Fishguard - Dublin ferry route

WEX-RSB-FGH-BPW-PAD

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Fishguard - Dublin ferry route

« on: December 15, 2024, 01:51:11 »

The jetty at Salt Island in Holyhead sustained damage during Storm Darragh last weekend. The jetty has a berth on either side of it which is used by Stena Line and Irish Ferries. All ferry services between Holyhead and Dublin (and vice versa) have been suspended since.

The closure is having a significant impact on the carriage of freight, delays to parcels as well as the disruption to motorists and foot passengers on the Irish Sea's Central Corridor.

One of the most notable developments to alleviate this situation has been the introduction, by Stena Line, of a route from Fishguard to Dublin open for all traffic viz. freight, motorists & foot passengers.

There is one crossing per day at 09:00 ex Fishguard and 23:00 ex Dublin. The crossing takes 6.5 to 7 hours and is operated by the Stena Adventurer (which usually sails Dublin-Holyhead). There are photos on the Western Telegraph site of the ship alongside and towering above the harbour station.

The Fishguard - Rosslare route is also running as per its usual sailing schedule.
Irish Ferries have deployed the larger ship, James Joyce, on their Rosslare - Pembroke Dock. Stena Line are operating their other Dublin-Holyhead route ship, Stena Estrid, on a freight-only service to/from Birkenhead.

News reports and ferry operator websites point towards a reopening date for Holyhead Port of next Friday, 20th December but there doesn't seem to be much optimism in this happening. This situation will be inconvenient for many cross-channel passengers. How can the best be made of this situation? Given the potential for this to continue into Spring 2025 what measures can TfW Rail and GWR^▸ implement to assist passengers?

* For the ship arriving at Fishguard from Dublin at 06:00 there is an onwards train at 06:50 M-S (but nothing on Sundays till lunchtime)

* For the sailing leaving Fishguard at 09:00 travel to Fishguard by rail from further east than Carmarthen is impractical (without overnighting in local accommodation). Similarly there's no early-morning train on Sundays.

* As Holyhead-Dublin SailRail ticketing is meaningless at this juncture can temporary SailRail ticketing via Fishguard-Dublin be put in place? The sea journey from Fishguard to Dublin is nearly 100 nautical miles and, understandably, some fares appear to be marginally higher than they are for Holyhead - Dublin. This would need to be factored in but other than that the same rail zones for fare purposes can be used as if coming from/going to Rosslare.

* It's been my experience that foot passenger traffic can fluctuate considerably - I've been on journeys requiring two busy runs of the shuttle bus (full-sized single decker) at Rosslare to bring passengers onto the Fishguard ship but equally been one of a mere five foot passengers on the evening crossing to Fishguard once. Lots of folk still use the ferry coming up to Christmas so perhaps additional capacity will be needed on some trains.


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grahame

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Re: Fishguard - Dublin ferry route

« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2024, 07:11:55 »

Ouch!

This ls also goes some way to explain the Guinness shortages in the pubs of England and Wales?

On a more serious note it illustrates the danger of putting too many eggs in one basket I remember crossing from Liverpool and from Moistyn to Dublin during my working career so wasn't all that long ago.

There are more crossings these days from France to Ireland and I think to Spain - encouraged by the choice made by the British to remove themselves from the previously much closer economic ties.


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grahame

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Re: Fishguard - Dublin ferry route

« Reply #2 on: December 15, 2024, 07:31:49 »

Quote from: WEX-RSB-FGH-BPW^» Bristol Parkway - next trains)-PAD^» on December 15, 2024, 01:51:11

Given the potential for this to continue into Spring 2025 what measures can TfW Rail and GWR^▸ implement to assist passengers?

* For the ship arriving at Fishguard from Dublin at 06:00 there is an onwards train at 06:50 M-S (but nothing on Sundays till lunchtime)

* For the sailing leaving Fishguard at 09:00 travel to Fishguard by rail from further east than Carmarthen is impractical (without overnighting in local accommodation). Similarly there's no early-morning train on Sundays.

* As Holyhead-Dublin SailRail ticketing is meaningless at this juncture can temporary SailRail ticketing via Fishguard-Dublin be put in place? The sea journey from Fishguard to Dublin is nearly 100 nautical miles and, understandably, some fares appear to be marginally higher than they are for Holyhead - Dublin. This would need to be factored in but other than that the same rail zones for fare purposes can be used as if coming from/going to Rosslare.

