Flying Snail
Established Member
- Joined
- 12 Dec 2006
- Messages
- 1,624
I think Pembroke Dock is still very convenient. It is only a very short and easy fifteen minutes walk between the railway station and the ferry terminal. I know the railway station and the ferry terminal are not right next to each other like at Fishguard Harbour but it is still almost as easy and convenient.
A 15 min walk that someone without local knowledge or a map would easily get lost on is not almost as convenient as a same building connection. Anyway a 15 minute walk is not much good when there are no connecting trains.
Also it is not a recognised connection so unlike Fishguard where every ferry has a corresponding train the connections at Pembroke are poor and any delays on one mode will not be accommodated by the other, this is a particular issue with the IF service as it has tight turnarounds due to the longer crossing so is less able to recover delays. This may be the only scenario where the long waits for a connection at Fishguard are useful
At Fishguard the connections in both directions are all around 1h. At Pembroke the connections are slightly longer.
22.24 weekdays (21.36 Sun) for the 02.45 ferry and 12.20 weekdays (11.41 Sun) for the 14.45 ferry.
There is no train for the 00.45 ferry arrival, 7am Mon-Sat and 12pm Sunday, The 12.45 arrival won't make the 13.09 train so it is 15.09 or 16.25 on a Sunday.
Not all foot passengers use Sail Rail tickets. I have used both the Fishguard Harbour services and the Pembroke Dock services (and the Holyhead to Dublin services as well) quite a few times before and have always just bought my train tickets and ferry tickets separately on the day.
Unless you are a priv holder then you are likely spending more than you need to by doing that.
A Sail Rail can be as cheap as a standalone ferry foot passenger fare and is certainly cheaper than many standalone rail fares for long distance journeys to/from the Welsh ports, it is far cheaper than combining separate tickets in all but the most extreme cases.