Trainmountain | Ski Train News

Eurostar adds more services between London and Paris

2008-07-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

Eurostar has announced today that is it boosting its train service between London and Paris. The high speed train operator is set to increase the number of trains travelling between London and Paris to 18 from September this year.

Eurostar is also increasing it's weekend train service, with up to 20 trains on Fridays going to Paris, and 19 trains going to London, starting from 11th July this year.

And the reasons for the new services? Eurostar has attributed the increase in services due to the 'surging demand' from travellers. In April Eurostar announced an increase in passenger numbers, and the demand for high speed rail travel is obviously still thriving.

In December last year, Eurostar opened up it's ticking system which allows potential passengers to connect to St. Pancras International from 68 major towns and cities across the UK, and this strategy has paid dividends, with growth of more than 100% in some regions of north of London.

Simon Montague, Eurostar's Comms Director said that "the increase in services means we have 24,000 seats available between London and Paris on Mondays to Thursdays, and 30,000 seats on Fridays", so great news for all passengers.

So for the best fares for the new services, book your Eurostar tickets as early as possible!

Eurostar grabs more passengers from the airlines

2008-04-16T02:58:00.000-07:00

Eurostar released their latest passenger figures yesterday, showing fantastic results.

Eurostar trains carried 2.17 million people between January and March this year, a 21.3% increase on the same period in 2007.

One of the undoubtable factors of this success was the switch between Waterloo station and St Pancras International. The new St Pancras station opened its doors to Eurostar passengers in mid-November last year, and saw passenger numbers increase in the first 2 months.

With journey times between London and the continent, regular flight commuters are turning towards the greener, more convenient Eurostar option. An early Easter, the Six Nations tournament and the introduction of through fares from 68 towns and cities across Britain has helped Eurostar ticket sales rise by more than 25% to £178.4 million.

Eurostar also reported fantastic punctuality figures. A record of 93.6% of Eurostar trains arrived on time, or less than 15 minutes late.

Good work guys!

The Last Snow

2008-03-14T12:20:00.001-07:00

With longer days, more sun and warmer temperatures it's no surprise that skiing in Spring is more popular than ever.

The sun has almost set on yet another great skiing season, but there is still time to hit the slopes if you haven't had your snow fix of 2008.

Rail Europe is still running it's snow train service, with travel remaining on the 21st and 28th March, and the final snow train of the season runs on the 4th April.

Eurostar's night ski train finishes on the 21st March, but the day ski train continues up until the 13th April.

It's your last chance to ski of 2008, so get booked and get skiing!

Welcome to 2008!

2008-01-08T05:18:00.000-08:00

Hello and Happy New Year to you all!

I hope you all had a relaxing break and are re-charged and ready to tackle 2008.

I took a well deserved break over Christmas and decided to check out England's only ski slope. England has a ski slope I hear you cry? Yep, in the Lake District.

Not only did the continent receive good snowfall, but so did the UK highlands. The one ski run in the Lake District is situated on Raise, next to the Helvellyn range.

The run is very basic, with a wooden hut housing a generator to power the only ski tow up the side of the mountain, and a small ski hut which was built by Lake District ski club members in 1999. The best part is the slope cannot be reached by car. You need a 1 hour hike up Sticks Pass to reach the slope, so only enthusiastic Lake District Ski Club members can ski.

I took the image below from the northery peak to Raise (Stybarrow Dodd) which shows some snow on the slope...and plenty of skiers (although you might need a magnifying glass)!

More recent pics from today show much more snow cover, so ski club members should be enjoying a good weekend! These can be seen on their Flickr page.

Elsewhere, the snow was plentiful over Christmas and New Year, with Austria again taking the plaudits for fantastic skiing and snowboarding conditions.

The latest snow conditions can be found at Ski Club's Snow Reports page.

Eurostar offers tickets to the rest of the UK

2007-12-19T01:37:00.000-08:00

Eurostar has launched a service for passengers to buy tickets from 68 major towns and cities across the UK.

Eurostar's booking system is now linked with seven major UK train operators including Virgin Trains, First Capital Connect, National Express East Coast (formerly GNER), East Midlands Trains, Chiltern Railways, London Midland and Hull Trains.

The new through-fares now provide greater access for the UK population to reach destinations such as France, Belgium and the rest of Europe.

The new fares are available up to 84 days in advance and include travel on the tube in London for passengers who need to transfer to St. Pancras International.

