P&O Ferries to permanently stop accepting foot passengers on their Dover to Calais route.

[Tetchytyke]

But the "London to France by train and ferry" tickets ended with the tunnel. Shame.

No, they ended with Covid.

It's a shame, I loved the Calais Day Return, but even when I was using it ten years ago there was a handful of foot passengers.

The simple fact is that ferry travel is slow, and unless you've a need to take a car then you're not going to use the ferry. Even where I live on the IOM the same applies, the Heysham ferry has very few foot passengers.

 

[nanstallon]

Taking the ferry plus train is 'greener' than flying, but you have to be pretty determined, and it is increasingly impossible. If i want to go to France, I head for the RyanAir website.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The simple fact is that ferry travel is slow, and unless you've a need to take a car then you're not going to use the ferry. Even where I live on the IOM the same applies, the Heysham ferry has very few foot passengers.

Not my experience at all. When I've gone on it as a foot passenger there were loads, though admittedly I think more use the faster Liverpool catamaran than the slow Heysham conventional ferry. But Steam Packet are set up for foot pax - P&O treat them as a bit of a nuisance.

One curiosity of IOMSP is bicycles - on most ferries they're treated as vehicles for booking, on the IOM ferry you just book as a foot passenger and bring it with you without any need to book, same as a train. It does go on the car deck though.

 

[Trainbike46]

Not my experience at all. When I've gone on it as a foot passenger there were loads, though admittedly I think more use the faster Liverpool catamaran than the slow Heysham conventional ferry. But Steam Packet are set up for foot pax - P&O treat them as a bit of a nuisance.

I've not used steam packet (yet!), but are they a bit like foot passengers on the Belfast-Cairnryan ferry, with large numbers of foot passengers and a gangway to reach the ferry?

One curiosity of IOMSP is bicycles - on most ferries they're treated as vehicles for booking, on the IOM ferry you just book as a foot passenger and bring it with you without any need to book, same as a train. It does go on the car deck though.

For stena, some routes treat cyclists as foot passengers, while others treat cyclists as vehicles, it's rather funny

 

[Bletchleyite]

I've not used steam packet (yet!), but are they a bit like foot passengers on the Belfast-Cairnryan ferry, with large numbers of foot passengers and a gangway to reach the ferry?

There are considerably larger numbers than Dover-Calais, certainly - I'd say about 50 on the journeys I used. I don't actually know how they got on and off, as I had my bike - on Steam Packet, bikes are a foot passenger until boarding is announced, at which point you go out and onto the car deck with the cars. I'm fairly sure there was some sort of separate gangway, though, it definitely isn't a bus.

FWIW a reasonable number (maybe half) arrived at Heysham by train. The rest were I guess dropped off or took taxis.

 

[paul1609]

No, they ended with Covid.

It's a shame, I loved the Calais Day Return, but even when I was using it ten years ago there was a handful of foot passengers.

The simple fact is that ferry travel is slow, and unless you've a need to take a car then you're not going to use the ferry. Even where I live on the IOM the same applies, the Heysham ferry has very few foot passengers.

The majority of London-France via ferry through tickets actually ended in about 2004 basically because sales had fallen to near zero.
The Calais Day ticket continued until Covid, allegedly because sales were so low that the Southeastern pricing manager didn't realise they still existed.
They came back to everyones notice because they were accidentally left out of the "not hs1" basket of fares when domestic hs services were introduced and as a consequence became the cheapest morning hs1 peak fare from London to Ashford and beyond. They were subsequently recategorised as not hs1 but in recent years tickets from all the available stations didn't exceed 500 a year. Footpassengers had dropped so low that the Ferry to priory station bus stopped in 2014 after years of transporting fresh air.

 

[Tetchytyke]

When I've gone on it as a foot passenger there were loads, though admittedly I think more use the faster Liverpool catamaran than the slow Heysham conventional ferry. But Steam Packet are set up for foot pax - P&O treat them as a bit of a nuisance

The Liverpool fast cat has lots of foot passengers- it's three hours and drops you off in Liverpool city centre. It's as quick as flying by the time you've got from Douglas to Ronsldsway, waited for a bit, flown, and then got the bus from Speke.

The Heysham, at four hours despite being a shorter distance, has very few foot passengers.

 

[AdamWW]

The Liverpool fast cat has lots of foot passengers- it's three hours and drops you off in Liverpool city centre. It's as quick as flying by the time you've got from Douglas to Ronsldsway, waited for a bit, flown, and then got the bus from Speke.

The Heysham has very few foot passengers.

Though Ronaldsway is possibly the only place in the world that you can travel to and from the airport by steam train.

Or could a few years ago anyway.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The Heysham, at four hours despite being a shorter distance, has very few foot passengers.

It had plenty on it when I used it. About 50 as I said.

It may be relevant that the Liverpool doesn't run in winter (or doesn't run daily, at least, the schedules seem to be a little confusing at times!) - it was winter I went, my return was on the Liverpool which was its last run of the year. Perhaps the Heysham is quieter in summer.

Though Ronaldsway is possibly the only place in the world that you can travel to and from the airport by steam train.

Or could a few years ago anyway.

Still can, though it's infrequent and not really an airport express, but like many things on the IoM is a nice quirk!

I also find it amusing that you can fly from Ringway to Ronaldsway. It just sounds weird.

