For years, skiers have been able to dream of snow while actually travelling to it, on sleeper trains bound for the Alps. With overnight each way, they could get two extra days’ skiing on their holiday.
But this travel option is now under threat. The French State Department of Transport, which owns the national rail operator SNCF, has announced that unless a viable proposal from a train company is received by 1 July 2016, all but two of the night train routes from Paris will be axed – more than 100 years after they first ran.
The French Government and SNCF say that the services are too expensive to run and that the services are not as popular as they used to be. But rail experts strongly disagree: most of the costs apply to the tracks (shared by daytime and overnight trains) and not the actual overnight trains themselves; poor marketing of the overnight services by the train companies mean means that many skiers are unaware or have difficultly finding out about them; and consistently the trains go on sale to sale later than they are supposed to, much to the frustration of skiers.
Sleeper trains routes to destinations all over France are due to be axed, including Paris – Bourg St Maurice and Paris to St Gervais – between them serving more than 20 top French resorts (see list below). The only ski route to be kept running will be Paris to Briancon, which serves Montgenevre and Serre Chevalier, amongst others. While British skiers will still be able to take the direct overnight Eurostar Ski Train from London to Bourg St Maurice, this service only has seats, not flat beds.
“If these sleeper trains are discontinued the industry as a whole doesn’t escape the track charges,” says Mark Smith, founder of independent rail guide Seat 61. “And these are non-escapable costs and shouldn’t really be included as a cost for running the train. The track access costs for signalling, maintenance and staff remain exactly the same in total, so there isn’t actually going to be any saving.”
It’s not as if the trains are particularly expensive to run, Smith says. “These overnight trains are owned by SNCF,” Smith says. “They have a few more years life in them yet, because they are only used at relatively low speeds once a day. So really, all you need to do is to put a locomotive on the front and pay for a driver and conductor, and the bed linen and cleaning and you’re on your way. Plus, these trains are popular and run well-filled, certainly on the busier nights of the week.”
Daniel Elkan, founder of independent rail-ski website Snowcarbon.co.uk says: “Take a walk down one of these trains when it is about to leave Paris for the Alps and you can see and feel the excitement amongst skiers – of all ages and especially children, for whom taking these trains is a especially thrilling – you can see the delight on their faces. Journeys like these should be creating memories for years to come – not consigned to memory. People love the idea of walking up only minutes from the slopes, and sleeping is a good use of travel time. And of course, running trains at night is great use of transport infrastructure – and a totally different, complimentary service to daytime travel. Given that travelling by train to the slopes can make the journey part of the holiday – and at a fraction of the pollution of flying or driving – it would be tragic madness to let these train travel options disappear. Instead we should cherish them and even better overnight services.”
In a bit to help save the sleeper trains, Snowcarbon has created a one-minute film about two teddy bears to travel from London to the Alps by sleeper train (and can actually ski!) The teddies start from London by Eurostar, change in Paris by taxi and then catch a sleeper train (hopefully not for the last time) before tackling some red runs and some après ski. The teddy bears originated from charity shops in West Hampstead.
Snowcarbon, Seat 61, Loco2, Futerra and Back on Track have launched a Change.org petition, to be delivered to French Minister of Transport Alain Vidalies and SNCF CEO Guilaumme Pepy.