To search for fares, use our Eurostar fare search on the Eurostar tickets page. Return fares start from £67.

Another good selling point for the new service is that if passengers miss a train due to a delayed connecting service, they will be able to travel on the next available Eurostar at no extra cost.

So now passengers looking to take a snow train to a ski destination in Europe have no excuse!

Happy travelling!

Snow in Kitzbühel!

2007-12-17T11:39:00.000-08:00

Austria seems to be the focus of attention for skiers and snowboarders last weekend.

The picture below is taken from Kitzbühel - beautiful blue skies and fresh snow!

Many of my recent posts have talked about some of the Austrian resorts and the abundance of snow at the moment. However, I have failed to help you out by not telling you how to get to Kitzbühel!

Ironically enough, Daniel Elkin produced a great article for the Observer on Sunday which promotes snow train travel to different European resorts. Daniel covered a few options for how to reach ski resorts such as Ischgl and Kitzbühel in Austria, Zermatt and St. Moritz in Switzerland and Chamonix in France.

So to reach Kitzbühel for example, take a Eurostar train from St. Pancras International to Brussels. Then board a Bergland Express train, which takes approximately 13 hours (overnight).

Alternatively, take the Eurostar to Paris, then from the Gare de l'Est you can take an overnight train to Munich. There is a regular Eurocity service train service between Munich and Innsbruck. From Innsbruck, there are serveral services which connect the 1 hours journey between Innsbruck and Kitzbuhel.

A Blanket of Snow Across Europe

2007-12-13T14:58:00.000-08:00

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It has been the week for snow in France so far, with well over a metre of snow falling across the country, according to Skiclub. It is the best start to a ski season for years, with snow providing great piste action from top to bottom.

Switzerland and Andorra also had heavy snowfalls, with good skiing conditions on the upper pistes.

In terms of the forecast this weekend, snow is forecast across Austria until Saturday night when the skies will clear. It will hopefully be bright and sunny across France until Sunday when cloudy snowy skies are forecast. Both Italy and Switzerland are forecast to have sunny weekends.

Snow train bookings have also started to accelerate, which is great news. It seems more and more of you are booking your ski travel this winter with Eurostar and Rail Europe, opting to take the rails and see the sights rather than blaze a trail through the sky.

See you on the slopes!

St. Pancras International Gets Festive

2007-12-02T13:16:00.000-08:00

I finally had time to look around the new St Pancras International station on Saturday afternoon. I've been to London so many times over the last month, and finally had a couple of hours to spare, so thought I'd get some good pics of the festivities!

St. Pancras has a packed schedule of events running all the way through December, the theme of which centres around the Victorian history of the station.

As soon as I entered the station I could tell immediately it had been well received by the public - for Eurostar travellers and general tourists alike.

It was nice to be greeted by pick feather bower wearing choir, who entertained the crowds for most of the afternoon.

I also had to have a good look at Europe's longest champagne bar too, although I resisted the temptation to taste a tipple. I have posted a couple of photos of the bar at one of my previous posts about the champagne bar.

There was also a couple of Victorian characters to entertain the tourists, with one particularly talented Victorian footballer...

All in all, a great place to go and visit when you're in London, regardless of whether you are about to buy a Eurostar ticket and head for Europe or not.

St. Pancras Opens its Doors

2007-11-14T10:06:00.000-08:00

St Pancras International station opened it's doors to the first Eurostar trains today, following the move from London's Waterloo International station.

The Queen officially unveiled the £800 million station last week to great fanfare, and the officially opening to the public was held today. The first Eurostar train left St Pancras International for Paris just after 11am this morning.

The Eurostar train arrived in Paris at 1317 hours using the newly completed High Speed 1 line. Eurostar trains can now travel up to 186 miles per hour along the line, cutting the journey time down between the UK and the continent.

Eurostar commented that the new station makes Eurostar services "more accessible" to British travellers. St Pancras International station is next door to the main Kings Cross station, from which Virgin and GNER trains serve a large proportion of the UK.

The new High Speed 1 line is now the shining star of the UK's rail network, with the rest of the UK infrastruture creaking due to chronic conjestion and archaic lines.

For those travelling to the Alps this winter, the new opening provides more excitement, faster journey times and a greener method of travel via. the snow train.

For new timetables, Eurostar tickets or general information please visit our soon to be updated Eurostar tickets page.

