API integration for SNCF & transport
We build your SNCF connector
We wire api.sncf.com into your field or expense tool: nearest station, next train, impact of a disruption. Without sending the user to SNCF Connect, and without burning the quota before noon.
- Senior product team
- public-data connectors in production
- from scoping to monitoring
What does the SNCF API provide and when should you integrate it into an application?
The SNCF API gives real-time access to French train schedules, itineraries and next departures: TGV, TER, Intercités, Transilien and international connections. You integrate it in corporate mobility applications to display train journey options for a given date, in business travel management tools to suggest available routes, or in logistics platforms to plan deliveries around rail schedules. Access is free within the daily quota limits.
What our clients build on the SNCF API
Next train in a field tool
Departure station = the technician's nearest station. The trip is no longer copied from the consumer app.
Station autocomplete in an HRIS
Expenses, works council, travel management: a return proposal, no more a stale timetable in a spreadsheet.
Delay alert on a trip already booked
Careful polling of roster trips. The SNCF API documents no webhook: we do not poll a home page 5,000 times.
Île-de-France journey, switch to PRIM
As soon as there is metro or IDFM RER, this is no longer api.sncf.com. We wire PRIM, not a train Navitia stretched by guesswork.
What it changes in your business travel
Engineering in service of a measurable outcome: the next train in the tool, a quota that lasts until evening.
The official API, not a scrape
With a valid token, schedules answer. We do not rebuild a journey on a consumer website.
Quota lasts until evening
An unlimited station field burns the daily allowance. Cache and server-side calls: the service stays available.
Transilien is not real time
Showing real-time Transilien is a product lie. TGV / TER yes; Transilien, theoretical only.
Trains only, not full MaaS
No metro, no bus. For multimodal France, we wire the right sources (open data, PRIM in Île-de-France).
How we ship your SNCF connector
Scoping
Train-only or multimodal, autocomplete volume, Île-de-France or not. We size the quota before writing a line.
Development
Token in a server secret, debounce, short cache on /places, a daily counter, scheduled vs real-time distinction.
Acceptance testing
Replay on your real stations, Transilien vs TGV, testing the 5,000 cut-off, testing HTTPS (the FAQ still mixes HTTP).
Monitoring
Alert at 80% of quota, 401, latency. You know a widget is dead before the field calls back.
What the SNCF API allows
- Station autocomplete
- Search from a string. This is the call that burns the quota if you forget debounce. A short cache is mandatory.
- Next departures and arrivals
- The « next train » widget of a field tool. A cache of a few tens of seconds, not a refresh on every pixel.
- Train journey planning
- Station to station or city to city, window D-1 / D / D+23. Inner-Paris connections: approximate durations.
- Timetables
- Scheduled line times. Useful for a works council; not enough for Transilien real time, which does not exist here.
The vocabulary of the SNCF API
- Navitia
- The engine (Hove / Kisio) behind api.sncf.com. Generic docs live on doc.navitia.io: every example URL must be rewritten to api.sncf.com, or auth breaks.
- Developer token
- Sign-up on numerique.sncf.com. HTTP Basic, username = token, empty password, or the token in the URL. Without it, 401 no token.
- 5,000 / day
- Free quota per reuser. Official example: 5,000 requests in 12 hours, blocked 12 hours. Autocomplete without debounce is a quota suicide.
- Scheduled Transilien
- TGV, Intercités, TER, Lyria, Eurostar: scheduled + real time. Transilien: scheduled only. Showing « real time » on Transilien is false.
- PRIM
- Île-de-France Mobilités, prim.iledefrance-mobilites.fr. A second Navitia, Mobilité licence, its own quota. A Paris door-to-door trip is not an SNCF call.
- D-1 / D / D+23
- Documented time window. You do not build a six-month history on this API. For nationwide scheduled offer, GTFS from transport.data.gouv.fr holds volume better.
The real constraints of the SNCF API
5,000 calls, then cut-off until midnight
This is not a polite 429: access is blocked for the rest of the day. Architecture: cache, proxy, an application token, a counter, a circuit breaker before the SNCF block.
No metro, no bus
SNCF trains only. The query api ratp points to PRIM or transport.data.gouv.fr, not to api.sncf.com. A France MaaS is not an SNCF connector.
