Where to buy SailRail tickets

JHMEG

Looking to go SailRail from Dublin to London with Irish Ferries in June.

It looks like I can't buy a SailRail ticket for IF on their website, instead I need to phone the UK or buy in a train station.

Anyone know what train stations I can buy in... ie any mainline rail (eg Maynooth) or does it have to be the likes of Connolly?

TIA.

KC61

It says on the Irish Ferries website:

Book Sail Rail

For telephone bookings in Ireland call

0818 300 400
or e-mail us at sailrailirl@irishferries.com

scudzilla

i do this trip a lot but to Wales

I really don't think ya can buy them at the train station over here as no train goes to the port.

You get the Irish Ferries Rail and Sail tickets from the Irish Ferries desk at Dublin port, as far as i know it's limited to 50 per ferry

JHMEG

KC61 wrote: »

It says on the Irish Ferries website:

Book Sail Rail

For telephone bookings in Ireland call

0818 300 400
or e-mail us at sailrailirl@irishferries.com

Sorry, should have said I detest buying things over the phone, and would prefer to buy online. If I can't buy online I'd prefer to buy in person.

scudzilla

JHMEG wrote: »

Sorry, should have said I detest buying things over the phone, and would prefer to buy online. If I can't buy online I'd prefer to buy in person.

Drive up to the port then and get one, that's Dublin port

BenShermin

I always buy them in the port on the day or in the British train station on the day, however I've become weary of this since the surge in ferry usage due to the volcano though.

My advice; get over your hatred for purchasing over the phone and give Irish Ferries a call, they should be able to post the tickets out to you since you're not going until June.

Stena Line are very helpful on this aswell, you can reserve your place on the ferry and collect your tickets at the port on the day of travel. 01 2047733 is the number for them. Always pay by Laser or debit card with Stena as it doesn't incur an extra charge.

BTW. Ferry companies definately don't have a limit of 50 tickets per ferry, as long as there is foot passenger space, they can sell you a railsail ticket. Even so, this space is limited in the Summer with the surge in car bookings, and that volcano won't help matters for us old romantic relaxed travellers;).

Mushy

Hoping for some help here. Hopefully going over to London for RATM next Sunday, I'm wondering would I be able to get a train after the gig from London to Holyhead/Pembroke at round midnight? Don't want to spend money over there really, so thats the reason for not staying over, have no problem travelling over night. Would use the airport but not sure will passport arrive next week. Have begun looking, only thing is it doesn't give times. Any help would be appreciate.

Vic_08

Mushy wrote: »

Hoping for some help here. Hopefully going over to London for RATM next Sunday, I'm wondering would I be able to get a train after the gig from London to Holyhead/Pembroke at round midnight? Don't want to spend money over there really, so thats the reason for not staying over, have no problem travelling over night. Would use the airport but not sure will passport arrive next week. Have begun looking, only thing is it doesn't give times. Any help would be appreciate.

No. There are very few overnight trains in the UK and no ferry connections for a departure time that late from London.

Last train for the overnight ferry from Holyhead is 20.10 from London. The connection to the night ferry from Fishguard leaves at around 8pm also.

The earliest ferry from Holyhead is the 10am to DunLaoghaire but there is no train early enough from London to connect with it.

You could get a bus from London to Birmingham and train from there to Holyhead for the 10am sailing.
1am bus from London Victoria arr Birmingham 03.50
05.30 train from Birmingham arr Holyhead 08.20
10.00 ferry from Holyhead arr DunLaoghaire 12.00

A cheap chain hotel and an early flight or relaxing daytime train+ferry would be a better idea IMO.

JHMEG

In an answer to my original question:

SailRail tickets can only be bought in a handful of mainline rail stations. On the Sligo line they are Connolly, Longford and Sligo.

They can also be bought in Tullamore and Wexford.

I'm not sure why it's not possible to buy them in more stations as the tickets are hand-written.

Mushy

Vic_08 wrote: »

No. There are very few overnight trains in the UK and no ferry connections for a departure time that late from London.

Last train for the overnight ferry from Holyhead is 20.10 from London. The connection to the night ferry from Fishguard leaves at around 8pm also.

The earliest ferry from Holyhead is the 10am to DunLaoghaire but there is no train early enough from London to connect with it.

You could get a bus from London to Birmingham and train from there to Holyhead for the 10am sailing.
1am bus from London Victoria arr Birmingham 03.50
05.30 train from Birmingham arr Holyhead 08.20
10.00 ferry from Holyhead arr DunLaoghaire 12.00

A cheap chain hotel and an early flight or relaxing daytime train+ferry would be a better idea IMO.

Cheers for that advice. Still looking around. I my not have passport so rules out flight anyway (and money is tight). I'm sure it'll work out.

annieoburns

Just to piggyback on this thread.....

I am interested in doing nostalgic boat and train to England. Does this deal work for Dun Laoire boat? I am more familiar with DL and easier to get to. I presume you have to stipulate day of travel if bought in advance? I was hoping to get as far as London initially but for return I might come from small town on Kent coast. Would I just roll up in that station on the day of travel and get the return leg? If bought online with raileasy.co.uk for example would I be able to collect ticket at the small station? and would I have to stipulate date of travel. I would like to keep return date flexible.

