Will the Eurostar Ski Train run in 2021-22

Of course, 2020-21 was the ski season that wasn’t.  But hopefully 2021-22 can be a good one, as travel opens up. At least it feels like one can hope with more confidence.

It’s heartening to see so many companies in the ski industry surviving what’s been a really challenging time.

One of the things many skiers have been asking about is whether the Eurostar Ski Train will run in the 2021-22 season.  It made me think of the Mark Twain quote: “Prediction is difficult – especially when it concerns the future”

Eurostar cancelled the Ski Train for 2020-21 because of the pandemic. Our petition to Save The Ski Train has reached 11,392 signatures so far.

Will Eurostar bring back the Ski Train? It’s really difficult to predict this, and we may not know for a while – possibly June or even July before Eurostar says anything to the outside world. A few thoughts about this in the video clip below:

The lack of certainty about whether the Ski Train will run means there are fewer rail-ski packages at the moment. The bigger ski tour operators (Crystal, Inghams, Skiworld) only ever offered packages with the Ski Train, but those are off the menu.

Snowcarbon is working with ski tour operators to help them create packages with indirect journeys, so we hope to see more of those in the coming weeks and months.

Plenty of skiers travel with indirect journeys resorts all over the Alps, and if the Ski Train doesn’t run this winter, then more skiers than ever will be doing that - whether independently or as part of a ski package.

In other news, there are a few new, private rail companies who are developing sleeper-train services to the French and Austrian Alps. It feels like in a season or two we could be seeing some interesting new options if or when these plans come to fruition.

In the meantime, if you’d like suggestions for:

• which ski resorts could be ideal for your next ski holiday
• lovely chalets, hotels or apartments to stay in
• good ways to get there by train

Just drop me an email and I'll be happy to help,

Best wishes,
Daniel Elkan
(Snowcarbon Founder)