Winter train tickets (part 1) on sale
Some new trains are on sale, or about to be. So here's some info that you may find useful.
Travelski Express
Packages for the Travelski Express have now gone on sale. As you might have heard, the Travelski Express is this year’s Eurostar Ski Train, chartered entirely by a French tour operator called Travelski. You can only book tickets on the Travelski Express as part of a Travelski package, which includes train + transfer, + accommodation + ski pass.
The outbound journey is overnight on Fridays; the inbound journey is daytime on Saturdays. Packages are to seven resorts only: Tignes, Les Arcs, Peisey-Vallandry, La Plagne, Meribel, Les Menuires and Val d’Isere. Some of the dates that the train will operate are still being finalised.
Here’s a blog article about the Travelski Express on Snowcarbon: https://www.snowcarbon.co.uk/blog/travelski-express-new-eurostar-ski-train
And this is Travelski’s website: https://www.uk.travelski.com/travelski-express
I’d be interested to hear your views and feedback about this new development.
Indirect journeys go on sale 6th October
On Wednesday 6th October at about 5am UK time, the first lot of winter trains within Europe go on sale.
Many of you have been eagerly waiting to be able to book indirect journeys, for example combining a Eurostar to Paris with a TGV to the Alps.
What’s very different this season (compared to pre-pandemic years) is that Eurostar hasn’t put many trains on sale for winter months yet. That means that even if SNCF puts lots of TGVs on sale on Wednesday, your journey options from the UK are more limited for the time being.
Encouragingly, Eurostar has increased its October and November timetables to around five trains to Paris each way. Frustratingly, it hasn't done this for winter yet. This might mean some odd Eurostar + TGV schedules when TGV trains go on sale on Wednesday.
To make things clearer, I thought it might be useful for you to see, at a glance, Eurostar winter timetable so far. I’ve used non-peak dates (in January), and peak dates (in February) as examples. This is a threadbare timetable compared to pre-pandemic, a sandwich as opposed to a buffet. Underneath the timetables, I've written some thoughts.
Paris to London
Friday 14th January 2022
Depart London St Pancras 07:55, arrive Paris-Nord 11:17
Depart London St Pancras 12:24, arrive Paris-Nord 15:47
Depart London St Pancras 16:22, arrive Paris-Nord 19:47
Friday 11th February 2022
Depart London St Pancras 07:55, arrive Paris-Nord 11:17
Depart London St Pancras 12:24, arrive Paris-Nord 15:57
Depart London St Pancras 16:22, arrive Paris-Nord 19:47
Saturday 15th January 2022
Depart London St Pancras 07:52, arrive Paris-Nord 11:17
Depart London St Pancras 16:22, arrive Paris-Nord 19:47
Saturday 12th February 2022
Depart London St Pancras 07:52, arrive Paris-Nord 11:17
Depart London St Pancras 12:24, arrive Paris-Nord 15:47
Depart London St Pancras 16:22, arrive Paris-Nord 19:47
Sunday 16th January 2022
Depart London St Pancras 12:24, arrive Paris-Nord 15:47
Depart London St Pancras 16:22, arrive Paris-Nord 19:47
Sunday 13th February 2022
Depart London St Pancras 12:24, arrive Paris-Nord 15:47
Depart London St Pancras 16:22, arrive Paris-Nord 19:47
Paris to London
Saturday 22nd January 2022
Depart Paris Gare du Nord 09:03, arrive London St Pancras 10:39
Depart Paris Gare du Nord 13:03, arrive London St Pancras 14:39
Saturday 19th February 2022
Depart Paris Gare du Nord 09:03, arrive London St Pancras 10:39
Depart Paris Gare du Nord 13:03, arrive London St Pancras 14:39
Sunday 19th February 2022
Depart Paris Gare du Nord 09:03, arrive London St Pancras 10:39
Depart Paris Gare du Nord 13:03, arrive London St Pancras 14:39
Depart Paris Gare du Nord 17:03, arrive London St Pancras 18:30
Thoughts about Eurostar schedule so far (between London and Paris)
For outbound Saturday daytime journeys, the 07:52 Eurostar departure should get you to Paris in time to take a TGVs from Paris to the Alps, once the TGVs go on sale.
But the first outbound departure on a Sunday is currently 12:24. That’s too late to combine with onward TGV trains to get you to resort at a reasonable time. So, if your holiday is Sunday – Sunday, on the current timetable you would probably want to do a Paris stopover, travelling out to Paris on Saturday, enjoying an evening in Paris, and then taking a TGV from Paris to the Alps on Sunday morning.