Europe's Longest Champagne Bar

2007-11-13T14:48:00.000-08:00

As if you didn't already have a good enough reason to travel along the all new High Speed 1 tracks, St. Pancras International has unveiled a new bar for passengers arriving and departing from the new terminal.

But this isn't just any old bar. The bar, some 100 yards long, is the longest champagne bar in Europe. If you get the timing right, your could be enjoying your glass of champagne as a Eurostar train pulls in six feet away. It's a hard life at this new station....

The bar is officially opened with the station tomorrow.

Waterloo Sunset

2007-11-13T14:31:00.000-08:00

It's the end of an era. Waterloo International station has served as the home of Eurostar over the last 13 years and finally closed its doors today to make way for the all new St. Pancras International station, which officially commences Eurostar services from tomorrow.

All through the day Waterloo International has been a hub of activity, attracting guests and celebrities such as the Starlight Music Academy and Lily Allen, who sang a cover of The Kinks' 'Waterloo Sunset' for a fitting finale.

The Eurostar blog has covered the events throughout the day and has a good selection of pictures on their main blog and Flickr pages.

And what next for Waterloo? It currently serves as the main service centre for South West Trains, and the old Eurostar platforms are likely to be used to ease chronic conjestion. On a more sour note for Waterloo, 5 platforms could be mothballed at a cost of £500,000 a year because the Government have yet to make up their minds with what to do with them.

Snow comes early to Austria

2007-10-28T07:35:00.002-07:00

Skiers across Europe were given an early Christmas present this weekend as temperatures fell and left many Austrian resorts with a blanket of snow.

Many of the Austrian pistes presented fantastic skiing conditions, more than six weeks before the start of the season.

Hintertux in Austria opened 23 miles of piste for snowboarders and skiers this weekend, whilst the low-lying Schladming opened several pistes a month earlier than planned. Some slopes already hold more than 3ft of snow.

Many of the Austrian resorts will be hoping that early snow will encourage bookings, with the early expectation of a bumper season.

Resorts in France - which attract the largest number of British skiers and snowboarders - have only received a light dusting of snow in the past week. Nonetheless, forecasters have predicted heavier snowfalls before December.

For more information on snow reports across the major European resorts, go to the Ski Club of Great Britain website at www.skiclub.co.uk.

Eurostar set new Brussels to London Record

2007-09-20T09:40:00.001-07:00

Eurostar has broken yet another record, this time for the journey between Brussels and London St. Pancras International.

The 232-mile journey between London St Pancras and Brussels took 1 hour, 43 minutes, with the Eurostar travelling at speeds of more than 186 mph. Using the all new High Speed 1 line, this took 20 minutes off the time it currently takes to travel from Brussels to London Waterloo.

Only earlier this month, Eurostar broke the record for the fastest train journey between Paris and London. If Eurostar keeps going at this pace, they will have to fork out extra cash for more champagne!

The all new St Pancras International station provides easier connections throughout London and the rest of the UK, and from November travellers will be able to buy tickets to the continent from around 70 UK train stations for the first time.

Eurostar Smashes Paris to London Record

2007-09-16T04:16:00.000-07:00

Britain has finally found the rail infrastructure it has been craving for years. The all new High Speed 1 line was put through it's paces earlier this month, with the inaugural journey between Paris Gare du Nord and the new St. Pancras International station in London.

With a train packed with journalists and VIPs, Eurostar were proud to announce that they broke the record for the fastest ever train journey between London and Paris.

A typical journey time between London and Paris takes around 2 hours 40 minutes, but using the High Speed 1 line, Eurostar made the journey in 2 hours, 3 minutes and 39 seconds. Eurostar were aiming for a sub 2 hours time, and it would have been achieved were it not for track maintenance work around Calais. Congratulations to all the Eurostar team!

For more information on Eurostar's record-breaking run have a look over the following sites;

Eurostar officially unveil the new High Speed 1 line on November 14th, 13 years after the first launch of the service at London Waterloo.

Book your Eurostar tickets for the new service today!

Travelling on the Eurostar.....right now!

2007-09-13T07:28:00.000-07:00

I like Paris. On a business trip to France I thought it appropriate to travel back by Eurostar. How can you tell people how great it is without actually experiencing it for yourself?

Actually this is my second Eurostar journey, but the first from Gare du Nord. Fast check in, a 2 minute security check, then straight on the train.

