Green Traveller's Guide to taking the train from London St Pancras International Railway Station to the beautiful city of Venice, Italy.
Here are two options for travelling to Venice: you could go via Paris (which requires changing stations in Paris for the onward journey via Turin) or if you prefer an easier change of train, you could go via Lille where you change train within the station for the onward journey via Lyon and Turin. Both routes require an overnight stay - you could do that either in Paris, Lyon or Turin (or if you wanted to continue to Milan, you could stay overnight there and take the train down to Venice).
Journey Time: Overnight
Changes: 2
Transfers: Option 1 (via Paris): Change from Paris Gare du Nord to Paris Gare de Lyon, then take the train to Torino Porta Susa (or Milan) and stay overnight and take the high-speed train the following morning to Venice
Option 2 (via Lille): Change at Lille for train to Lyon where you stay overnight then take high-speed train the following morning to Venice
Sample timetable: Option 1: Depart London 7.55am, arrive 11.17am Paris Gare du Nord, depart Paris Gare de Lyon at 12.46, arrive Turin 6.15. Overnight in Turin then catch 10am train to Milan Centrale arriving at 11.02am then take 11.45am train from Milan Centrale arriving Venice Santa Lucia at 2.12pm.
Option 2: Depart London 11.04am, arrive 1.26pm Lille Europe, depart Lille Europe at 2.03pm, arrive Lyon at 5.02pm. Overnight in Lyon, then take 8am train to Turin, arriving 12.25pm, then take the 1pm train to Milan arriving 2.30pm, and then the 2.45pm train from Milan arriving Venice Santa Lucia at 5.12pm.
Frequency of Departures: 19/day
Carbon emissions: 36.4kg (flight would be 270.9kg)*
Train tickets provided by Trainline:
What's the journey like?
Option 1: you have to change stations in Paris from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon, which can take about half an hour on the Paris RER line (it's only two stops, though we recommend you leave at least 50 minutes for the entire transfer). See our guide to How to transfer between train stations across Paris. At Gare de Lyon, you board a TGV high speed train to Torino Porta Susa where you stay overnight and then take the morning train over via Milan to Venice.
Option 2: it's just a simple change of train within Lille Europe to catch the train to Lyon where you overnight (there are plenty of hotels near to the station, see below). Then the following morning you take the high speed train from Lyon to Italy.
Stopover hotels to break the journey in Paris, Lyon, Turin and Milan
There are lots of places to stay near the stations en route to Venice:
Hotels near Gare du Nord | Hotels near Gare de Lyon |Hotels near Lyon Part Dieu | Hotels near Turin Porta Susa | Hotels near Milan Porta Garibaldi | Hotels near Milan Centrale
Miss your connection?
Don’t panic. Railteam’s ‘Hop on the Next Available Train’ service means that if you have missed your connection between high speed trains because of a delay on the preceding leg of your journey, you’ll automatically be put on the next available high-speed train. NB Remember to get your ticket stamped by your Train Manager. Whenever you’re connecting, always remember to validate your onward train ticket at the machine on the platform before departing (these are often coloured yellow).
On arrival at Venice Santa Lucia station
Benvenuto a Venizia! There are plenty of hotels close to the station, see below:
Hotels near to Venice main train station (Venice Santa Lucia)
Buon Viaggio!
For more overland train routes to Italy, see our Flight-Free Train/Ferry Journey Planner