Getting home to Ireland by train in the snow

I had a call from a friend who was stuck in London during the worst of the snow, “You must know how to get me home without flying”, she said. “I need to be back in Dublin tomorrow and every airport in Europe seems to be closed”.  Within minutes she was sorted. “ Catch the 9am train from London Euston direct to Holyhead, which arrives four hours later, then onto 2pm Irish Ferries crossing to Dublin port, arriving just after 5pm. Hop in a cab or shuttle bus, and home and dry in time for tea” I said.

She booked it immediately online with Virgin Trains, with last minute rates of £55 sterling for the single train journey and £25 sterling for the one way crossing. She had a lot of work to do on the way, so upgraded to first class on the train, (£97 sterling). This is the best train upgrade around, in my view, with free food and drink the whole way. Enjoy smoked salmon and scrambled eggs as you lash through the Shires, bagels on the border and a glass of something lovely to strengthen the sea legs as you follow the North Wales coastline. With free WI-Fi and generous reclining seats, you won’t want to get off at all. Although to be honest, Virgin’s latest speedy trains are so comfortable, economy feels like first class compared to any of my memories of what was the journey from hell all those years ago when ‘budget’ meant the ‘bus’. You can get bargain first class seats if you book direct with Virgin Trains well in advance, but note there is no food and drink service at weekends, for some reason.

I got a text at 5.15pm from my friend – “just drifting past Dublin's South Wall.  Best trip home ever. Will never fly again”. This I doubt, but every snow cloud has a silver lining. It’s hard to convince people about the joys of greener, slower travel, unless they actually experience it. You can bring as much luggage as you want, including bikes. You check it all in now, so no lugging it round the ship anymore. You don’t have to hide your make-up bottles either. Even Holyhead terminal is better these days. On a recent trip, a Donegal man who makes the trip six times a year told me, “It breaks my heart.  In the old days we begged them for a new terminal and now it’s here, but it’s empty. It used to be a cattle market, dirty and full of drunks”.  Sounds like a bad budget airline, I thought.

If you aren’t making a last minute booking, book with SailRail (sailrail.co.uk) This alliance of Irish and UK train and ferry operators offer an invaluable service in sorting out the best ticket combination for you. It saves looking up lots of individual ferry and train sites as they tell you the best option for your travelling times. You can’t book online, however, and it’s quite a novelty talking to a human being over the phone for once (Tel: 00-44-8450 755755). And it’s a UK agency, so count on ten working days for tickets to be delivered to Ireland. You can’t get a first class ticket this way, but book well in advance with Virgin Trains (virgintrains.co.uk), and you can get a First Class Single for approx. £50 sterling.

Or you can do just as my friend did, and book online the night before, roll on, roll off, no bother. I’m not sure she really cares that her carbon footprint was at least half of flying, to be honest. But if she can see that travelling the greener way is a much better experience all round, then it’s a win win. 

This article, by Catherine Mack, was first published in The Irish Times.