Great Western Coffee Shop

From yesterday evening ...


No, I am not happy.  6 hours late, to be dumped at Holyhead after the last train has left, on a sail rail ticket that doesn't allow you to leave the station is not something too many people will be "happy" about!

I understand why they can't lay on a replacement bus.    Yet actually they could, taking their 14:15 conventional ferry which "does not take foot passengers - only people in vehicles".    Car drivers and their passengers are offered the 14:15;  Irish Ferries provide inferior alternatives to those of us on foot - fell treated as second class citizens!

In the circumstances, you'd think they could organise a (mini)bus to take you on/off that ferry! OK, the weather isn't their fault, and I guess the T&Cs include notification that the options with a weather canx would be as offered(?), but frankly, a standby 'bus that can turn around on board to come off again, is an easy work around. Even if it had to make several trips

Totally agree Chris - especially as they use just such a bus for the fast ferry that they cancelled!

I have to say that this is why I generally fly. That canx fast ferry is wonderfully timed, but regularly doesn't run in autumn/winter/spring as it can't cope in windy (and doesn't need to be gale-force either!) conditions. And as you've found out, its a very early start or an overnight stop needed if catching the later alternative. Being able to board as a pedestrian on a bus would solve that. Until they do, they don't get my (or many others, I suspect) custom

Is it because of the cancellation that they are not offering foot passage on Ulysses or is the larger ferry now vehicles only in general?

There's a certain irony in the people who constantly try to justify GWR not having buses on standby complaining when ferry companies don't! :-)

That said Graham, you have my sympathy. May I suggest Guinness as a means of consolation?

hmmm - that's one boat, not several hundred trains.....

The interesting thing about Irish Ferries' cancellation is that they already have the bus there to take passengers to the Swift for a 14:30 departure ... they could just as easily use it to the Epsilon for 14:15.

In reallity, the foot passenger market has been mostly lost to low cost airlines, and it seems more trouble than it's worth to look after the dregs who still prefer the boat and can't afford car, are medically unable to drive, or choose not to have a vehicle.

The only person I know who's used a ferry to Ireland recently was a cyclist. He took the crossing from Pembroke to... Cork? I can't remember, but I've seen his photos and he had a great holiday! Cyclists probably even fewer than foot passengers, but I wonder if they would have let him on the 14:15 "conventional" ferry which does not take foot passengers? I expect not (and he's so laid back he'd probably have just decided to extend his tour by a day!)

Ah, I've had to look up Epsilon - didn't realise they had an additional vessel (acquired 2013 according to Wikipedia so not exactly recent).

Still baffles me why they couldn't take foot passengers at the time though.

These days the Pembroke Dock and Fishguard to Ireland ferries go to Rosslare (Stena from Fishguard and Irish Ferries from Pembroke Dock, both routes being served only by 'conventional' ferry (no fast ferry since the Stena Lynx was withdrawn, at the end of the summer 2011 season if I recall correctly)). There have been ferry services between Pembrokeshire and Cork in the (distant?) past though.

I looked at Rosslare for both directions.  Frankly, broken for what I needed.  On the way out, Severn Tunnel closure on the Sunday meant I would have had to bus it on Saturday evening and stop in a hotel in Swansea.  Way bak, the earlier timing of the Stena service means that the "connecting" train would have been a rush, and even then I would have had to spend half the night at Carmerthen.   Via Pemboke, would have been dumped at the dock at 00:45 ... to wait for the first train in the morning.

Dublin to Liverpool boat would be a very sensible overnight (cabin) way of doing it - except you need to take a vehicle to qualify to use it!

You've had a lucky escape if you got out of going on Epsilon. The Visentini ferries I am not a fan of. Travelled on both Norman Voyager, and Norman Atlantic when they were with the now defunct LD Lines on the south coast, very claustaphobic ships. Norman Atlantic was the one that had a major fire off of Greece around Christmas 2014.

The question about the cyclist, I'm not sure about Irish ferries, but Brittany Ferries take cyclists as a vehicle, and as such can book on to vehicle only crossings.