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Writing About Rail Travel to European Ski Resorts

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Writing About Rail Travel to European Ski Resorts SKI: ITALY || 7 11.01.09 | ESCAPE BY TRAIN BY PLANE Daniel Elkan relaxes on the TGV to Oulx station near Sauze, while Grant caught an early fl ight. Main photograph by Francesco Falcone The great race to the Alps It’s more eco-friendly to take the train than fl y, but can it also be faster?Daniel Elkan challenges a friend to be fi rst to the piste in Italy n a long journey to the Alps fl ight. Meanwhile, I don’t have to leave He’s lucky – that’s exactly on time. for a restorative steak-frites and glass of delayed 25 minutes while the r several years ago, as my the house until 7.35am for the simple (Damn!) My journey is going equally rouge at the L’ Express Bleu caf e. lantly search for him. It finally leaves Oexhausted head rattled against journey across town to St Pancras. The smoothly – eight minutes later my 5.15 My TGV departs, full of people seven hours after Grant set out . At the window of a transfer Eurostar requires you to arrive only 30 Eurostar arrives at Paris Gare du Nord. reading, studying, tapping at laptops point my train is speeding towards mist- coach, it dawned on me that an alterna- minutes before departure and check-in I need to head across Paris to the Gare or playing cards, while toddlers scrawl covered Lac du Bourget . tive might exist. As the coach climbed and security takes me just 10 minutes. de Lyon from where my TGV departs. on colouring-in books. It is almost like 8.2 3 A traffi c-free tr the winding hill to the Italian resort of 1.05 My Eurostar leaves on time. Sun- There is a taxi rank only metres from a 1950s-style public service broadcast Grant reaches Sauze. Sauze d’Oulx, I spotted something glint- day papers splayed across the table as the Eurostar platform, but Gare de “Use your time wisely – take the train.” 10.20 My train arriv ing in the sunshine, just down the hill: a we depart, I can’t wipe the grin from my Lyon is only three stops by Metro so I Five hours into his trip, Grant’s plane 6.55pm. A handful of Italian and French railway track. face. This is s o civili sed . After the fi rst give public transport a go. has touch ed down at Turin airport. skiers get off Might it be possible to cut out the hour of his journey, Grant still hadn’t 4. 12 Grant’s cooped up in the air, I have 5.55 Grant’s suitcase arrives, but the Brit to have taken the train. Ten min- crack-of-dawn flight, all the airport made it to the airport, let alone joined made it to the Gare de Lyon. To be honest carousel gremlins have his snowboard. utes in a taxi and I’m at the hotel . hassle, and get to Sauze from the UK by the check-in queue. the trip between stations weighed down 6.30 The snowboard finally appears, train? I’d heard of the overnight Snow 3.40 After security and killing time in by bags and snowboard isn’t a barrel of but someone’s husband has got lost in So Grant won, but by a far smaller mar- Train, but that serves only a handful of duty free, Grant takes off at 6.30am. laughs. Thankfully, there’s enough time the airport. The Crystal transfer bus is gin than e French resorts clustered in one corner journey was 20% quicker than mine of the Alps. Would an Italian resort be but in terms of convenience and quality too far ? And could the train compete How? Leave Sunday on the 08.40 Euro- we both agree: the train tr with plane on journey time? MORE RESORTS star from St. Pancras to Paris Nord. Then plane. The fl ight times, as with many ski Back in the UK, my inner trainspot- catch the 13.50 train from Paris Lyon, arriv- charters, were grim, whereas the tr ter pored over timetables and maps. To WITHIN A DAY’S ing at Bardoneccia at 18.45. Return the trip started at a r reach Sauze from London would require following Sunday on the 10.40 train from arriv ed in perfect time for supper. only two trains, albeit with a change in TRAIN RIDE Bardoneccia, changing in Paris, to arrive at This winter Paris. A delayed flight or coach could St. Pancras at 17.34 euro, package holidays have easily make the rail journey the fastest ENGELBERG, SWITZERLAND Cost: Return fares from £102 become the best va mode of transport. Better still, the jour- Travel time from St Pancras: 9 hrs and almost all are based around