Stena Line Dublin-Holyhead - good news for foot passengers

thomasj

Stena line have announced on their travel updates page for the dublin-holyhead route that foot passengers will be able to use the 02.15 and 15.10 sailings from dublin from tomorrow 1st April 2013.

Good news to hear for people going to early morning matches etc. It would mean no longer a long wait in Holyhead overnight.

There is no mention on the Holyhead to Dublin sailings but hopefully it is the case it would be nice to return to Dublin before midnight on a given day!

V_Moth

That is very interesting indeed. Playing around with the bahn.de journey planner gives following journey times ex Holyhead to London Euston for the early morning service:

-Mo to Fr: dep. 6.55 arr. 10.38 / dep. 7.15 arr. 11.38
-Sat: dep. 6.52 arr 10.37 / dep. 7.55 arr 11.38
-Sun: dep. 8.45 arr 13.21

With the 15.10 sailing, you would only reach London shortly after 1am.

I think this is great news, as it makes it much easier to connect to Eurostar services to France/Belgium and the wider continent from there for those who prefer travelling overland from Ireland.

AlekSmart

Moukld breaking stuff indeed.....particularly when introduced on the 1st of April.....;)

The_Wrecker

Wasnt this the same prior to refits? The Nordica has always taken footys.

Irish Steve

Looks genuine, and about time too, has to be better than sitting in the Holyhead station area for over 4 hours overnight!

Interesting that at the moment, there's nothing about using it in the opposite direction though.

Now if only the train companies could be persuaded to change their timings a little to tie in better with the ferries, like they used to back in the days of the mail trains........

Having done 2 trips in recent months, even with problems like fast ferries being cancelled, and trains breaking down, the Sail Rail service is very good value for money, and a very effective way to get to a lot of places for a reasonable price.

Con Logue

Irish Steve wrote: »

Looks genuine, and about time too, has to be better than sitting in the Holyhead station area for over 4 hours overnight!

Interesting that at the moment, there's nothing about using it in the opposite direction though.

Now if only the train companies could be persuaded to change their timings a little to tie in better with the ferries, like they used to back in the days of the mail trains........

Having done 2 trips in recent months, even with problems like fast ferries being cancelled, and trains breaking down, the Sail Rail service is very good value for money, and a very effective way to get to a lot of places for a reasonable price.

Having had a sickener of Ryanair for the three years I flew over and back to England with them, I heartly endorse this event and/or product

Vic_08

The_Wrecker wrote: »

Wasnt this the same prior to refits? The Nordica has always taken footys.

No, Nordica has always been vehicle only on Dublin Holyhead.

thomasj

Was on the phone to someone from stena line and they confirmed that they started to take foot passengers on the nordica as of today.

I asked about Holyhead to Dublin and they said it would be the same but without publication of notice and the timetable still saying they don't take foot passengers, I would take that with a pinch of salt but it does seem promising.

thomasj

The stena line website is now letting you book for foot passengers for ALL sailings into and out of Dublin!

Good news!

munchkin_utd

Was the approved capacity of the Nordica increased when it was being serviced recently in order to allow for the potential extra passengers?

scudzilla

munchkin_utd wrote: »

Was the approved capacity of the Nordica increased when it was being serviced recently in order to allow for the potential extra passengers?

No need for an increased capacity, they may get 100 or so foot passengers per sailing, plenty of room

The_Wrecker

Whats the issue, ramp not meeting the lobby OR bus required to offload them?

seanmacc

munchkin_utd wrote: »

Was the approved capacity of the Nordica increased when it was being serviced recently in order to allow for the potential extra passengers?

The capacity wasn't incresed as such. Up until now the Nordica was running with a skeleton crew, the passenger capacity (PC) is reliant on a crew to passenger ratio as well as seating capacity . There is very little money to be made with foot passengers and they prefered to use their PC for cars and freight. All they've done is put on more crew and arranged with the port services company in Holyhead to bus passengers off.

I'd imagine the reason for them taking foot passengers is the new passenger directive which obliges them to provide meals and accomodation to passengers in the event of a HSS weather cancellation