Friend stuck in Heathrow, alternative travel?

Corholio

I have a friend that is stuck in Heathrow and who's flight keeps getting delayed and they are thinking of making alternative arrangements to try and get to Dublin before Christmas. They were thinking of maybe getting a train from Euston Station to Liverpool and then getting a ferry from Liverpool to Dublin. Has anyone got any advice on this choice of transport?

or has anyone got any advice on an alternative way of getting here??

It is quite urgent so any advice would be extremely helpful. Thank you.

Cookie_Monster

Train to liverpool or Holyhead and ferry is probably best bet at this stage though these will be jammers with people doing exactly the same thing.

between Heathrow and Dublin closures flights are going to be delayed for days at this stage

Rawr

That may work if they're lucky and can get a seat on the Train. (Would have to be very lucky considering many will probably thinking this)

An alternative way to the ferry may be Eurolines. I believe they run a bus route from London to Dublin via Holyhead.

odnauq

On this evening's news it was recommended taking the ferry to Dublin. Some people have been stuck at Dublin on the way for 48 hours.
Good luck to you and a safe journey to a Happy Christmas.

irishguy

You could get the bus Eireann bus from London, it goes on the ferry. Its handy if the ferry is booked out.

Losty Dublin

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Train to liverpool or Holyhead and ferry is probably best bet at this stage though these will be jammers with people doing exactly the same thing.

between Heathrow and Dublin closures flights are going to be delayed for days at this stage

I'd also go with the ferry though I'd personally go via Holyhead as there are more boat options, a far shorter ferry ride and better passenger facilities on board. Sail and Rail via Holyhead or Rosslare is a steal at €40 one way; they could possibly be in O'Connell Street from London by 6PM tomorrow if they are lucky; if not the ticket is fairly flexible.

mgmt

They would be mad not to do the rail-and-sail.

http://www.stenaline.ie/ferry/rail-and-sail/

You can buy the ticket from any train station in Britain.

Kraken

probably bit late boat is best option probably go train cause buses are not all going. Just made drive from london to fishguard took 7 and a half hours. cant beat a good car (golf)

Lapin

By rail from Euston - Holyhead and ferry from there is by far the most realiable option at this stage.

If its possible for your friend to book their ticket in advance, by phone or online for collection at Euston, it could save them a hell of a lot of time queuing up to buy one at the station.

Also by doing this, they can reserve a seat which might be welcome on what will inevitably be an overcrowded four hour train journey to Holyhead.

Best of luck.

Jayob10

need to do the same meself, and typically the booking lines with all the ferries are closed for the night.

have a day return flight booked for the 22nd of December.

Flying ryanair into Gatwick on Wednesday morning and Flying home from Heathrow on wednesday night.

How long of a delay would I be looking at you reckon?

Losty Dublin

Jayob10 wrote: »

need to do the same meself, and typically the booking lines with all the ferries are closed for the night.

have a day return flight booked for the 22nd of December.

Flying ryanair into Gatwick on Wednesday morning and Flying home from Heathrow on wednesday night.

How long of a delay would I be looking at you reckon?

God knows as it will depends on the weather on the day but if it's like this you are cutting it very very fine. Any way to avoid the trip?

Jayob10

cheers for the reply, no unfortunately no way I can avoid the trip, have to be in London for Wednesday afternoon at latest.And ideally home the same day but obviously thats not going to happen now

Even if things are up and running by wednesday will there still be heavy delays?

really wish I could pre book the ferry now but all lines are closed

Vokes

Was looking myself at the sail n rail tickets for a friend traveling on Wed but the allocation appears to be all gone now for Wed / Thurs / Fri. Can probably still buy seperate train and ferry tickets - a lot more expensive though.

Losty Dublin

Jayob10 wrote: »

cheers for the reply, no unfortunately no way I can avoid the trip, have to be in London for Wednesday afternoon at latest.And ideally home the same day but obviously thats not going to happen now

Even if things are up and running by wednesday will there still be heavy delays?

really wish I could pre book the ferry now but all lines are closed

According to Stena's website, you can book at a train station as well if it's any use to you.

Corholio

Thanks a lot everyone for answering my question, we will see what we can do, the Eurolines one seems a good option at this stage.

A bit of an add on question, but does anyone know what the immigration is like at Holyhead or Dublin. My friend is non-EU coming here to study, with all the right papers etc of course, but they are worried that because they mightnt go through an aiport, they wont get the appropiate clearance to enter the country.

Can anyone shed light on this? Thanks again folks.

goingnowhere

There is a staffed immigration office at each port, it should be clearly signposted on disembarkation

It is your responsibility to report to the office on arrival

Boarding in Holyhead or Fishguard the UK police do an ID check and the papers would be checked there as well

Corholio

goingnowhere wrote: »

There is a staffed immigration office at each port, it should be clearly signposted on disembarkation

It is your responsibility to report to the office on arrival

Boarding in Holyhead or Fishguard the UK police do an ID check and the papers would be checked there as well

Thanks a lot for the reply.

Is the immigration office a seperate building in Dublin? I am sure they will find it but just wanted to check anyway.