fl ights. ney would produce less than 10% of the 52 minutes MEGEVE, FRANCE But the good news is that tour oper CO2 emissions of t ravelling by air. Why? Small and friendly with plenty for Travel time: 10hrs 3 minutes such as Crystal, Thomson, Neilson, First So, I decided to put this journey to the powder hounds off -piste Why? Quiet slopes and rustic chic Choice and Inghams are now off test on the Sunday before Christmas . A How? Leave Saturday on the 07.20 Euro- How? Leave Saturday on the 08.40 discounts from £50 – £200 if you don’ friend of mine, Grant, would fl y out to star to Paris Nord. Catch the 12.24 from Megève is only 10 hours by train. Eurostar from St. Pancras to Paris Nord use the fl ight and book your own tr Sauze on a Crystal holiday package and Paris Est, changing at Basel and Lucerne, Then catch the 13.50 train from Paris tickets. I’d recommend it every time. I’d travel by train . to arrive at Engelberg at 18.12. Return the from Paris Est, changing at Lausanne and Lyon, changing at Annecy , to arrive at The timer for our respective journeys following Saturday on the 08.45 train from Sierre. Then take the funicular, arriving Mon- Sallanches-Combloux-Megève at 19.33. ■ Rail Europe (0844 848 4070; www. was set to zero when we each left home Engelberg, changing at Lucerne, Basel and tana at 18.57. Return the following Saturday Then take a taxi ( 10 minutes, €32-40 ) to raileurope.co.uk) London to Oulx from and we kept in touch to compare how Paris, to arrive at St Pancras at 17.54 on the 10.45 funicular from Montana , chang- the resort. Return the following Saturday £102 return. Taxi from station to resort long it took to reach every stage of our Cost: Return fares from £153 ing at Sierre and Paris – back in London 20.31 on the 09.42 from Sallanches-Combloux- €20 (00 39 333 318 6476; www.taxiga- separate trips. Cost: Return from £139 Megève, changing in Paris, to arrive back rofalo.it). Crystal Ski (0871 231 2256; CRANS MONTANA, SWITZERLAND in London at 17.54 www.crystalski.co.uk) off ers a week 0.00 We start from the same house Travel time: 9 hrs 17 minutes BARDONECCIA, ITALY Cost: Return fares from £131 half-board in the four-star Hotel La in West Hampstead, London. Grant’s Why? Panoramic views and sun ny slopes Travel time: 9 hrs 5 minutes Torre from £495, including fl ights and journey kicks off at 2.50am – to get him How? Leave Saturday on the 08.40 Euros- Why? A family-friendly resort town, just All journeys can be booked through Rail Europe transfers. A £70 reduction is available if to Gatwick airport and through check- tar to Paris Nord. Then catch the 12.58 train down the road from Sauze (www.raileurope.co.uk; 0844 848 4070) you book your own tr in and security in time for a 6.30am using Crystal’s fl ights. 8 Travel Saturday Guardian 27.09.08 kiByRail racks in the snow Why settle for one resort on and off 16 trains. I had visions of comfortable all night, though, much as our adventure turning into a shoulder- I like Grant, the romantic atmosphere when you can take the torturing schlep, with Grant eventually would be better experienced with a train and enjoy a whole crushed beneath the weight of his bag lover, not a friend. gasping: “You go ahead without me . After another day on the slopes country? Daniel Elkan I’ll only slow you down. .” we headed to Meiringen, two hours hops on board for a rail O ur fi rst destination, Engelberg in west, in a carriage full of suited Swiss central Switzerland, was just under 11 commuters . Meiringen’s slopes aren’t ski safari in Switzerland hours from St Pancras — door to door visible from the village and, with so the journey didn’t take much longer few people heading up on the cable-car Like many skiers and than it would by plane. T he French next morning, we assumed the skiing 2 snowboarders, I’m countryside slipped away and the would be tame. But as we ascended, an instinctively drawn to big- ground bec ame blanketed in snow, as impressive panorama of empty pistes name resorts that boast if in the space of a few hours spring covered in soft snow unfolded before us. hundreds of kilometres of piste. But had turned to winter. On either side, “People don’t really come to smaller often, on getting there, I feel like I’ve mountains loomed in the dusk and the resorts like this except at weekends een hoodwinked.
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