Is there a bus service/taxi to meet footpassengers coming into Dublin Port?

thomasj

Yep dubin bus runs services that connect with the irish ferries arrivals. Brings passengers to busaras or in some cases heuston

Theyre on the timetable section of the dublin bus website under ferryport

Fratton Fred

annieoburns wrote: »

Just to piggyback on this thread.....

I am interested in doing nostalgic boat and train to England. Does this deal work for Dun Laoire boat? I am more familiar with DL and easier to get to. I presume you have to stipulate day of travel if bought in advance? I was hoping to get as far as London initially but for return I might come from small town on Kent coast. Would I just roll up in that station on the day of travel and get the return leg? If bought online with raileasy.co.uk for example would I be able to collect ticket at the small station? and would I have to stipulate date of travel. I would like to keep return date flexible.

Is there a bus service/taxi to meet footpassengers coming into Dublin Port?

It works just as well from Dun Laoghaire and if you want flexibility, then there is no point getting a return, as it is twice the price of a single.

You can turn up at pretty any station in the UK and buy a ticket and if you are heading for the Dublin, then there is a huge amount of capacity of both ferries, so no problem getting on.

BTW, ther is a coach that meets the Stena Ferry and takes you to Busaras or Connolly station FOC. The Bus that meets the Irish Ferries boat means nearly an hour wait and you have to pay.

JHMEG

Fratton Fred wrote: »

It works just as well from Dun Laoghaire and if you want flexibility, then there is no point getting a return, as it is twice the price of a single.

The tickets are completely open-ended. ie you can travel when you like - it doesn't say on them when they must be used.

Fratton Fred wrote: »

You can turn up at pretty any station in the UK and buy a ticket and if you are heading for the Dublin,

Mainline stations only, and you will probably be incorrectly told you have to buy a ticket to Euston.

Speaking from experience, buy your return ticket on this side.

You will have hassle with an Irish ticket (it's a handwritten relic) in every train station you go to in the UK, but you will get let through eventually.

annieoburns

That is all useful information. I think one of the problems of going on train nowadays is that the train times do not necessarily line up with boat times. This can be a problem in offseason. It would be good to be able to get on whichever boat was leaving next out of Holyhead. I remember a relative having to sleep in Holyhead so as to be in time for the only Dun Laoire boat that day as it left at 10 am. That was last September. Bit more research needed!

JHMEG

Even tho the prices are the same you have to state at purchase time which ferry company you intend travelling with, but it can be changed before you board at no cost.

Small technicality, but there nonetheless. I arrived in Holyhead with a Stena ticket and had to exchange it at the Network Rail desk for an IF ticket, which I then could use to get a boarding pass.

Fratton Fred

annieoburns wrote: »

That is all useful information. I think one of the problems of going on train nowadays is that the train times do not necessarily line up with boat times. This can be a problem in offseason. It would be good to be able to get on whichever boat was leaving next out of Holyhead. I remember a relative having to sleep in Holyhead so as to be in time for the only Dun Laoire boat that day as it left at 10 am. That was last September. Bit more research needed!

That's the only option for the 10am sailing into Dun Laoghaire at the moment.

The trains aren't too bad the other way, unless you get a night ferry, in which case there isn't a tain until about 5am so you end up waiting at holyhead for about 4 hours.

I usually get the 2am ferries and catch the 8:10 out of Euston. You have to be a bit careful with the engineering works though as I nearly missed a ferry the other week. Fortunately as JHMEG says, you can swap tickets at the port.

I had missed the Stena check in but Irish Ferries accepted my booking no problem.

Fratton Fred

JHMEG wrote: »

The tickets are completely open-ended. ie you can travel when you like - it doesn't say on them when they must be used.


Mainline stations only, and you will probably be incorrectly told you have to buy a ticket to Euston.

Speaking from experience, buy your return ticket on this side.

You will have hassle with an Irish ticket (it's a handwritten relic) in every train station you go to in the UK, but you will get let through eventually.

I keep forgetting that my station is a mainline station so yeah, that is a good point. I've never been told to book a seperate ticket to Euston though, but I have been told to go via Reading and Birmingham New Street, which is a drag of a journey.

Irish Halo

You can book and check sailrail at Raileasy I don't know how it reacts to Irish addresses and credit cards but have booked a one way from Dublin on it with no hassle (using my UK address and debit card).

BenShermin

Irish Halo wrote: »

You can book and check sailrail at Raileasy I don't know how it reacts to Irish addresses and credit cards but have booked a one way from Dublin on it with no hassle (using my UK address and debit card).

Your advise is correct but I wouldn't give that shower my money, not only do they charge a £1gbp booking fee they also have the cheek to charge a £2.75gbp credit card fee on top of it. You can buy the ticket in any UK station without any extra charges.

JHMEG

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I've never been told to book a seperate ticket to Euston though,

I was (incorrectly) told in Paddington that I had to buy a ticket to Euston, and for the sake of peace and £4 I did.

