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Not A Fan
So, I took Virgin Rail and Stena Lines from London to Ireland. I am not a fan of either service. I should hasten to note that I enjoyed the journey, and will comment on it anon. But first, let's get my irritations out of the way.
On the Great Western line from Oxford to London, each car had a luggage rack very similar to the type seen in airport shuttle buses. This meant that luggage could be securely stowed out of the way. Not so Virgin. The car had two small areas where seats couldn't have been fitted, and these areas had no other arrangements for luggage. Considering that this was a long-haul line (3.5 hours with connections to a ferry) the space was totally inadequate and luggage ended up in the door areas. No attempt was made to send a drink cart down the aisle - you wanted food or drink, you went to a stand-up bar and ordered then took it back to your seat.
The Stena Line connection was nice, and the ride over was entertaining. It was nice to see Dublin harbor. The problems began when we mere foot passengers disembarked. First, there was no announcement, and we had to hunt down crew to find out where we should be. Then we had to wait for the one rickety bus to haul us to a tiny terminal, lacking ATM (also no ATM on the boat) and taxi service. Said terminal was in the middle of Upper Nowhere. Fortunately, a bus was provided (2 Euros extra) to take us to downtown, where I found a cab and ATM. Argh! What a way to sour me on both services!
Other Thoughts
The scenery on the train was beautiful. We ran along the coast for a good while, and through some picturesque countryside. There were several links-style golf courses on the way. In America, a links-style course looks artificial. In England and Wales, the only way you can distinguish a golf course from a meadow is the flags on the greens.
In Wales, we passed a number of mobile home parks. They were all (as far as I could see) inhabited, single wide, and poorly anchored. Many of them were sitting on wheels.
We also passed several sidings with clearly unused and obsolete rolling stock. I thought when we saw the first one that it was a rail museum, but there were so many I think they were just collections of junk. Also on the way, we ran parallel to a canal for some distance. It was full of canal boats, most of them almost as wide as the canal itself, which wasn't more than 12 feet or so.
So, I took Virgin Rail and Stena Lines from London to Ireland. I am not a fan of either service. I should hasten to note that I enjoyed the journey, and will comment on it anon. But first, let's get my irritations out of the way.
On the Great Western line from Oxford to London, each car had a luggage rack very similar to the type seen in airport shuttle buses. This meant that luggage could be securely stowed out of the way. Not so Virgin. The car had two small areas where seats couldn't have been fitted, and these areas had no other arrangements for luggage. Considering that this was a long-haul line (3.5 hours with connections to a ferry) the space was totally inadequate and luggage ended up in the door areas. No attempt was made to send a drink cart down the aisle - you wanted food or drink, you went to a stand-up bar and ordered then took it back to your seat.
The Stena Line connection was nice, and the ride over was entertaining. It was nice to see Dublin harbor. The problems began when we mere foot passengers disembarked. First, there was no announcement, and we had to hunt down crew to find out where we should be. Then we had to wait for the one rickety bus to haul us to a tiny terminal, lacking ATM (also no ATM on the boat) and taxi service. Said terminal was in the middle of Upper Nowhere. Fortunately, a bus was provided (2 Euros extra) to take us to downtown, where I found a cab and ATM. Argh! What a way to sour me on both services!
Other Thoughts
The scenery on the train was beautiful. We ran along the coast for a good while, and through some picturesque countryside. There were several links-style golf courses on the way. In America, a links-style course looks artificial. In England and Wales, the only way you can distinguish a golf course from a meadow is the flags on the greens.
In Wales, we passed a number of mobile home parks. They were all (as far as I could see) inhabited, single wide, and poorly anchored. Many of them were sitting on wheels.
We also passed several sidings with clearly unused and obsolete rolling stock. I thought when we saw the first one that it was a rail museum, but there were so many I think they were just collections of junk. Also on the way, we ran parallel to a canal for some distance. It was full of canal boats, most of them almost as wide as the canal itself, which wasn't more than 12 feet or so.
