The total journey time is just over six hours, which makes it competitive financially and logistically with air travel

Great news for all lovers of the Alps! There is finally an alternative to either the invasive, inevitably delayed and costly hell of flying during peak winter season and the tedious, never-ending misery of driving out through – let’s face it – the more monotonous parts of France.

To be fair, rail has been another option for a while, but until now it has involved having to lug your bags across the whole of Paris mid-journey, a scary prospect indeed.

Not anymore, it’s been announced that Eurostar – having made the brave move of actually taking on board what their customers want – will from this winter be running services from London St Pancras to Geneva four times a week: Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

There is still a change involved, but instead of Paris it’ll simply involve a 37 minute wait in Lille before hopping onto a high-speed TVG France train

And with return tickets ‘starting from’ £116 and no added costs for transporting snowboards, it might actually be comparable with budget air travel. Hooray! Yes, there is still a change involved, but instead of Paris it’ll simply involve a 37 minute wait in Lille before hopping onto a high-speed TVG France train to Geneva.

That brings the total journey time up to just over six hours, which – when you factor in check in times, security and disembarking off a plane – makes it competitive financially and logistically with air travel.

And not soon enough either, we’ve had just about enough of this: