[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 :-)