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Sailrail. Southampton to Belfast

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bangor-toad

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Hi there,
I'm looking to travel from Southampton to Belfast on Thursday evening. I can't fly (ear trouble!) so the obvious and usual route of a simple Flybe flight isn't going to be possible.

So, I turn to the trusty SailRail ticket. What I would like to do is this:
Southampton - London. Thursday. Evening. May have to meet friends for beer :)
Euston - Glasgow. Thursday night Sleeper. (Paying the £50 supplement)

Friday morning. Run across Glasgow Central for a highly iffy 10 minute connection to the train to the first Sailrail bus from Ayr. Or if running late a looooong leisurely breakfast in Glasgow and then get the next Sailrail bus & ferry 4 hours later.


I know a return ticket has a ridiculous amount of flexibility and will let you do this sort of vague planning on the return leg.
I don't think the single offers you quite the same flexibility and does a single ticket bought to start the trip on the 10th allow you to finish it on the 11th?

I can't get a printout for the via Glasgow route. All I can get is a Euston - Carlisle - Kilmarnock - Ayr route. That'd be nice but I don't feel the fun of leaving the sleeper at 5:18am to change at Carlisle and would prefer to sort of sleep all the way the Glasgow for another couple of hours. However the minimum connecting time at Glasgow Central is 15 minutes which means the Glasgow option won't come up on the booking site.

Oh, the other trick of via a Euston - Dalmuir on the Fort William sleeper looked good until I found that was fully booked. D'oh!
Also, I'm trying to avoid the Birkenhead ferry as that gets me back to Belfast at 6:30am and questions about going into work for the rest of the day...

So, the question:
Can a single ticket give me the flexibility I want over the two days?


Cheers,
Mr Toad
 
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najaB

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So, the question: Can a single ticket give me the flexibility I want over the two days?
I know that coming off the Sleeper you're normally allowed to continue your journey so I *think* it is possible.
 

Hadders

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A coupke of years ago I managed to get National Rail to offer an itinerary from Euston to Belfast using the sleeper then onwards the following morning using an Anytime Day Single.

I can't remember exactly how I managed it but it involved selecting sleeper services and using extended interchange times. If you sarch you'll probably find my post.

One thing to note is that the 10 minute connection is less than the official interchange time so you won't get an itinerary for the earlier ferry.
 

higthomas

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A year or do ago a helpful man at Oxford station managed to book me a very similar trip using a sailrail to Belfast using the sleeper and an anytime single. It took him about 20 minutes and I think his ultimate solution was to just do the ticket purchase and the booking separately. But it was all fine with regards using the ticket the next day.
 

bangor-toad

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To follow up my own enquiry here in case anyone searches in the future...

Thanks for the tips about extended connection times. With these it was possible to get an itinerary that matched more or less what I was after.

There was a catch though: If you went for the extended times the booking system would only offer a return ticket. I guess this is to give the validity over two full days of travel.

I thought about it and gave up.
The offer of more than one beer and a place to stay won through so it'll just be a pretty simple single ticket that's required instead :)
 
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To put it bluntly - the single ticket type is incorrectly loaded. A Day Single is incompatible with journeys to/from Belfast from most of the UK at a departure time thats not silly o'clock in the morning.
 

najaB

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To put it bluntly - the single ticket type is incorrectly loaded. A Day Single is incompatible with journeys to/from Belfast from most of the UK at a departure time thats not silly o'clock in the morning.
You could say the same about any location that's on the periphery of the rail network and/or has less than hourly service.

As an aside, it's possible to travel from Southampton to Belfast in a day, leaving at either 0916 or 1000 - hardly silly o'clock (unless you're a student).
 

bkhtele

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I prefer to use the return ticket for this sort of flexibility. Never had a problem with the day single including Via Paddington the next morning after the sleeper. Unlikely to have a problem in Scotland. Probably easier to book in good ticket office, staff solution is often to book ticket plus ferry and the book train reservations afterwards
 

Hadders

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Sailrail singles to Belfast really should be an Anytime Singles rather than Anytime Day Singles, the difference being a 2nd day validity which given the distance is reasonable.
 

bkhtele

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Sailrail singles to Belfast really should be an Anytime Singles rather than Anytime Day Singles, the difference being a 2nd day validity which given the distance is reasonable.
Agreed. Clearly staff should accept as valid if journey cannot be reasonably completed connecting with booked ferry.
 
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