Eurostar restarts ski train

Published: 20 December, 2023 | Tags: ,

Eurostar ski trains once ran direct from London St Pancras to Bourg St Maurice, the heart of French skiing country. This route, cut during the pandemic, has just been reinstated with one difference: you have to change at Lille for an onward Thalys train. As Eurostar has merged with Thalys, they can claim that it’s all one service, even though the London-Lille leg takes place aboard a normal London-Brussels service.

Iain Martin’s report of the the trip for the Telegraph makes a fun and atmospheric read. He describes a fast check-in at St Pancras and seats set aside for skis on the Eurostar, and then a scramble for the change at Lille. The Thalys onward train waited at the opposite station, making the change relatively easy.

This service runs once a week only, with the outward train on Saturday and the return on Sunday, until early February 2024.