I've done this with friends before and highly recommend it. It takes longer but you get to resort earlier, and you have more holiday overall (see film at bottom of this newsletter)
One of the most bizarre and frustrating gaps in the Eurostar schedule so far is the lack of a Saturday-afternoon Eurostar from Paris to London. If your holiday ends on a Saturday, and you set out from the Alps on a Saturday morning by TGV, there would normally be plenty of Saturday-afternoon Eurostars from Paris back to London. Not so far. Not one. That’s a real party pooper.
Does Eurostar actually have any clue that the most popular day for skiers is a Saturday? Does it care? With this current schedule, you’d need to stay overnight in Paris and then travel back by Eurostar on a Sunday morning. That can be a great thing to do, but that shouldn't be the only choice, just because Eurostar doesn't put enough trains on.
Fortunately, Eurostar is very likely to put more trains on and has said that it is planning to do so. But it still means that some the journeys you might have wanted to book, can’t be booked as they aren’t on sale yet.
By the way, I would never advise booking the Eurostar separately before onward trains have gone on sale, or vice versa. That's like planning a menu before you know whether all the ingredients are available. I believe that on balance it’s much better to wait and book the whole journey in one go, as this ensures that your whole schedule will work, and if there is any cancellation your right to a refund for all the legs of the journey is stronger, as it counts as one whole journey.
What can you book on 6th October, in terms of European parts of the journey?
According to the SNCF website, on 6 October you can book:
TGV INOUI and Intercités:
Travel between 12 December and 2 January 2021
OUIGO:
Travel between 12 December 2021 and 1 July 2022
Eurostar:
Book up to 6 months before departure
TGV Lyria and DB/SNCF in cooperation
Travel between 12 December 2021 and 27 March 2022
Thalys:
Travel between 12 December 2021 and 20 January 2022
If you are wondering what some of these names mean:
TGV INOUI is just a normal French TGV.
OUIGO is budget French TGV – you can read about it here: https://minimalist.travel/en/transport/trains/what-is-ouigo-france-budget-train-guide/
TGV Lyria is a TGV that goes between France and Switzerland.
Thalys is like a TGV between France and Belgium, but there is also the Thalys Neige, which goes from Brussels to Bourg St Maurice (more about that soon, once timetables are confirmed). Becauase the Thalys Neige leaves from Brussels on a Saturday morning (it's schedules are created for the Belgian market, not the Brits) you'd need to stay overnight on a Friday in Brussels to catch it. But that could be a cool thing.
Some thoughts about booking rail travel
If you’ve read — or skipped — this far, here are some thoughts about booking train journeys to the Alps this year, in case useful:
Changing in Paris — by taxi
Lots of journeys to the Alps involve a change of station in Paris. I’m always amazed by how many people still assume that the only way to do this is to lug your stuff on the Paris Metro. It isn’t. You can take a taxi – from the taxi rank or prebooked. See our guide here, for example: https://www.snowcarbon.co.uk/guides/change-in-Paris/paris-nord-paris-lyon
Rail booking agents
If you are booking travel for your group of friends or family, using a rail-booking agent to book the journey can be of great benefit. Three that I would recommend are Trainseurope, Ffestiniog Travel and International Rail. Booking this way can make things easy and gives you more flexibility to choose the schedules that suit you, rather than what is automatically served up to you by website algorithms. You can find out more about them here: https://www.snowcarbon.co.uk/guides/how-to-book/guide-booking-ski-holidays-train
Rail booking online ticket agents
You might be familiar with some of these, like Trainline, Rail Europe and OUI.sncf. These sites can be great for some journeys, but do be aware that when you use these sites you are entirely at the mercy of algorithms. And algorithms are not created just for skiers, but for all travellers. And what's more, because the underlying European ticketting system is so complicated and fugazi, most ticket websites have trouble dealing with it, like someone trying to eat pasta with chopsticks. Some journeys work fine, some give you a poor reflection of what's actually available, so be aware of this.
Book your journey in one go
As mentioned above, I advise booking journeys in one go (i.e. Eurostar + TGV together) once both trains are on sale, so that you can see that the times definitely work and you have the protection of the two legs counting as one journey.
I'll be back in touch with more stuff that's useful.
Best wishes,
Daniel Elkan
Snowcarbon Founder