A new vision for rail travel to the Alps

It's been a crazy non-season, so far.  On top of a crazy year: 2020.

So many skiers had pinned their hopes on a ski holiday being their first big trip abroad since the pandemic began.

At the moment, with few possible options, it's very difficult to predict whether there will be a ski season, of any kind, at all. That's tough on skiers. And touch on the ski industry itself, of course.  So tough that we've seen some tour operator cancel entire programmes, and others go out of business completely.

Despite the fact that a ski holiday costs quite a bit, the ski-holiday industry was never one that made loadsamoney.  So when things because super tough, with Covid and Brexit increasingly problematic, it's no wonder that some businesses have sadly had to call it a day.

Throughout the pandemic, there's been laudable talk of 'build, back, better'.  In the ski industry at the moment, it's a matter of simple survival first, for businesses to keep afloat.

But however tough things are, we should all indeed have an eye on build, back, better.

Snowcarbon will continue to campaign to improve rail options to ski resorts.  In fact, we will put more of our focus there, and hope that we can be a catalyst for the creation of a more formalised working group on this, where national, regional and resort tourist offices, together with other parts of the industry.  This group could combine on-the-ground knowledge with political contacts to help create initiatives for improving key aspects of rail travel to the Alps.

Without this kind of action, I believe that things will not improve significantly enough to really make headway in transforming the way that people can travel to the Alps. I do believe we can get there.  It just takes people coming together to create action, not just talk.

In the meantime, let's keep hoping for ski holidays again soon.