Sail Rail not available???

[D6975]

A friend asked me to look up train/ferry times and fares from Bristol to Rosslare/Dun Laoghaire.
The FGW and Arriva sites don't even come up with times, let alone fares, just "no tickets available".
The NR site offers times but no fares.
I've tried a selection of dates/times, but nothing is offered, so at the moment it is impossible to buy a Rail/Sail ticket from Bristol to Ireland on t'interweb.

Has this been unofficially withdrawn or is this just a glitch??

 

[island]

SailRail still exists but it works "differently" since last week. I expect the TOCs you contacted had not updated their websites.

 

[tivoli]

Having same problem, best I've got is from Stena, but that is from Euston, doesn't cope with Cambridge. To be fair haven't tried phoning yet; not travelling till 17 Feb. Bit worrying.

 

[barrykas]

I suspect this may be due to the ferries now being shown as Sleeper services in the reservations system (as for why, answers on a postcard or back of a sealed down envelope...) and it's not just web bookings that are affected, ticket offices are having the same problem.

Cheers,

Barry

 

[AlterEgo]

I suspect this may be due to the ferries now being shown as Sleeper services in the reservations system (as for why, answers on a postcard or back of a sealed down envelope...) and it's not just web bookings that are affected, ticket offices are having the same problem.

Cheers,

Barry

I think you may be right. I did fiddle with a few booking sites a couple of days ago and they all had problems.

I'm not sure what is being done to rectify the situation.

 

[bkhtele]

Suggest you try at a main rail station it is the easiest, I booked one last week via Holyhead & Stena at Swindon station. There are now advanced tickets where you are tied to specific trains & for an extra £5 walk on/ standby fares where you can be flexible except for the ferry.
Or Rail Easy (on line) seem to make more effort than most: currently they are showing journeys but fail at the last moment when you try & purchase. They do give a telephone number 0870 240 1606 tell them it is Sail rail & they say "say you want to check sleeper prices"!!!!

For coming back Irish ferries site seems good you just collect the tickets at Dublin port. You may be able to book the outward by telephone & collect the tickets from a ticket machine at a UK station (their web site is not 100% clear but doe give a telephone number)

One big mess!

 

[Eire Sprinter]

I would echo the sentiments of bkhtele about the Irish Ferries website being good. They were the first to have the up to date SailRail info available - on this side of the Irish Sea in any case.

To the best of my knowledge it is not possible to book by 'phone with Irish Ferries and collect tickets/TOD at a station in Britain.

Hopefully over time the facility can be extended to include this.

 

[cm39275]

it may be that the rosslare and dun Laoghaire ferries have currently be suspended as the ferries are curretly in dry dock for their annuale repairs.

 

[Eire Sprinter]

Sadly Dún Laoghaire - Holyhead now only operates seasonally. It will resume on 1st April until mid-September with one round trip a day.

I was at the harbour in Dún Laoghaire this week and the terminal building is closed for the winter. Sad times.

The one good thing about Dún Laoghaire-Holyhead though is that it has rail close at hand on both sides with no need for shuttle buses.

 

[34D]

Sadly Dún Laoghaire - Holyhead now only operates seasonally. It will resume on 1st April until mid-September with one round trip a day.

I was at the harbour in Dún Laoghaire this week and the terminal building is closed for the winter. Sad times.

The one good thing about Dún Laoghaire-Holyhead though is that it has rail close at hand on both sides with no need for shuttle buses.

Thanks for posting. The question is why this information hasn't been communicated down to ticket offices.....

 

[tivoli]

Arriva Trains Wales have at last admitted that SailRail is not available to book online.

 

[Greeby]

Because of the current lockout of reservations, Tribute users (in other words, London Midland) have had to put the kibosh on selling RailSail until it is fixed.

I really do hate having to work with such a dinosaur of a system!

 

[pkkelly]

Well, yesterday I was at Paddington and quite easily booked a journey from Belfast to Shrewsbury via Holyhead (Irish Ferries) for February. HOWEVER, despite the SAILRAIL ADVANCE fare (£49) coming up on the ticket agent's system, on trying to complete the transaction they found that it got blanked out and they could only sell me the SAILRAIL STNDBY fare (£54). This all took less than 5 minutes and as I was in a hurry I did not force the issue about the extra £5.

So I am now in the strange situation of possessing:

1. A SAILRAIL STANDY ticket (validity is "ON DATE SHOWN" as expected, not "BOOKEDTRAINONLY" as would be expected if it had been the ADVANCE).

2. A reservation ticket on the ferry (even though ticket says STNDBY). Ticket type is "SLEEPER" as previously reported.

Can I assume that the pain of trying to get my overpaid £5 back from FGW will be just too great?

 

[First class]

Well, yesterday I was at Paddington and quite easily booked a journey from Belfast to Shrewsbury via Holyhead (Irish Ferries) for February. HOWEVER, despite the SAILRAIL ADVANCE fare (£49) coming up on the ticket agent's system, on trying to complete the transaction they found that it got blanked out and they could only sell me the SAILRAIL STNDBY fare (£54). This all took less than 5 minutes and as I was in a hurry I did not force the issue about the extra £5.

So I am now in the strange situation of possessing:

1. A SAILRAIL STANDY ticket (validity is "ON DATE SHOWN" as expected, not "BOOKEDTRAINONLY" as would be expected if it had been the ADVANCE).

2. A reservation ticket on the ferry (even though ticket says STNDBY). Ticket type is "SLEEPER" as previously reported.

Can I assume that the pain of trying to get my overpaid £5 back from FGW will be just too great?

I don't think anyone that FGW will understand what you're going on about quite frankly! I'd personally send it to ATW stating they are responsible for the product, and explain the difficulties encountered. The worst they can do is forward it on to FGW on your behalf. At least Arriva may be able to put a bit of a cover note on it for FGW Customer Services.

 

[island]

The particular train/boat could have been out of quota for advances.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Because of the current lockout of reservations, Tribute users (in other words, London Midland) have had to put the kibosh on selling RailSail until it is fixed.

I really do hate having to work with such a dinosaur of a system!

I think c2c uses Tribute as well. Is Tribute the one with roll-fed printers that are a pain in the *&^% to issue railcards from?