Sail & Rail

[Traincustomer]

Originally Posted by Eddie

Nothing seems to have come of the possible changes to Stena's Fishguard and Holyhead overnight sailings cited earlier in the year to make them closer to a normal sleep pattern.

Haven't come across anything. Would hope that if something is being planned that there would be a reasonable lead-in to it to enable co-ordination with the rail service. Integration of trains at Fishguard Harbour with the Rosslare ferry is prescribed in the rail franchise. Not sure if it's prescribed for Holyhead but in view of the much more frequent train service (24 trains depart Holyhead daily Mondays to Fridays) trains and ships will by default coincide reasonably well.

The two areas that could be improved on in terms of co-ordination/timetabling at Holyhead are:

(i) the night-time situation ex Ireland (as previously discussed).

(ii) an improved level of connectivity with the through trains to Euston e.g. great that the 09.10 ex Euston connects with the 13.50 & 14.10 sailings to Dublin but no through train to London out of the 11.30 and 11.45 ferry arrivals at Holyhead except at weekends. (I didn't mention the 10.45 Jonathan Swift fast ferry arrival as in heavy weather it would be cancelled and passengers transferred to the Ulysses arriving at 11.30). One daytime through London - Holyhead train connecting with the conventional sailings to/from Dublin seems a very reasonable minimum provision.

On the issue of ferry sailing times my personal opinion is that they are largely historic. For example today's sailing times from Dublin Port (08.05, 08.20, 08.45, 20.55 & 21.15) closely mirror the bygone days of the St. Columba sailing from Dún Laoghaire at 08.45 and 20.45.

Similarly for the last few decades or longer a ship has sailed from Rosslare between around 21.00 and 22.00hrs and plied the route to Fishguard.

On a quick aside hopefully the route from Dún Laoghaire to Holyhead will remain. Personally think a smaller fast ferry doing two round trips in the summer and one round trip off season might be better. Pity that fuel costs have affected things on this route to such an extent.

In case anyone is interested there's a consultation underway in Wales where users' views of integrated transport are being sought. Views must be submitted on this Friday at the latest. Details here:
http://wales.gov.uk/topics/transport/public/ptuc/questionnaire/;jsessionid=SmTwQ9nFXyBJfnG2pJMPSf76W9rbBcQB9xJP9h Yjv1RDQprlpKzT!1219044931?lang=en