Every Saturday, from 29th January till 19th March 2011 a Snowtrain will be operating from Geneva Airport through Valais. With a 79 pound Swiss Transfer Ticket that means you can easily get a connecting train to the Portes du Soleil, Verbier and Zermatt, but with a little imagination some of the more exotic and less well-known resorts are easily reachable by connecting services – such as Leysin, Les Diablerets, Leukerbad, Nendaz, the Aletsch Arena, Crans-Montana, Lötschental, Grächen, Evolène, Anzers, Belalp and the outstanding Val D’Annivers (Chandolin, St-Luc, Grimentz, Vercorin and Zinal). The Transfer Ticket is also good for the bus as well as the train, and bus transfers are almost as easy as a train transfer.
The outward and return timetable for the Snow Train are:
Geneva Airport | 13.40 | Brig | 09.51 |
Aigle | 15.00 | Visp | 10.00 |
Martigny | 15.15 | Leuk | no stop |
Sion | 15.30 | Sierre | 10.16 |
Sierre | 15.40 | Sion | 10.27 |
Leuk | 15.50 | Martigny | 10.41 |
Visp | 16.00 | Aigle | 10.59 |
Brig | 16.15 | Geneva Airport | 12.27 |
The Snow Train is not the only way to get to the Swiss Alps and the regular train and bus services all have stowage points for skis and boards. Saas-Fee and Zermatt are already open for an early season break and can be accessed almost equally easily from Zurich and Geneva airports and the Paris TGV at Basel or Lausanne.