Rail/Sail - Irish BOJ

[MarkyMarkD]

I have been thinking about a trip around Ireland (Republic & Northern) using the great value Rail/Sail deal.

Apart from moaning about the poor performance of the TOC search engines for these journeys, I am intrigued about the rules on BOJ within Ireland.

I was thinking of booking London > Londonderry return. ATW's website says "no journey" whilst Scotrail's gives a route via ATW! (STP > Holyhead > Dublin > Belfast > Londonderry).

I would actually like to stop off in Dublin and Belfast en route, for more than a simple overnight. I know that BOJ is not allowed in England/Wales and that's fine, but I'm less clear about whether I can do the two stop-overs I wish to do.

The ticket is an open return, so if the stop-overs were on the return leg, how would it be prevented even if it is not allowed? I guess that the return ferry reservation will make the dates appear incongruous, but they could be rebooked in any case.

I'm not trying to fare evade - I just don't want to book singles London > Dublin and Belfast > London and pay extra for the Dublin > Belfast and Belfast <> Londonderry if it's not necessary.

 

[island]

You won't have any problems with break of journey; neither Northern Ireland Railways nor Irish Rail will have a clue about break of journey restrictions on the SailRail ticket; as long as it looks vaguely plausible it will be passed.

 

[Paul Kelly]

I'm fairly sure it's the other way round - break of journey *is* allowed on the British leg of the journey, but not allowed on the Irish leg. Do you not have to specify what date you're coming back if you buy one of the Economy Return tickets (via Holyhead/Dublin)? I don't know for sure, because I have only ever bought a single, but the ticket conditions in Avantix Traveller say it's valid on the date on the ticket only.

EDIT: Thinking more about it, as far as I know break of journey became allowed on the British leg due to some EU harmonisation of rules relating to international rail journeys a couple of years ago. So this must apply to the Irish leg too. So I think you're OK for BOJ on both sides of the Irish sea - BUT - the restrictions still say valid on date shown on ticket only, for both the outward and return portions.

 

[MarkyMarkD]

You can get an open return (for no extra cost). But the conditions on Scotrail's site say no breaks of journey in either direction, and also that reservations are required for the ferry parts of the journey.

 

[John @ home]

My understanding is that the Anytime Return (SOR) is available for return journeys where both legs are via the northern crossing (currently Stranraer). But journeys with one or both legs via the central (Holyhead) corridor are available only as Economy tickets. The OP wishes to travel via Holyhead, which appears to make lengthy break(s) of journey more difficult.

 

[MichaelAMW]

My understanding is that the Anytime Return (SOR) is available for return journeys where both legs are via the northern crossing (currently Stranraer). But journeys with one or both legs via the central (Holyhead) corridor are available only as Economy tickets. The OP wishes to travel via Holyhead, which appears to make lengthy break(s) of journey more difficult.

Does anyone think there would be a problem with breaking the journey overnight with this ticket via Stranraer? I would like to go from London but leaving at 05:29 is too early and arriving at gone 10 is a bit late. I would be happy to stay over in Glasgow or wherever and continue the next day. Break of journey is not allowed but then stopping overnight isn't generally classed as a break of journey.

 

[island]

Stopping overnight doesn't count as a break of journey if your journey can't reasonably be completed in one day. Don't ask me what counts as reasonable.

 

[MichaelAMW]

Stopping overnight doesn't count as a break of journey if your journey can't reasonably be completed in one day. Don't ask me what counts as reasonable.

Thanks - that's what I thought (and thus hoped) was the case. Certainly, the times one would use for an overnight break are nowhere near over-stretching the flexibility you describe.