Latchy

There are two ferry routes out of Liverpool to Dublin ,2 sailings from from Birkinhead with Norfolk line and and two from Bootle docks with P&O.

Check their websites for more details .

Alessandra

I'm supposed to be flying for Heathrow on Wednesday. Have booked a train/ferry combo for 32£ in case..

Jayob10

does anyone know where to check what flights actually did take off and land today?

I see on the ryanair website what flights were cancelled, London Gatwick to Dublin was one, but there are 4 a day, does this mean 3 actually left gatwick for dublin today? and only one was cancelled?

Or were they all cancelled

Very confused

Corholio

Been trying options and it has been a disaster.

All Eurolines from London are booked out until Friday morning. I guess our next option, is trying the train booking and ferry booking individually. It would be a disaster for them not to get back by Saturday, but hopefully something will come up.

Any other suggestions would be very welcome of course

Vokes

Eurolines to Rosslare, maybe?

Terrontress

Jayob10 wrote: »

does anyone know where to check what flights actually did take off and land today?

I see on the ryanair website what flights were cancelled, London Gatwick to Dublin was one, but there are 4 a day, does this mean 3 actually left gatwick for dublin today? and only one was cancelled?

Or were they all cancelled

Very confused

I did LGW - DUB on flight FR1119 at 8.25. Left slightly late but made the time up en route. Breezed through Dublin Airport. No queueing at the immigration desk,bag came out quickly.

If you go to the website www.seat61.com it gives the details of the trains back to Dublin. We had it checked as backup. There were trains available with seat reservations, so you'll not be left standing, leaving Euston at 8ish and getting in to Dublin Port at 5.30am.

Gijoe

Ferry is best bet but yeah all Sail/Rail allocations are gone so I had to book the train and ferry separately. Cost around £100, Virgin Trains to Holyhead tonight. Irish Ferries to Dublin tomorrow morning at 6am.....and best of all, I'm still not on holidays so have to work from home after my 10.5 hour trek after work today.

the joy

Terrontress

Joe, I have just gone in to www.seat61.com and clicked on his booking link.

Not entirely sure of how to do a screenshot but:

Leaving London Euston at 8.40pm tonight, arriving at Crewe at 22.12
Crewe 22.23 - Chester 22.45
Chester 22.56 - Holyhead 00.52
Holyhead Ferry 02.40 - Dublin Port 05.55

can be booked online now for £30.50 plus £1 booking fee. Seats can be reserved on the reservable part of the journey and the tickets can be picked up from the vending machine in Euston.

murphym7

If you can get your ferry ticket but can't get a train then do think about hiring a car. I had to do that during the ash cloud disruption earlier this year. Picked up in Newcastle and dropped off in Fishguard.

shu

Bought a Sail and rail from London Euston as a back-up plan to my flight out of Gatwick on Friday. Picked it up from train station this morning, but just checked online and it seems to have sold out since.

dowlingm

You'd think the government would have ordered DAA to open DUB/ORK/SNN on Dec25 on a limited basis to clear UK traffic...

Terrontress

dowlingm wrote: »

You'd think the government would have ordered DAA to open DUB/ORK/SNN on Dec25 on a limited basis to clear UK traffic...

Well, I suppose in that case the people ordered in to work at the airport would not spend Christmas with their families instead of those stuck in UK airports.

In the greater scheme of things, while it is most peoples' wish to get home for Christmas, it's not really essential travel. It's not as important to the economy as freight flights and certainly not worth taking any risks for. It is easy for me to say it though, having got out of London without issue yesterday.

dowlingm

Terrontress wrote: »

It is easy for me to say it though, having got out of London without issue yesterday.

Yes. Yes it is. And I suppose it's easy for me to say living in a city where not only the airport but buses and trams provide a service to people on Christmas Day just as police and fire do.

However, even more people are going to miss Christmas because of the IMPACT union, it seems:

Aer Lingus has warned that flights could face further disruption due to industrial action by cabin crew in a dispute over rosters.

The airline says that cabin crew have escalated a work-to-rule in protest at new rosters after they rejected proposals, which had been brokered by the Labour Relations Commission.

The airline says that it is seeking to implement cost-saving proposals in line with its 'greenfield' restructuring programme, which have already been accepted by all other grades at the airline.

It claimed that as of today, the union has escalated its nine-week work-to-rule by refusing to do 'coupling' of flights and by instructing senior cabin crew to refuse to act up as cabin managers on transatlantic flights.

Aer Lingus believes this will lead to additional disruption to that caused by the adverse weather conditions.

A spokesperson for the cabin crew union IMPACT denied that there had been any escalation of the work-to-rule. He said that the two sides had been close to agreement at the LRC.

The spokesperson also denied that there had been any disruption from the cabin crew work-to-rule, saying any problems with the schedule were due to the weather.

He pointed out that there had been no disruption to services during the previous nine weeks.

Aer Lingus said it deplored what it called the cynical actions of IMPACT in escalating its industrial action days before Christmas.

The airline said it 'beggared belief' that cabin crew would decide to impose further hardship on customers.

It said it was taking the IMPACT action extremely seriously, but the priority remains the welfare of customers, particularly over Christmas.