Two Navitia in Île-de-France
api.sncf.com (trains) and PRIM (IDFM network). SNCF inner-Paris connections are approximate durations. We do not sell a Paris door-to-door on the SNCF API.
The token has no place in the browser
Quota per reuser, guaranteed leak, volume explosion. Server calls, HTTPS (the FAQ still mixes HTTP), accepted terms.
SNCF API or PRIM Île-de-France Mobilités?
Two Navitia, two licences, two quotas. The right choice depends on the network, not on the train logo.
| Criterion | SNCF APISNCF trains | PRIM IDFMÎle-de-France |
|---|---|---|
| Host | api.sncf.com/v1 | prim.iledefrance-mobilites.fr |
| Network | TGV, TER, Intercités, Lyria, Eurostar | IDFM network, including metro / RER |
| Transilien / RATP | Scheduled Transilien, no metro | Île-de-France passenger coverage |
| Free quota | 5,000 / day, then cut-off | PRIM account, its own quota |
| Licence | SNCF terms | Mobilité licence |
| Window | D-1 / D / D+23 | Depends on the PRIM offer |
| The right case | France train travel | Île-de-France door-to-door |
For nationwide scheduled offer, we also ingest GTFS from transport.data.gouv.fr and keep SNCF Navitia for train real time. That is a scoping call.
What we measure on an SNCF integration
The other public APIs
The bricks we most often wire up alongside a train connector.
SNCF & transportWe build your SNCF connectorThis page
API AdresseGeocode the job location to derive the nearest station.
Météo FranceA warning on the département of the trip, distinct from train times.
URSSAFOpen data or DPAE, unrelated to Navitia: another product, another secret.API ParticulierWe build your API Particulier connector
France TravailWe build your France Travail connector
DVF & cadastreWe build your DVF and cadastre connector
LegifranceWe build your Légifrance connector
API GéoWe build your API Géo connectorWe combine SNCF with
The stack around train times on our projects.
SNCF integration: your questions
Request a developer token on numerique.sncf.com, call it with HTTP Basic (username = token, empty password) on https://api.sncf.com/v1, never from the browser. Debounce and a short cache on /places, a cache of a few tens of seconds on departures, a daily counter toward 5,000 with an alert at 80% and an application circuit breaker. Distinguish scheduled and real time, mark Transilien as scheduled. If the need is multimodal France, ingest GTFS from transport.data.gouv.fr; if it is Île-de-France door-to-door, switch to PRIM.
Yes, within 5,000 requests a day per reuser. Beyond that, access is cut for the rest of the day (official example: 5,000 in 12 hours, blocked 12 hours). A premium plan exists on quote. 99.8% of responses are claimed under 3 seconds. Free is not unlimited: a widget on a high-traffic home page is not a 5,000/day case. We size the quota at scoping: user count, debounce, cache, and a premium plan if needed.
No. SNCF trains only. No RATP metro, no buses, no coaches. In Île-de-France, the official passenger planner is PRIM Île-de-France Mobilités. Offer data (GTFS, NeTEx) and many local real-time APIs go through transport.data.gouv.fr. A « all France transport » product is not an api.sncf.com connector. An « all France transport » product combines GTFS, PRIM and SNCF; it is not a single Navitia client.
Access is blocked until the end of the day, not merely slowed. Hence an application counter, an alert at 80%, a circuit breaker before the SNCF block, and a fallback UX (last cached timetable, a « times not refreshed » message). Without that, the service vanishes at 2 p.m. on a busy Tuesday, and nobody understands why. The fallback UX (last cached timetable, an honest message) is specified at scoping, not on the day the quota trips.
Free access is enough for a well-scoped internal autocomplete. The cost is the connector: secret, cache, counter, scheduled flag, optionally PRIM or GTFS on top. A next-train widget on a field tool is a short job. A high-traffic works-council planner, or a France MaaS, is another project, with a premium plan or other sources. We scope the volume and give a firm estimate before we start. Debounce and a daily counter are in the first delivery, not a later patch.
An SNCF integration project?
Let's talk. 30 minutes to scope the need, check whether it is SNCF, PRIM or GTFS, and tell you frankly what is feasible.
Discuss my SNCF & transport project