Sailrail Update

[barrykas]

Evening all,

Just a quick note to advise that Sailrail connections via Holyhead now show in NRS/Journey Planner/Ticket Issuing Systems as seat reservations once again, rather than Sleepers.

Cheers,

Barry

 

[Greeby]

Aye, we had to put the kibosh on selling it for a while there because of the errors Tribute was getting. That said, 29th Jan - 6th Feb saw next to no service because of conditions in the Irish Sea, with the result that there are no daytime reservations left until Wednesday. And even those are starting to fill up fast.

 

[tivoli]

Pleased to see that system is working again, but having had a good service from Stena's Rail & Sail in the meanwhile, may decide to stick with them in the future. Arriva and Virgin were no help at all.

 

[pkkelly]

Aye, we had to put the kibosh on selling it for a while there because of the errors Tribute was getting. That said, 29th Jan - 6th Feb saw next to no service because of conditions in the Irish Sea, with the result that there are no daytime reservations left until Wednesday. And even those are starting to fill up fast.

I don't think you can be referring to weather conditions. It was calm (but very cold) throughout that period. Are you not referring to the fact that the Irish Ferries Swift has been in dry dock (for longer than initially planned), and returns this Wednesday?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Evening all,

Just a quick note to advise that Sailrail connections via Holyhead now show in NRS/Journey Planner/Ticket Issuing Systems as seat reservations once again, rather than Sleepers.

Cheers,

Barry

This is good, but it's unfortunate that the online booking systems are still not too well. Examples when trying to book London via Holyhead for random dates in March:

Trainline to Dublin - For Stena Line, the Advance fare (£36) not showing on some dates, only the Sailrail Single (£41) is available - the one that is officially known as SAILRAIL STNDBY and is only meant to be issued after 18:00 the previous day. So either the boat is full (in which case they shouldn't be offering the any ticket at all) or someone has not allocated enough places for rail passengers on the sailing in question.

Trainline to Belfast - various warning/error messages including:

(1) Unfortunately we are currently unable to check the availability of Advance fares due to a problem accessing the national reservations system. You can continue to purchase any of the fares below or try your search again. If the problem persists you may wish to try again later. Failed to load cheapest fares Cheapest

(2) Module Load Warning
One or more of the modules on this page did not load. This may be temporary. Please refresh the page (click F5 in most browsers). If the problem persists, please let the Site Administrator know.


(3) Sorry, something's gone a bit wrong:
We're sorry, it seems you have encountered an error in our site that we may not be aware of.

You can press the back button and try again, or click here to start again.


Raileasy to Dublin - again, has trouble finding any availability of Advance fares on Stena Line on certain dates (so looks like central data issue, not Raileasy's fault).

Raileasy to Belfast - fails on all dates, even though ticket to Dublin available:

We're sorry but the journey and fare you are trying to book has to have seat reservations and there are no more available. There might be sleeper availability on www.nationalrail.co.uk

Looks like they are trying to find availability on the Dublin-Belfast Enterprise leg which is clearly daft (these trains are non-reserved). This would appear to be the cause of Trainline's problem too.

southernrailway.com to Dublin - recognises Dublin as a destination but can't find any fares

southernrailway.com to Belfast - shows all the Holyhead-Dublin times (for both ferry operators) but against the Cairnryan fare! (Doesn't show the Cairnryan times though - need to force "via Ayr" or similar to get those). Happily lets people who have been shown Holyhead times book the Cairnryan fare (without reservation, as not required on the Cairnryan route) so people could yet a nasty surprise when they find their ticket is not valid via Holyhead.

Arriva Trains Wales - same as Trainline, including can't book to Belfast via Holyhead at all despite showing fares and times

Strangely, though the sites can't book to Belfast via Holyhead they will happily book to destinations in the Republic of Ireland. Exception is Drogheda and Dundalk, where they are presumably, and stupidly, trying to find availability on the Enterprise.

So - two fixes required in central database I think:

1. Make more seats on Holyhead ferries available on certain dates, or stop showing availability if the ferry is genuinely full
2. Remove the database setting which is making the Enterprise reservation-only.

 

[embers25]

Even with the swift in dry dock I highly doubt the ferries are full so it's more likely an error again.

To correct one point of your otherwise very complete analysis...the standby ticket can be sold any time as it allows unreserved travel and can be bought any time in advance. Just because the advance fare is still available it does not mean you have to use it.

 

[4SRKT]

On ScotRail's website today a Rail & Sail return from Shipley to Belfast was shown as an Anytime Return, with no suggestion that reservations would be compulsory.

 

[pkkelly]

On ScotRail's website today a Rail & Sail return from Shipley to Belfast was shown as an Anytime Return, with no suggestion that reservations would be compulsory.

That was via Cairnryan, presumably? Via Cairnryan is Anytime singles/returns. Via Holyhead is now Sailrail Advance and Sailrail Standby.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

To correct one point of your otherwise very complete analysis...the standby ticket can be sold any time as it allows unreserved travel and can be bought any time in advance. Just because the advance fare is still available it does not mean you have to use it.

Thanks, that explains why they are on sale this far in advance. I had mistakenly taken the December news item on http://www.seat61.com/news.htm so mean they were not available until advance sales closed.

 

[Greeby]

I don't think you can be referring to weather conditions. It was calm (but very cold) throughout that period. Are you not referring to the fact that the Irish Ferries Swift has been in dry dock (for longer than initially planned), and returns this Wednesday?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

That's how Virgin Control sent the message out as, guess they couldn't be bothered to change it, or I read it wrong

 

[pkkelly]

That's how Virgin Control sent the message out as, guess they couldn't be bothered to change it, or I read it wrong

There was a notice on the departure board at Euston when I last went through there (1 Feb) saying that these sailings were cancelled due to "technical difficulties". The boat not actually being in the water is a large technical difficulty, I guess.