When Eurostar makes the transition to the new High Speed 1 line, the airlines are definately going to struggle to compete with the speed and efficiency of the Eurostar service.

So my own personal rating? 9/10 - the only fault I could give (and this is being picky!) was the security checks are not as thorough as the airport checks, for valid reasons I guess.

This post was created by my Blackberry browser.

Rugby World Cup in France

2007-09-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

It only seems like yesterday that Jonny Wilkinson kicked the drop goal that won the World Cup in Australia in 2003. But alas, that was 4 years ago and a new Rugby World Cup is upon us.

Time to drown the sorrows and put English rugby to rights over a few pints of French lager. Yes, the Rugby World Cup this year is being held in France and what better way to visit the continent than by Eurostar.

England kick off the campaign with a match against the USA on Saturday 8th September in Lens, with the crunch tie against South Africa in Saint-Denis on the 14th September. The penultimate game in Pool A is against Samoa on the 22nd September in Nantes.

The deciding game for England will take place in Paris against Tonga on the 28th September, so for a winning weekend why not extend your stay in Paris and lap up England's success!

Book your Eurostar tickets through Trainmountain.co.uk today! Good luck England!

2008 Snow Train Prices

2007-09-01T13:23:00.000-07:00

Rail Europe has published it prices for snow train travel for the coming season. Prices start from £219 for a late February trip.

Snow train ticket prices are per person and include return standard class travel on the Eurostar from London to Paris, and a bed in a couchette compartment on the overnight Snow Train from Paris. And the best part? No hidden charges for ski's or excess baggage....and did we mention the snow train disco and bar? It beats flying with cramped seats!

Snow train prices for 2008 are as follows (subject to change from Rail Europe);

18th January 2008 | £239
25th January 2008 | £239
1st February 2008 | £229
8th February 2008 | £299
15th February 2008 | £299
22nd February 2008 | £299
29th February 2008 | £249
7th March 2008 | £249
14th March 2008 | £229
21st March 2008 | £299
28th March 2008 | £289
4th April 2008 | £249

Rail Europe will also provide a group discount of 5% for 12 or more people travel together.

The season is upon us, so make your Snow Train Booking now!

Introducing Ebbsfleet International

2007-08-14T13:34:00.000-07:00

In conjunction with the all new services from St. Pancras, Eurostar have also expanded their number of stations in the South East.

The new Ebbsfleet International station stands between St.Pancras and Ashford in Kent and is a brand new station designed to provide commuters of the M25 with easy access to the new High Speed 1 line. It will also allow Eurostar to compete more effectively with the airports in the South East.

Ebbsfleet International (originally named Dartford International) is located close to Bluewater shopping centre, and between Swanscombe and Northfleet in Kent. To connect with other rail and road networks Ebbsfleet International station allows car parking for 9000 cars and a new 1.6 mile link between the High Speed 1 line and the old North Kent line has also been developed.

Initial domestic, high-speed timescales suggest Ebbsfleet International to St. Pancras International will take approximately 17 minutes. Going in the other direction towards foreign soil, Ebbsfleet International to Paris Gare du Nord will take just over an hour.

Sorry guys, it looks like only one copy of FHM magazine is required for the journey....

Eurostar Announces Roaring Ticket Sales

2007-08-10T04:19:00.000-07:00

Eurostar says its new High Speed 1 line has led to soaring ticket sales - with still 100 days to go before the new service opens. The firm said that two weeks after the new Eurostar tickets went on sale for its maiden voyages from St. Pancras International on Novemver 14th, more than 110,000 passengers had booked seats. The ticket boost also shows that more people are switching from planes to trains, helping the environment.

News from 6th August, 2007

Eurostar Publishes new High-Speed Rail Timetable

2007-08-10T04:17:00.000-07:00

Eurostar has published a debut timetable for the new 'High Speed 1' lines from St. Pancras International. The new timetable benefits business commuters who, for the first time will be able to reach the centres of both Paris and Brussels before 9am local time. Using the new 186 mph line Eurostar say journey times between the UK and the Continent will be cut by at least 20 minutes. If you're changing at Paris to get a snow train, that means one less beer!

News from 18th July, 2007

Welcome to Trainmountain News!

2007-08-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

After a short absense the Trainmountain.co.uk site is back in full swing, and getting ready for the new snow train season!

The blog will now serve as the news centre, and let you subscribe to our news feed to keep you updated with Snow Train News, snow reports and the best travel offers!

Happy reading!