Great Western Coffee Shop

From Arriva Trains web site ...

Very interesting to read the alternative arrangements being made at short notice when you see the apparent "fend for yourself" provision made by Stena Line.

I'm sure I've seen a vessel other than the normal 'Stena Europe' standing in on the Fishguard-Rosslare route in previous years, presumably (although I'm only guessing) also because the normal vessel was undergoing maintenance. So why are they diverting passengers to Pembroke Dock this time? Are they actually providing sailings or just paying Irish Ferries to take their passengers?

Is it possible they're hired in a freight ferry to cater for the lorries (which lets face it, are where ferry operators make their money), which doesn't have the capacity to accept volumes of foot/car passengers. Could explain the vessel you have seen in the past.

Not particularly sensible to time annual maintenance, during half term week, but probably does perhaps say something about how little profit they make from leisure traffic relative to commercial freight!

From Stena:


That suggests one of the freight boats (which I have used in the past) from the UK to Dublin is running the route - if this was "transfer to Irish Ferries" then there would be lounge access for wheelchairs.

I'm thinking that the number of foot passengers per sailing is / has averaged less that 15 in recent years, and I'm pretty sure there's a summer bias onto that if the retiming of Rosslare / Dublin trains in the summer only is anything to go by.   So at ^16.50 per adult / 10 (winter, adult) passengers you're looking at an income or ^165.00 per crossing by providing the facility.  Freight fares are hard to find - but I did find a SeaTruck fare (single) for an articulated lorry from Heysham to Dublin at ^450 ... and I would take an educated guess that the entire foot traffic on a ferry brings less income than a single large lorry.

A few years ago, I was staying in West Wales for a holiday in February (it was most pleasant with the morning frosts and winter sun).  I took a train from Carmarthen to Fishguard Harbour on the Sunday afternoon and was amongst only 12 or so others.  Only when we reached the harbour did I realise that the ferry wasn't sailing because of its annual maintenance. Being a Sunday we had a good three-quarters of an hr there and the two crew walked all the way out to the harbour wall in the bright sunshine.

Amongst the handful of people going back was a lady who told me she had used the train all her life to visit family and she had observed the decline in service since steam days. Since the (at that time) two-trains per day frequency had been the norm for as long as I could recall, she was clearly very persistent in her use of the one train a day that left at a civilised hour.  It was that conversation that made think about the possibilities of trains for local people to use and Fishguard acting as a railhead for a wide area.  I think it must have been a good 5 years later that they got them.

The Stena Nordica (http://www.stenaline.ie/ferries/Stena-Nordica?fbType=destPage&destPageName=ferries-to-britain&destPageId={C4BFC606-40C2-473A-951B-5772B9D583B3}) has deputised on the Fishguard-Rosslare link on at least two occasions, the most recent being in 2013. Stena Nordica is the smaller of the two ships assigned to the Holyhead ^ Dublin route. I understand a bus operated in the past between Pembroke Dock and the boat train at Whitland station for Stena Line SailRail passengers (during Stena Europe^s dry dock periods) but appreciably the cost of bus hire for two round trips a day over around ten days would be a few grand. To draw a comparison Stena Line used to offer a courtesy coach between the port and city centre in Dublin but now passengers availing of this must pay a fare.

The replacement service referred to during this year^s dry docking of the Stena Europe  (http://www.stenaline.ie/ferries/Stena-Europe?fbType=destPage&destPageName=ferries-to-britain&destPageId={C4BFC606-40C2-473A-951B-5772B9D583B3}) was the regular Irish Ferries service from Rosslare to Pembroke Dock on which foot passengers can and do travel (but SailRail ticketing is no longer available). Essentially Stena Line had an allocation of space onboard the vessel. Such arrangements have occurred on occasions in the past too. Pembroke Dock to Rosslare is operated by the Isle of Inishmore (http://www.irishferries.com/ie-en/ships/isle-of-inishmore/) (there is/ was an image of this ship amongst the interesting array of photos in the top right hand corner of this forum). The Club Class lounge (http://www.irishferries.com/uk-en/ships/club-class/) is located on the deck 11. It boasts great views but is only accessible by stairs.

Foot passengers/SailRail numbers fluctuate and while the money earned from SailRail/foot passengers is low, virtually all such passengers will buy something onboard. This may range from a meal (great value meals (http://www.stenaline.ie/menu-range/meal-deals) on certain sailings) to items in the shop. For some passengers it may be a cabin or a Stena Plus upgrade. If booking SailRail with Stena Line in Ireland the lounge and cabins can be included, if desired, as an integral part of the booking. The onboard spend can easily exceed the fare revenue. The small amounts of money yielded per sailing aren^t all that long turning from hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands.

This onboard spend premise is the one on which the Tuesday day trip fares for ^5/^5 available at Easter/Summer are probably based.

Interesting account of the lady travelling on the then two trains a day service in reply 5.

Have often wondered about freight fares too. Think that the freight companies may have a special log in facility and that the fares are shown within this.

Stena Line SailRail brochures are widely available and have seen them in as diverse locations as Paddington station and tourist offices and stations in Ireland.

There^s been a ticket vending machine at Rosslare Europort station for the last number of months where tickets booked online can be collected.