From here you can board a TGV inOui to Paris Gare de Lyon, Marseille, Avignon, Montpellier, Nice, Strasbourg, Lille, Nantes, Bordeaux, Rennes or Brussels, a TGV Lyria to Geneva, Lausanne or Zurich, an Eurostar via Lille and Brussels, a Frecciarossa, a Ouigo, an Intercités, or a TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional train towards Grenoble, Annecy, Chambéry, Valence, Saint-Étienne or Clermont-Ferrand.

Exit on the right side and you save yourself a long walk around the building. Part-Dieu has two main exits. Porte Rhône (also signed Béraudier-Centre-Ville) is the west exit towards the city centre, with the metro entrance on this side. Porte Alpes (signed Villette-Villeurbanne) is the east exit, with the Rhônexpress airport tram and the route to the Eurexpo exhibition site. Use Porte Rhône for almost every city destination, and Porte Alpes only if you are heading to the airport or to a hotel on the eastern side of the station.

The station has been a building site, on and off, for years. A major rebuild has added a new western entrance, Galerie Béraudier, which opened in June 2024, and an additional transverse hall, Galerie Pompidou, that makes crossing between the two sides easier. The metro entrance is on the Porte Rhône side at Part-Dieu Vivier Merle, on Lyon Metro Line B.

For left luggage, Part-Dieu has lockers (consigne) in the Tunnel Villette between halls 1 and 2. Sizes and opening hours can change with the rebuild work, so check the live SNCF station page if you are storing a large bag for the day. The names confuse newcomers too: Part-Dieu, Part Dieu, Gare de la Part-Dieu and Lyon-Part-Dieu all refer to the same place.

Lyon Perrache, the historic second station

Perrache is Lyon’s other long-distance station, on the south end of the Presqu’île in the 2nd arrondissement. It opened in 1857, designed by François-Alexis Cendrier, and it is still in regular use for a mix of TGV inOui, Intercités, Ouigo and TER services. Metro Line A connects it directly to the city centre and to Vieux Lyon via a short interchange.

Perrache makes sense for two kinds of trip. First, if your hotel is on the south Presqu’île, around Place Carnot or the Confluence, walking out of Perrache is faster than riding the metro back from Part-Dieu. Second, a small number of Paris-Lyon TGVs actually start at Perrache before calling at Part-Dieu, so a ticket sold as “Paris to Lyon Perrache” is a deliberate origin, not a mistake. The intermodal bus terminal in front of the station, built in the 1970s, is also where most of Lyon’s intercity coaches arrive.

If you are using Perrache as a starting point for a Paris or Marseille trip, check whether your specific TGV starts at Perrache and calls at Part-Dieu, or only calls at Part-Dieu. The difference shows up on the operator’s train details page and is the easiest way to avoid riding the metro to the wrong station.

Lyon Saint-Exupéry, the airport TGV station

Saint-Exupéry is the SNCF station at Lyon’s airport, about 20 km east of the city centre, in Colombier-Saugnieu. It opened in 1994 as Lyon Satolas and was later renamed to match the airport. The station was designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, and it sits astride the high-speed line as it bypasses Lyon to the east. That last point is the key one for trip planning: some long-distance trains use Saint-Exupéry instead of Part-Dieu, not as well as.

This affects two groups of travellers. If you are flying into Lyon, Saint-Exupéry is your station for the onward trip. From there, TGV and Ouigo services link the airport directly to about 30 cities in France and Italy each day, including Paris Gare de Lyon, Paris CDG, Lille, Grenoble, Avignon, Marseille, Nice, Annecy, Chambéry, Modane, Torino and Milano. If you are not flying, you may still see Saint-Exupéry on a booking screen: two of the daily Paris-Torino and Paris-Milano TGVs and some Paris Ouigo services call only at Saint-Exupéry rather than Part-Dieu. For a trip to central Lyon, do not book a ticket that ends only at Saint-Exupéry.

Two practical points catch people out. There is no staffed SNCF ticket counter at the airport TGV station; buy your tickets at the self-service kiosks in the station or online before you arrive. And the airport TGV station is a short walk, not a kerb step, from the terminals: roughly 7 minutes on the travelators between the station and Terminals 1 and 2.

Paris Gare de Lyon and Lyon Part-Dieu are not the same station

Paris Gare de Lyon is in Paris. It is the Paris terminus for trains heading south to Lyon, Marseille, the Côte d’Azur, Switzerland and Italy, and it is the start of most Paris-Lyon TGV inOui and Ouigo services. Lyon Part-Dieu is in Lyon. The two stations share half a name because the Paris one is the historic terminus of the Paris-Lyon line, not because they are connected.

