Rail Users Ireland Forum - View Single Post

Ronald Binge · 04-02-2009, 21:56

I hate flying. Specifically, I hate all the fannying around in particular at Dublin Airport and there is a special place in Hell for Terminal One Heathrow and all its miserable baggage handling. We are rapidly getting to the stage where we will have to strip naked to get through security and/or be in place two hours plus in advance of flights. The vaunted time advantage starts looking threadbare when all the extra time factors city centre to city centre get factored in.

This is my choice as a rational consumer. If I need to get to London for a weekend, I fly. Anything not much longer than that, I get the boat and the train. However, there are problems which have been inflicted by Stena Line, Irish Rail and the railways in Britain that reduce the potential ability of the combined service to really be an effective transport solution. Five and a half hours Dublin to London if the will was there, which it isn't right now.

Now, in flight obsessed Ireland, getting the boat and train takes effort. Not the journey, but the booking side. It hasn't been helped by Stena's apparent spat with the Dun Laoghaire Harbour Authority, where the HSS has taken an extended break since Christmas and on its return it will only sail once daily at 1.30pm.

Irish Rail have closed the public office in Dublin, and the only way to get SailRail tickets through them is to ring. Like the good old 1980s, you get a handwritten paper ticket which obviously can't go through ticket barriers on either side of the Irish Sea. I am going to contact SailRail in the UK and attempt to get a ticket through them when I'm due to travel overland from Dublin to Berlin in April, meeting my brother in London.

04-02-2009, 21:56	#8
Ronald Binge Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 112	I hate flying. Specifically, I hate all the fannying around in particular at Dublin Airport and there is a special place in Hell for Terminal One Heathrow and all its miserable baggage handling. We are rapidly getting to the stage where we will have to strip naked to get through security and/or be in place two hours plus in advance of flights. The vaunted time advantage starts looking threadbare when all the extra time factors city centre to city centre get factored in. This is my choice as a rational consumer. If I need to get to London for a weekend, I fly. Anything not much longer than that, I get the boat and the train. However, there are problems which have been inflicted by Stena Line, Irish Rail and the railways in Britain that reduce the potential ability of the combined service to really be an effective transport solution. Five and a half hours Dublin to London if the will was there, which it isn't right now. Now, in flight obsessed Ireland, getting the boat and train takes effort. Not the journey, but the booking side. It hasn't been helped by Stena's apparent spat with the Dun Laoghaire Harbour Authority, where the HSS has taken an extended break since Christmas and on its return it will only sail once daily at 1.30pm. Irish Rail have closed the public office in Dublin, and the only way to get SailRail tickets through them is to ring. Like the good old 1980s, you get a handwritten paper ticket which obviously can't go through ticket barriers on either side of the Irish Sea. I am going to contact SailRail in the UK and attempt to get a ticket through them when I'm due to travel overland from Dublin to Berlin in April, meeting my brother in London.