Perisher Skitube

Until the 1980s there was one way into the Perisher Range in winter: Kosciuszko Road, mostly a single lane, often shut by snow and ice. When the National Parks and Wildlife Service planned a new ski area on Mount Blue Cow, the engineers looked at a funicular, a chairlift and a gondola, and chose instead a Swiss-designed rack railway, built almost entirely underground, where it would not scar the slopes and the weather could not reach it.

Construction began in October 1984. Trains reached Perisher Valley on 26 July 1987 and ran through to Blue Cow from 29 August 1988. The Skitube climbs from Bullocks Flat on the Alpine Way, 1,125 metres up, to Blue Cow at 1,890 metres: 8.5 kilometres, 6.3 of them in tunnel, up to 550 metres below the surface. Perisher calls it Australia's only alpine railway, and more than four million people have ridden it since it opened.

It runs only in winter, every day of the ski season, from six in the morning until late in the evening, and its trains are the reason most visitors to Australia's biggest snow resort never have to drive the mountain road at all.

Bullocks Flat to Perisher Valley

Every train starts at Bullocks Flat, a three-sided terminal on the Alpine Way with free day and overnight parking, a pass office and a hire shop, and no National Park entry fee to pay. For its first 2.6 kilometres the line runs in the open, across a 150-metre curved steel viaduct and through a passing loop, and then it enters the Bilston Tunnel under the Ramshead Range. Inside, the train climbs at 12.5 per cent — one in eight — on the toothed rack between the rails, and about 10 minutes after leaving Bullocks Flat it stops in the underground station at Perisher Valley, 1,720 metres up, for the slopes of Front Valley.

Perisher Valley to Blue Cow

For Blue Cow, change trains at Perisher Valley. The second tunnel, 2.6 kilometres long, was drilled and blasted rather than bored; the line first drops, then climbs gently and finally at 12.5 per cent again to the terminus at 1,890 metres, about seven minutes on. Blue Cow has no road in winter, so the Skitube also carries its supplies and its rubbish, in a small goods wagon.

The trains

The railway has four trains, built in Sydney by Comeng with motor bogies from the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works (SLM) and electrical equipment from Brown, Boveri. Each motor car has four 301 kW traction motors, which may make them the most powerful rack railcars in the world. They can run at 40 km/h, but are held to 21 km/h coming down. The line is standard gauge, electrified at 1,500 volts DC, on the Lamella rack system developed by Von Roll. Stadler, the Swiss builder, began an upgrade of the line in October 2016.

The Skitube runs every day of the ski season: from 6 June to 5 October in 2026. It does not run outside the season. The first train leaves Bullocks Flat at 06:00; the last climbs at 22:00 on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays and at 20:00 on other days. Trains leave every 25 to 40 minutes, take 10 minutes to Perisher Valley, and connect there for Blue Cow. Times are local.

Luggage — large bags for a longer stay, not skis or boards — is restricted on the busiest trains, which are shaded green on the operator's timetable, seven days a week. Bikes, e-scooters and lithium batteries may not be carried.

Getting to Bullocks Flat

Bullocks Flat is on the Alpine Way, about 20 minutes' drive from Jindabyne. In the season the Snowy Mountains Bus Service runs from Jindabyne, and Greyhound and FlixBus run direct coaches from Sydney and Canberra to the Skitube terminal. Two-wheel-drive cars must carry snow chains in the park from June to October.

Times are from Perisher's Skitube timetable for the 2026 season — as of November 2026; the 2027 timetable is not yet published. Check the day on Perisher's Skitube timetable (opens in a new tab) before travelling.

Tickets are sold by Perisher, online or at its ticket offices, and loaded on to a reusable Mountain Access Card. The Skitube Return is the ticket for anyone who simply wants to ride: one trip up and one down, not necessarily on the same day, valid any time in the season, with free parking at Bullocks Flat. Skiers can add same-day Skitube travel to a lift ticket, and Epic Australia Pass holders buy a season add-on. Lift tickets already include the Perisher Valley to Blue Cow section.

Children aged 4 and under travel free with a paying adult; collect their ticket at a ticket office. Skitube Return prices for 2027 are not yet published. Fares checked November 2026.

No rail pass covers the Skitube. It is run by the Perisher ski resort, which sells its own tickets.

Is it worth it? The only "pass" worth knowing is Perisher's own: an Epic Australia Pass holder who rides the Skitube every day should buy the season add-on rather than single returns. Everyone else buys a Skitube Return.

Checked November 2026.

The Skitube serves Perisher, the largest ski resort in the Southern Hemisphere, made up of Perisher Valley, Smiggin Holes, Blue Cow and Guthega. Around it lie the high country of Kosciuszko National Park and the towns of the Snowy Mountains.

Stay at the bottom of the line and ride up each morning, or on the snow at Perisher Valley; Jindabyne, 20 minutes' drive from Bullocks Flat, has the widest choice.

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