Paris - Briancon sleeper train 2018 update

You might be aware that last year the French government, which owns SNCF, decided to axe most of France's sleeper-train services, including routes that were very popular with skiers.

For the many thousands of skiers that loved travelling by overnight train to ski French resorts, it was the stuff of nightmares.  In years to come I think SNCF will be forced to reconsider. But not yet.

Skiers were left with one sleeper-train route in France: Paris-Austerlitz to Briancon - protected until at least 2020. The two major resorts this serves are Montgenevre and Serre Chevalier - both excellent resorts.

However, instead of running this last Alpine route with the respect that it, and it's travellers deserve, SNCF has been haphazard and shambolic in the way it's run the train for the 2017-18 season.

Several things have caused frustration, annoyance and disappointment:

• Instead of going on sale in October, around 90 days in advance, as they should do, these trains were only put on sale in mid-December.

• Some dates were not put on sale, and are still not.

• SNCF provided no explanation for the trains going on sale late.

• The journey has now been made much longer - at 11 - 12 hours. Why it needs to be this long, I have no idea - it never used to be.

With the uncertainty and frustration that this has caused, I thought it might be useful for you to see which outbound journeys are on sale, and what time the trains depart, in one spreadsheet.

So I spent the last hour eating popcorn and checking out each departure - this spreadsheet is the result: