Through tickets to the North
 

Hello all (1st post),
I live in England and am coming back to Ireland for New Year to visit family. I am using a Rail&Sail ticket as far as Dublin but need to get an onward ticket to a NI Railways station (not on Enterprise route).
I can see that there are discounted through tickets available on the Translink website between NIR and IR stations but these can only be booked in that direction (i.e. North to South). I can't see anything on the IR website about through tickets or at least you can't select non Enterprise stations to buy online. Can I just show up at Connolly Street and buy one of these. The disadvantage being that the Translink website appears to have a discount for ordering online.

Through tickets are available from all booking offices to all stations in Northern Ireland.

Ticket machines at Connolly, Drogheda and Dundalk will issue tickets to all Northern Irish stations also

Booking is only possible Dublin - Belfast, reservations are not supported Belfast Dublin

Despite what it might say Northern Ireland Railways does not offer reservations on any standard class tickets it might issue and there are strange conditions attached.

London - Holyhead - Dublin - NI should be possible by Sail Rail as one ticket

You can get a seat reservation from Irish Rail on a booking originating in Dublin, including a return journey.

London Terminals to Belfast NI via Holyhead is £44 single £88 return either Irish Ferries or Stena. It's available on a walk-up basis until the new year. £4 supplement each way if you use Lynx, £5 each way to use Swift. You can't mix and match ferry companies.

Except Translink will do nothing to honor the reservation on the Belfast Dublin leg

I have managed to pay an excess on my ticket to get it extended to Ballymoney. I don't have a reservation for the Enterprise, which hasn't been a problem in the past (admittedly a few years ago) . Unless things have changed I can't see that being a problem next Tuesday morning. What do you think?

Wouldn't expect any problems, likely to be very quiet

The craft that was the Stena lynx is now in Korea, so you'll have to stick with the Swift or conventional ferries.

HSS will be back for Summer 2012 and the £4/€6 supplement will apply