There's direct TGVs from Paris to Maurienne and Oulx (when there's no landslide!), another to Cluses & St Gervais that I know of. I think some years to Briançon for Serre Chevalier too. And those valleys are well set up to receive skiers by train.
I think the issues are:
The service to Briançon is an Intercité Nuit, not a TGV - you'd have problems getting a TGV much past Valence due to the lack of overhead wires. The night train (couchettes and seats, SNCF don't have any sleeping cars) runs pretty much all year round (maintenance work excepted!), albeit with rather more coaches in winter than in summer.
Apart from DLR I wouldn't call the connections excellent - they're on a par with Euston from St P.
The difficulty is presumably that the building was designed to cope with far less than 900 passengers per train. Is there actually the space?
Absolutely correct. However, prior to the landslide last August, large numbers of French skiers - and perhaps a few Northern European and British ones - travelled on the daytime Paris-Milano TGVs to and from Oulx in Italy, which has a regular bus connection with Briancon....and was considerably quicker than Paris-Briancon via connections from/to daytime TGVs at Valence or Grenoble.
Thanks. That really is very little - is Ebbsfleet any better? (Not that I am suggesting RENFE terminate there!).
No....probably not, to be honest.
Not really, and Ebbsfleet is only marginally less awkward for terminating trains than Stratford.
Good point, I forgot about the bus transfer.
In my defence, the only time I have been to that part of the world was in late spring/early summer and I was cycle touring as well so went the direct route from the Maurienne valley to Briançon, over the Col du Galibier!
It presumably also allows connections with TGVs terminating at Modane rather than the infrequent Paris-Milan ones. Either way, it's far quicker to Briancon than via Valence (sadly).
It was 16th June 2017. there was some snow at the side of the road (and on the peaks!) but the roads were clear. The Critérium du Dauphiné had been that way the previous week, so I knew it was clear!
Time isn't the reason you do that journey by train. It's the joy over flying. I did the whole journey to Marrakech by train plus the short ferry hop. It was far more pleasant than the return flight. As you long you plan in the extra time it's a perfectly reasonable way to travel.
Ashford has in the past taken and dealt with whole Eurostars terminating there. The passenger terminal having predated HS1 can deal with it. It also has the advantage that it can share border staff with Eurotunnel, the inland freight facility which are both within 20 mins by road and Dover. The issue with emergency terminations in recent years hasn't been the terminal capacity it's been Southeastern's ability to disperse the displaced passengers.
Terminating the odd train is very different from terminating the regular service. And border staff would be from Border Force on their own account, the border force would just hire people in Ashford if needed.