If your ticket says “Paris Gare de Lyon to Lyon Part-Dieu”, you are looking at the standard Paris-Lyon TGV. If it says only “Gare de Lyon”, check whether the surrounding fields show Paris or Lyon before you commit.

Getting between Lyon and Saint-Exupéry: the Rhônexpress

The Rhônexpress tram is the standard rail link between Lyon Part-Dieu and Lyon Saint-Exupéry airport. Trams run every 15 minutes from early morning until late evening, take around 29 minutes end to end, and cost around EUR 16 for a single. Show a same-day SNCF train ticket to or from Lyon Saint-Exupéry at the ticket gate and the fare drops to around EUR 10.50, and buying online before you travel saves another euro or so. For nearly every traveller, the Rhônexpress is cheaper and usually faster than a taxi.

At Part-Dieu, the Rhônexpress terminus is 50 m in front of the Porte Alpes / rue de la Villette exit on the east side of the station, signed with a dedicated tram pictogram. At Saint-Exupéry, the platforms sit on level minus one of the TGV station; it is then a 7-minute walk through the airport on travelators to Terminals 1 and 2. The Rhônexpress does stop at Vaulx-en-Velin La Soie and Meyzieu Z.I. on the way, but those intermediate stops only allow boarding in the direction of the airport. Coming back from Saint-Exupéry, the tram is non-stop into Part-Dieu, so you cannot get off and back on partway.

If your trip starts at Perrache or another part of the city, take Lyon’s metro to Part-Dieu first and pick up the Rhônexpress there.

Lyon Jean Macé and Lyon Vaise: regional TER stops

Lyon-Jean Macé sits in the 7th arrondissement and opened on 13 December 2009 as a small dedicated stop on the southern TER corridor. It is served only by TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional trains, with Metro Line B running underneath. If your hotel is in the 7th arrondissement and your trip happens to be a TER local, Jean Macé saves you a metro change. For anything else, it is the wrong station.

Lyon-Vaise is in the 9th arrondissement, on the western side of the city. The original 1854 building has been replaced by a 1997 multimodal hub, and TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes services from here run towards Mâcon, Nevers, Bourg-en-Bresse, Vienne and Roanne. Metro Line D connects it to the centre and to Vieux Lyon. As with Jean Macé, treat Vaise as a stop for TER regional trips and not for a Paris, Marseille, Switzerland or Italy journey. If your booking shows either station for a long-distance trip, switch the booking to Part-Dieu.

Rail passes and reservations at Lyon stations

Interrail and Eurail Passes cover all the long-distance trains that use Lyon’s main stations, but most of them require a separate pass-holder seat reservation that you must book in advance. TGV inOui, TGV Lyria (Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich) and Eurostar (via Lille and Brussels) all carry a paid pass-holder reservation, with a limited quota per train that can sell out on Friday evenings, Sunday returns and busy holiday weeks. Most Intercités services also require a pass-holder reservation. Frecciarossa to Italy follows the same model where it operates.

Ouigo is the exception in the other direction: it is sold as its own full-fare ticket, not part of the SNCF system that takes Interrail or Eurail. You cannot use a pass for Ouigo, even though Ouigo trains use the same stations and the same TGV equipment. TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional services are the easy ones: walk-on with a valid pass, no separate reservation, no quota.

Two practical takeaways. Book the pass-holder reservation for your TGV inOui or Lyria early on a high-demand date, because the pass-holder quota is the first thing to disappear. Do not assume a “cheaper” Ouigo screen is on your pass; that fare is for everyone paying cash.

Getting from Part-Dieu into central Lyon

Part-Dieu is on the east bank of the Rhône, in the 3rd arrondissement. The Presqu’île and the main shopping streets are about a 30-minute walk west, and Vieux Lyon, on the far bank of the Saône, is about 3 km from the station. Most visitors take the metro instead. From Part-Dieu Vivier Merle on the Porte Rhône side, ride Metro Line B two stops to Saxe-Gambetta, change to Metro Line D and ride three stops to Vieux Lyon. The full transfer takes about 20 minutes.

Use the right exit and the walk in or out of the station gets shorter. Porte Rhône (Béraudier-Centre-Ville) is the west exit, where the metro entrance and most city-centre traffic flows. Porte Alpes (Villette-Villeurbanne) is the east exit, where the Rhônexpress airport tram sits and where the exhibition crowds at Eurexpo arrive. For the city centre, leave via Porte Rhône. For the airport, walk straight through to Porte Alpes.

If you are heading out of Lyon for the airport, the same logic works in reverse. Drop your bag at Part-Dieu (or carry it through), exit via Porte Alpes, and the Rhônexpress is waiting 50 m away.