Ski Train Direct to Alps on Sale
Tickets are on sale for the 2022/23 season ski train, direct from London to the French Alps, with Travelski Express
The Eurostar ski train has been chartered for a second season by French tour operator Travelski Express. Tickets are now on sale for the 22/23 ski season, but only for skiers booking a package with Travelski that includes train, transfer, accommodation and ski pass.
The service will run weekly from Saturday to Saturday (17 December to 15 April). The outbound is a daytime journey departing St Pancras at 8:20am, arriving in Moutiers then Bourg-Saint-Maurice at 5.23pm. The return is an overnight, getting into London St Pancras early on Sunday morning.
More than 5000 UK skiers took the direct Travelski Express train to the French Alps last winter. This year the service has improved with transfers direct to accommodation (last winter guests were dropped in town) and the overnight train journey switched from the outbound to return – meaning skiers can knacker themselves with a full last day on the hill ready for an overnight train sleep.
The big advantage to taking the train is, of course, cutting your carbon ski-print and reducing the environmental impact of your travel. Whatever a skier’s mode of transport, travel takes time, money and creates significant carbon emissions. Deferring to ski-by-train expert Snow Carbon, 57 per cent of the total carbon emissions of a typical ski resort result from transport people take to, and within the resort.
But, reports Snow Carbon, one train passenger will emit less than a quarter of the carbon than someone flying to Geneva and transferring to resort.
Research by Anthesis Group, a sustainability and carbon consultancy, carried out in July 2020 compared a one-way journey from London to the ski resort of Tignes in the French Alps by plane and by train.
The journey by plane from London to Geneva and shared taxi from Geneva to Tignes created 103.43 kg of CO2 per person; but the journey by Eurostar Ski Train from London to Bourg St Maurice, and then a taxi from Bourg St Maurice to Tignes, created 18.47 kg of CO2 per person.
Daniel Elkan, Snow Carbon founder
The drawbacks to this upcoming service? The tour operator has exclusive rights on the direct ski train to the French Alps. It means a longer and interrupted journey to the Alps for independent skiers, who have to take the Eurostar and switch to the TGV in Paris, Lille or Brussels. (Indirect ski train tickets will be available to book in autumn.)
With Travelski currently operating in seven French ski resorts – Val d’Isère, Tignes, Les Arcs, La Plagne, Brides Les Bains, Les Menuires and Meribel – it’s restricting for skiers wanting the smooth service direct to the French Alps but to hit up one of the many other French resorts in the region.
