Sail & Rail

[plant43]

Originally Posted by James Howard

I've figured out why normal people don't bother with Sail & Rail any more. Talk about a rigmarole booking a ticket. I went into Longford and spent 15 minutes waiting while the ticket agent finished up her phone call - I'm not exaggerating here. I gave up waiting at that stage and stormed off in a huff.

So then I tried the internet. It doesn't appear to be possible to book Stena at all on the internet and half of their ferries don't take foot passengers anyway. So I tried ringing them and they said that they just give you an open rail ticket for the journey but I would have preferred a seat booking so I gave up on that.

So I tried Irish Ferries who are by far the best of a bad lot. But when I wanted to book a club class ticket for the ferry, this is not possible on-line and it says to send them an email.

So after several emails which obviously weren't read on their side (they couldn't seem to get their head around the fact that I lived in Ireland and was booking a ticket from England), I did what I should have done in the first place and rang. This produced results and they were quite efficient in being able to lift the details off my email trail and I got a ticket booked.

The next thing I got an email confirming that I had booked a ferry ticket but no mention of a rail ticket, which resulted in yet another phone call where they said that this always happens and to just confirm the rail part of the journey when I got the ticket in the post.

In the course of this, I spent 5 minutes seeing what a flight would cost which would have resulted in a ticket costing about 2 euro less (including a checked bag) on Aer Lingus. So for flying, less money and a 5 minute booking process while Sail & Rail took me 3 phone calls, a few web sessions, 5 emails and a booking office visit.

It is a pity it is all so complicated - I am looking forward to the journey and figure that it is a much more civilised way to travel than flying.

Just a couple of things

- not being able to buy club class before boarding is not really a big issue. There's no cost difference and it rarely (if ever) sells out. In fact, I tried to buy it at Holyhead before was told to buy it on the ship.

- the sail'n'rail tickets sold by Irish Ferries/Irish Rail/Stena in Ireland are always of the open type with no reservations (I actually think that's an advantage - buying from the UK means you have to travel on the trains that you are booked on, which means less flexibility) You could try ringing the train companies in the UK and getting a seat reservation that way (I think it's free in most cases)

[James Howard]

My point is that as a first time customer, the process is overly complicated. I want to make a booking and not have to mess about. It is massively simpler to book a flight.

I do travel by ferry with the car relatively frequently but haven't used Irish Ferries for years so I don't know if the Club class gets booked out. Stena Plus can get very busy on the peak services. The last time I came through Rosslare it was actually booked out.

I don't think very many people will choose SailRail now for price so it is particularly odd that there is no way of choosing a First Class product when booking at all. You can't book First Class train tickets at all and apparently you can't even upgrade on the train but I would think that they might quite quite a bit of interest in a more premium product.

Mind you, looking at the price of First Class ticket in the UK perhaps not. Does anybody buy these tickets with their own money? I had a look at a random train on a Saturday in September and the cheapest 1st ticket is 6 times the price of the cheapest standard.

[Traincustomer]

Originally Posted by James Howard

I've figured out why normal people don't bother with Sail & Rail any more. Talk about a rigmarole booking a ticket. I went into Longford and spent 15 minutes waiting while the ticket agent finished up her phone call - I'm not exaggerating here. I gave up waiting at that stage and stormed off in a huff.

Having had my fair share of frustrating SailRail experiences (mainly the booking & information side of things) with Irish Rail, Stena Line & Irish Ferries over the last number of years I am disappointed to hear of the difficulties you experienced as a first time user.

Irish Rail's Passenger Charter states:

During advertised hours of business, you should be able to buy your ticket in seven minutes or less. Outside our busy peak periods, we aim to serve you within three minutes. This excludes exceptional circumstances.

Have never booked SailRail at Longford but have used the station and bought "domestic" tickets there from time to time and generally find staff helpful including one winter night when I missed a bus and needed to get a taxi number.

Originally Posted by James Howard

So then I tried the internet. It doesn't appear to be possible to book Stena at all on the internet and half of their ferries don't take foot passengers anyway. So I tried ringing them and they said that they just give you an open rail ticket for the journey but I would have preferred a seat booking so I gave up on that.

All Stena Line sailings from Holyhead (Dun Laoghaire & Dublin) and Fishguard-Rosslare take foot passengers. The Stena Nordica from Holyhead used to not take foot passengers but now does. Possibly there is some web-based information which hasn't been updated still out there.

Originally Posted by James Howard

So I tried Irish Ferries who are by far the best of a bad lot. But when I wanted to book a club class ticket for the ferry, this is not possible on-line and it says to send them an email.

As a related aside it's possible to purchase Irish Ferries Club Class as an add-on when booking from this side to England/Wales online. I rarely upgrade - the last time I wished to do so was from Rosslare to Fishguard but the Stena Plus was booked out several days ahead.

If travelling via Fishguard-Rosslare it's possible to upgrade to first class at the weekend for the London/Bristol/South Wales element of the journey with First Great Western (first class not available with Arriva on the leg to/from Fishguard).

A similar offering seems to be available with Virgin Trains at weekends though I've never tried this upgrade.

Originally Posted by James Howard

It is a pity it is all so complicated - I am looking forward to the journey and figure that it is a much more civilised way to travel than flying.

I find the Arriva Trains Wales site to be the best site if booking an England/Wales to Ireland SailRail. I look forward to the day when one can visit the Irish Rail site and book their entire SailRail trip online and get a reservation number enabling ticket/coupon pick up at any ticket vending machine.

Hope your trip is plain sailing and railing :-)