I have got the information below from Mark Smith Seat61 site, does anyone have any further information, does it apply to Cairnryan and can we do anything about it. Reserved journeys for London are mostly ok but places like Swindon often it proves difficult to obtain a sensible journey
From Mark:
From 2 January 2012, SailRail tickets from UK stations to Dublin & Ireland will change.* Instead of open tickets with a requirement to have a reservation for the ferry, there will be two types of SailRail tickets:* Advance, which can be booked until 18:00 the day before travel, with reservations included (and required) for each train on which seat reservations are possible and Standby which is only available on the day of travel for a pound or two more.* The UK zones used for the fares will also alter.* The new fares from London-Dublin by train+ship will be £38 Advance, £43 standby.* London to Dublin by train+Swift will be £43 Advance, £48 Standby.* The tickets have been made 'reservation compulsory' throughout the journey not to limit numbers, but to ensure all passengers have a reservation on the ferry, as passengers had been sold tickets without reservations and turned up to find the ferry full on busy dates.
Apparently the system cannot make a ticket 'reservation compulsory' for one leg (i.e. the ferry), it can only be made so for the whole trip, or not at all.* They've had problems with passengers turning up for the fast ferry with no reservation, and no places left on busy dates, so they've been forced to do this.* But the intention isn't to limit numbers, you'll just get a reservation for the train legs and will have to stick to any train that's reserved, unless (on the inbound trip) the ferry is late.
Mark
The Man in Seat Sixty-One... www.seat61.com
From Mark:
From 2 January 2012, SailRail tickets from UK stations to Dublin & Ireland will change.* Instead of open tickets with a requirement to have a reservation for the ferry, there will be two types of SailRail tickets:* Advance, which can be booked until 18:00 the day before travel, with reservations included (and required) for each train on which seat reservations are possible and Standby which is only available on the day of travel for a pound or two more.* The UK zones used for the fares will also alter.* The new fares from London-Dublin by train+ship will be £38 Advance, £43 standby.* London to Dublin by train+Swift will be £43 Advance, £48 Standby.* The tickets have been made 'reservation compulsory' throughout the journey not to limit numbers, but to ensure all passengers have a reservation on the ferry, as passengers had been sold tickets without reservations and turned up to find the ferry full on busy dates.
Apparently the system cannot make a ticket 'reservation compulsory' for one leg (i.e. the ferry), it can only be made so for the whole trip, or not at all.* They've had problems with passengers turning up for the fast ferry with no reservation, and no places left on busy dates, so they've been forced to do this.* But the intention isn't to limit numbers, you'll just get a reservation for the train legs and will have to stick to any train that's reserved, unless (on the inbound trip) the ferry is late.
Mark
The Man in Seat Sixty-One... www.seat61.com