Extra trains at a time when GWR (for certain) are finding it impossible to staff even the trains they are 'committed to' in their timetable seems optimistic. And the transport industry should honour the pricing / ticketing they have in place when there are diversions from the scheduled routes and timetables due to no fault of the passenger. Again, the GWR examples suggest you have to know this, with online systems failing to offer fares at the normal rate when they don't have enough staff to run direct services.

Quote

* It's been my experience that foot passenger traffic can fluctuate considerably - I've been on journeys requiring two busy runs of the shuttle bus (full-sized single decker) at Rosslare to bring passengers onto the Fishguard ship but equally been one of a mere five foot passengers on the evening crossing to Fishguard once. Lots of folk still use the ferry coming up to Christmas so perhaps additional capacity will be needed on some trains.

I can cap that - I think it was six runs one day - frightful delay and with two competing ferry companies the bus of the second one that didn't have a high volume of foot passenergs parked up without helping once he had loaded his boat!


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ChrisB

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Re: Fishguard - Dublin ferry route

« Reply #3 on: December 15, 2024, 13:10:39 »

Quote from: grahame on December 15, 2024, 07:11:55

Ouch!

This ls also goes some way to explain the Guinness shortages in the pubs of England and Wales?

Nope. Relates to brewer Diagio marketing their beer to Generation Zers without working up capacity needed to meet the increased demand.

Quote from: grahame on December 15, 2024, 07:31:49

And the transport industry should honour the pricing / ticketing they have in place when there are diversions from the scheduled routes and timetables due to no fault of the passenger.

My understanding ios that they *are* honouring RailSail tickets booked in advance for these dates via Fishguard-Dublin at no extra costs. They aren't selling any morer however. Possibly waiting to see whether they return to Holyhead on 20th?


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Mark A

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Re: Fishguard - Dublin ferry route

« Reply #4 on: December 16, 2024, 14:08:10 »

(Holyhead) "Port 'highly unlikely' to reopen before Christmas" - BBC^» news article.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y492n55rqo

Mark


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Chris from Nailsea

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Justice for Cerys Piper and Theo Griffiths please!

Re: Fishguard - Dublin ferry route

« Reply #5 on: December 31, 2024, 16:28:28 »

From the BBC^» British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Quote

Partial reopening of storm-hit port on 16 January

One of Britain's busiest ports is on course for a partial reopening on 16 January after it was damaged by Storm Darragh, it has been announced.

Stena Line, which owns Holyhead port as well as operating some of the crossings, confirmed only one of the two main ferry berths is due to reopen.

The port in Holyhead on Anglesey has been closed since 7 December after damage by strong wind and waves. No date has been given for the reopening of the second berth - the one which suffered the most damage.

Stena Line said it was not able to immediately confirm how a partial reopening would affect ferry services, but added a revised timetable would be confirmed on 2 January. Before the temporary closure, two ferries would often unload and load side by side, something which would not be possible with only one berth reopened.

A spokesperson for Stena Line said: "We are pleased to share a positive update regarding the ongoing closure of the Terminal 3 and Terminal 5 ferry berths at Holyhead Port. After diligent assessments and planning, we can now confirm that the timeline for reopening the Terminal 5 ferry berth by 16 January 2025 remains achievable. This prediction is subject to reasonable weather conditions, and we will provide further updates as our progress continues."

Holyhead is one of Britain's busiest ferry ports, and the shortest crossing between the UK^▸ and Ireland. On average, two million passengers use Holyhead a year and about 1,200 lorries and trailers make the crossing every day. Before the temporary closure, Stena Line and Irish Ferries each operated up to four sailings to Dublin, often leaving within half an hour of each other.

Irish Ferries said it would continue a "flexible approach" to sailings, putting a larger ship on the Rosslare to Pembroke route, a new car service on the Fishguard to Dublin route during the festive period and temporary car and freight service on the Dublin to Pembroke route from 7 January.

The Stena Line spokesperson added: "Our priority is focusing on resuming services and we'll share more information as soon as we can." Stena Line was unable to give a timescale for repair work for the second berth, and a full reopening of the port.

A Welsh government spokesperson said: "We are pleased that Stena is making positive progress, continuing to work towards the safe re-opening of the port, so that services can start again for people wanting to travel and for businesses transporting goods."


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TaplowGreen

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Re: Fishguard - Dublin ferry route

« Reply #6 on: December 31, 2024, 16:43:50 »

Fingers crossed - Guinness supplies are running low!!!


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