Fratton Fred

JHMEG wrote: »

I was (incorrectly) told in Paddington that I had to buy a ticket to Euston, and for the sake of peace and £4 I did.

I've bought these tickets from two stations, Windsor and Maidenhead. From Maidenhead I paid £31.50 and the ticket worked on the tube as well. from Windsor I paid £30.50 and I had to use my Oyster card.

I've also bought the ticket from stenaline's sailrail line and picked it up from a station (which you can from the automatic ticket machines if you have a UK postcode and crdit card) and again, it covered my journeynto London, but it didn't work on the tube.

There must be a knack to getting the right ticket, but I'm not sure what it is, although the times I have bought the ticket from Maidenhead, I have asked for a ticket to Dublin Connolly which takes you via Stenaline. This might be the trick.

BenShermin

JHMEG wrote: »

I was (incorrectly) told in Paddington that I had to buy a ticket to Euston, and for the sake of peace and £4 I did.

That's poor form considering Paddington would issue many sailrail tickets to Rosslare Harbour and South Irish stations.

At the start of this year poorly trained staff in Harwich International could not issue me a sailrail so I had to book a single to Euston and then book a sailrail from Euston the Dublin Ferryport. Having to buy two tickets meant that it cost me almost double the price of a sailrail fare:eek:.

The staff in Euston could not have been more helpful in ensuring I got refunded my money for the Harwich to London ticket. It only took me five minutes to fill out a form and around two months later I got a letter of apology and a refund cheque to my Irish address.

I know it's only £4 but I'd still argue it, there's no point in having a certain fare if staff are not trained how to issue it.

BenShermin

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I've bought these tickets from two stations, Windsor and Maidenhead. From Maidenhead I paid £31.50 and the ticket worked on the tube as well. from Windsor I paid £30.50 and I had to use my Oyster card.

I've also bought the ticket from stenaline's sailrail line and picked it up from a station (which you can from the automatic ticket machines if you have a UK postcode and crdit card) and again, it covered my journeynto London, but it didn't work on the tube.

There must be a knack to getting the right ticket, but I'm not sure what it is, although the times I have bought the ticket from Maidenhead, I have asked for a ticket to Dublin Connolly which takes you via Stenaline. This might be the trick.

Hmm, I would have thought Windsor to Dublin would have been valid on the Tube between Paddington and Euston.

You could write a book on the quirks/rules etc. of the sailrail ticket.

JHMEG

Fratton Fred wrote: »

There must be a knack to getting the right ticket,

The hand-written Irish one does the trick as no staff in the UK have seen them, don't understand them, and after much head-scratching they worked in every station we tried.

In fact I'd say I could travel around the UK for months on a Irish hand-written ticket and get away with it.

Vic_08

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I've bought these tickets from two stations, Windsor and Maidenhead. From Maidenhead I paid £31.50 and the ticket worked on the tube as well. from Windsor I paid £30.50 and I had to use my Oyster card.

I've also bought the ticket from stenaline's sailrail line and picked it up from a station (which you can from the automatic ticket machines if you have a UK postcode and crdit card) and again, it covered my journeynto London, but it didn't work on the tube.

There must be a knack to getting the right ticket, but I'm not sure what it is, although the times I have bought the ticket from Maidenhead, I have asked for a ticket to Dublin Connolly which takes you via Stenaline. This might be the trick.

As it happens both those tickets were valid via London Underground and it has nothing to do with the difference in fares or ferry company.

What happened was that the barriers accepted one but not the other for some reason. With the complexity of the UK rail systems this is far from unusual and with non-standard tickets such as sail-rail, rovers, etc it is a good bet that they won't work correctly in some or all ticket barriers.

Both Maidenhead and Windsor (Riverside or W&Eton) to Dublin Port/City/Connolly/Dun Laoghaire are valid via London, Reading and many, many other routes.

The Via London part should be marked on the tickets with a (+) symbol as part of the route description (+HLYHD STENA CIV for example) this is the standard identifier for rail tickets valid for a cross-london connection by tube and tube staff at national rail stations should allow you through the gates with this ticket.

The different price is because one ticket is valid only to the Irish port, the other to the named IE station. If this is a ticket via Dun Laoghaire then this is correct and will be accepted on DART/IE, via Irish Ferries at Dublin Port I do not know if it is valid on the Dublin Bus service and if it would be accepted by the drivers.


As regards station staff away from major centres refusing to issue these tickets I am not surprised, they are outside the norm and many staff appear not to be trained and in some cases just can't be bothered. Even if they do not know the procedure they ought to be able to navigate through the system correctly, it is not that difficult.

I don't know if it would help in these situations but these are the codes used by the rail ticketing systems for the main Irish destinations.

Dublin Port via Holyhead Irish Ferries DFP H010
Dublin Port via Holyhead Stena DPS M018
Dun Laoghaire via Holyhead Stena DLO M510

If they enter one of those codes they will get the correct fare. After that a reservation ticket for the ferry is also needed, if you can give them the correct departure time for the ferry they ought to be able to issue that as well.