 

[Cloud Strife]

Back in the day, before the tunnel, The Sun used to have a "day trips to France for a £1" promotions (plus an add on for the train from London).

They were still going as late as 2008. My friends and I got completely blind drunk on several occasions by taking advantage of various offers. We would buy tickets to cover a day on a particular ferry, but we wouldn't actually disembark. The ferries then were in such heavy use with such short turnarounds that the staff didn't care, we would have food with us (no problem getting hot water for Pot Noodles and the like), and the end result was that it cost less than a typical night out.

The only time that we ever had any issues was one night when we were stopped by Customs in the old Arrivals hall in Dover. We were rather the worse for wear, and the very humourless customs officer was quite unimpressed with our statement that we didn't have anything because we'd drank everything.

 

[ashkeba]

The majority of London-France via ferry through tickets actually ended in about 2004 basically because sales had fallen to near zero.
The Calais Day ticket continued until Covid, allegedly because sales were so low that the Southeastern pricing manager didn't realise they still existed.
They came back to everyones notice because they were accidentally left out of the "not hs1" basket of fares when domestic hs services were introduced and as a consequence became the cheapest morning hs1 peak fare from London to Ashford and beyond. They were subsequently recategorised as not hs1 but in recent years tickets from all the available stations didn't exceed 500 a year. Footpassengers had dropped so low that the Ferry to priory station bus stopped in 2014 after years of transporting fresh air.

Weren't sales of Calais day tickets restricted to southeastern and a few network rail stations near the end? A ticket they seemed to want to kill, rather like the ever shrinking rail sail tickets to Holland.

 

[AdamWW]

Weren't sales of Calais day tickets restricted to southeastern and a few network rail stations near the end? A ticket they seemed to want to kill, rather like the ever shrinking rail sail tickets to Holland.

In the case of the tickets to the Netherlands, the "they" seem to be NS (and RET?).

So far as I know the Rail&Sail tickets still have the same validity (any GA station) at the UK end.

 

[paul1609]

Weren't sales of Calais day tickets restricted to southeastern and a few network rail stations near the end? A ticket they seemed to want to kill, rather like the ever shrinking rail sail tickets to Holland.

I think the only change in availability was they became "not hs1" I think they were theoretically still available from stations like East Croydon and Guildford but sales were so low that people didnt realise. They were a bit strange in the south east context in that they were an off peak ticket without peak restrictions so they had always been restricted to flows that were primarily away from London.

 

[DanielB]

In the case of the tickets to the Netherlands, the "they" seem to be NS (and RET?).

RailSail tickets to the Netherlands are just a combination of a ticket from any Greater Anglia station to Harwich and the ferry ticket to Hoek van Holland. NS is no longer pre-selling tickets via StenaLine, the metro to Rotterdam is also not included in the ticket.

 

[ashkeba]

In the case of the tickets to the Netherlands, the "they" seem to be NS (and RET?).

So far as I know the Rail&Sail tickets still have the same validity (any GA station) at the UK end.

Yes, maybe different bodies killing it quietly.

As well as that end shrinking, another thread recently that seems to have vanished from this forum suggested Holland rail sail is now only valid on GA services to GA stations, whereas it used to be any GA station so it has gained a TOC restriction. I wonder if it used to be available from a wider region, before franchises.

 

[30907]

As well as that end shrinking, another thread recently that seems to have vanished from this forum suggested Holland rail sail is now only valid on GA services to GA stations, whereas it used to be any GA station so it has gained a TOC restriction

That was in the Fares forum, and the suggestion (I made it) was wrong.

I wonder if it used to be available from a wider region, before franchises.

It didn't, if it existed at all.

 

[AdamWW]

RailSail tickets to the Netherlands are just a combination of a ticket from any Greater Anglia station to Harwich and the ferry ticket to Hoek van Holland. NS is no longer pre-selling tickets via StenaLine, the metro to Rotterdam is also not included in the ticket.

Exactly. The reduction in scope is all at the overseas end so in this case if anyone is trying to kill off the Rail and Sail tickets then it doesn't seem to be Greater Anglia.

 

[aavm]

Look up fares for any train journey in Britain

Full details of all British rail Single, Return & Season tickets and Travelcards. Built-in Season Ticket Calculator.

www.brfares.com

still exists, more expensive than I remember

 

[ashkeba]

Look up fares for any train journey in Britain

Full details of all British rail Single, Return & Season tickets and Travelcards. Built-in Season Ticket Calculator.

www.brfares.com

still exists, more expensive than I remember

Is that a parliamentary ticket? Avoid the embarrassment of withdrawing a ticket giving a lower-carbon international journey by setting a silly high price for it.

 

[Trainbike46]

Is that a parliamentary ticket? Avoid the embarrassment of withdrawing a ticket giving a lower-carbon international journey by setting a silly high price for it.

But why would they not just set the price to something sensible? This just looks like a waste of everyone's time

 

[paul1609]

But why would they not just set the price to something sensible? This just looks like a waste of everyone's time

Its set that high to indicate to retailers not to sell the ticket. In this case because there's no current agreement with P&0.
£999.99 is also the price for lots of LNER, GC and Hull Trains tickets from Ex SR London terminals. Some of them actually show on the TVMs, Ive always chickened out trying to buy one just in case the debit goes through to my account!