Sail and Rail

[WSrix]

Hi all, looking to go to Ireland overnight by sea in a few weeks. Can someone explain the note on Irish Ferries website about TOC's not treating rail and sail tickets as connecting services.

Does this impact on Delay Repay or risk me being stranded if something goes wrong?

My options are 1) straight through cheap rail ticket from Euston to Holyhead getting me there for 1am; 2) split the journey at Lichfield for three hours, negligible saving and gets me there about 11pm; 3) Rail and Sail with a bit more saving also getting me there for 1am. Thanks in advance.

 

[Flying Snail]

Sailrail is likely to be cheaper than any splits as it is only a small amount more than the standard ferry foot passenger rates. Remember you can buy them from any GB station, any station is the south of England will be the same price as from Euston.

There are two ticket types "Sailrail advance" that will be booked train only or "Sailrail standby" which is a fixed amount more than the advance (was £5 extra) that gives more flexibility.


In the event of disruption you will be carried on the next sailing (that takes foot passengers, not all Irish Ferries departures do) of the company your ticket is for. Changing ferry company requires a change of sailrail to the correct ticket, Holyhead RAIL ticket office can do this, if they are open and willing.

If at all possible minimise your time in Holyhead, particularly at night as it is not a great place to wait.

 

[paul1609]

My advice is if you can travel by day Sailrail is an adventure you should undertake.
If you are travelling overnight my advice would be to look at the last flights on Ryanair from Gatwick with checked in hand luggage they are usually around £60.They will get you to Dublin around 10 to 11pm.
Only consider sairail overnight if you are hardcore and dont mind being approached by beggars and the like at Holyhead. Another problem is the remoteness of Dublin Ferryport from the city centre and the unreliability of buses/taxis at 1 am.
Obviously there may be reasons why flying is not an option for you but otherwise from West Sussex late at night its a no brainer imho.

 

[WSrix]

My advice is if you can travel by day Sailrail is an adventure you should undertake.
If you are travelling overnight my advice would be to look at the last flights on Ryanair from Gatwick with checked in hand luggage they are usually around £60.They will get you to Dublin around 10 to 11pm.
Only consider sairail overnight if you are hardcore and dont mind being approached by beggars and the like at Holyhead. Another problem is the remoteness of Dublin Ferryport from the city centre and the unreliability of buses/taxis at 1 am.
Obviously there may be reasons why flying is not an option for you but otherwise from West Sussex late at night its a no brainer imho

Thanks. I'm actually flying back from Knock to Heathrow with Aerlingus as I have no intention of using Ryanair. I like travelling by sea as well and normally prefer not to be up in the air if I can possibly help it. Overnight used to work well when there was a coach and boat service seven nights a week in both directions. Now there are no outbound journeys from London and the Irish coach does one return journey from London a week on a Saturday - which for my plans is utterly useless. Arriving in Dublin at the "wrong" time of day is also unhelpful due to the way trains are scheduled for my final destination and could potentially rEQ Overnight travel to Dublin gives me the most options but I am considering what you've said about Holyhead not being a great place to wait.

My advice is if you can travel by day Sailrail is an adventure you should undertake.
If you are travelling overnight my advice would be to look at the last flights on Ryanair from Gatwick with checked in hand luggage they are usually around £60.They will get you to Dublin around 10 to 11pm.
Only consider sairail overnight if you are hardcore and dont mind being approached by beggars and the like at Holyhead. Another problem is the remoteness of Dublin Ferryport from the city centre and the unreliability of buses/taxis at 1 am.
Obviously there may be reasons why flying is not an option for you but otherwise from West Sussex late at night its a no brainer imho

Thanks. I'm actually flying back from Knock to Heathrow with Aerlingus as I have no intention of using Ryanair. I like travelling by sea as well and normally prefer not to be up in the air if I can possibly help it. Overnight used to work well when there was a coach and boat service seven nights a week in both directions. Now there are no outbound journeys from London and the Irish coach does one return journey from London a week on a Saturday - which for my plans is utterly useless. Arriving in Dublin at the "wrong" time of day is also unhelpful due to the way trains are scheduled for my final destination and could potentially require additional accommodation. Overnight travel to Dublin gives me the most options but I am considering what you've said about Holyhead not being a great place to wait.

Sailrail is likely to be cheaper than any splits as it is only a small amount more than the standard ferry foot passenger rates. Remember you can buy them from any GB station, any station is the south of England will be the same price as from Euston.

There are two ticket types "Sailrail advance" that will be booked train only or "Sailrail standby" which is a fixed amount more than the advance (was £5 extra) that gives more flexibility.


In the event of disruption you will be carried on the next sailing (that takes foot passengers, not all Irish Ferries departures do) of the company your ticket is for. Changing ferry company requires a change of sailrail to the correct ticket, Holyhead RAIL ticket office can do this, if they are open and willing.

If at all possible minimise your time in Holyhead, particularly at night as it is not a great place to wait.

Thanks. Having another look at Ferry times now. Arriving in Dublin at 5.55am has always worked really well in the past but the lack of coach and boat services has made things more tricky.

 

[Cloud Strife]

straight through cheap rail ticket from Euston to Holyhead getting me there for 1am

I'd go with that. Holyhead is fine to wait in for an hour, and it's very unlikely that the Ulysses will be disrupted.

 

[Flying Snail]

The overnight Stena sailing departs earlier at 02.15 and they have 40 minute minimum check-in so from the 00.50 arrival from Chester you shouldn't have too long to wait in the public lobby before they open check-in.

Unfortunately the late train from Chester at 00.38 is carefully timed to intentionally arrive at Holyhead too late to connect with the ferry so the whole journey is at least an hour longer than it used to be.

It is the other direction that is far worse with more than a 4 hour wait for the first train from the evening ferries from Dublin.

 

[WSrix]

Thanks. I'll likely be getting the cheap train out of Euston around 8pm which gets me to Holyhead for 1am. The night I'm likely to be going it's a replacement bus from Crewe but the roads should be quiet at that time of night. The bus is going straight to Llandudno Junction. Actual RailSail ticketes aren't being shown yet, though, and it would be nice to save some money...

 

[181]

For what it's worth, I've twice got the night boat from Holyhead (some years ago now, but since the rise of low cost airlines made it a somewhat unusual choice) and not had any problems while waiting.

There's also the Fishguard route, although connections appear not to be great these days, and obviously trains from Rosslare run only to Dublin (there are buses going west). Birkenhead-Belfast is the probably the best way to cross the Irish Sea by night, but it's only useful for destinations in the northern part of Ireland (and there are no SailRail tickets).

 

[bkhtele]

A stay at the Holyhead travellodge was a good option it is about 100m from the Chester end of the platform, but that was s few years ago! Easy to get the early train or boat

 

[Cloud Strife]

The overnight Stena sailing departs earlier at 02.15 and they have 40 minute minimum check-in so from the 00.50 arrival from Chester you shouldn't have too long to wait in the public lobby before they open check-in.

If there's a rail replacement bus in operation, I'd be inclined to go with the later Irish Ferries sailing simply because you never know what can happen on the road.