BBC - Weather Centre - Forecast for Leicester, United Kingdom

Saturday, 3 February 2007

Integrated Transport? Maybe....

So, we thought we'd book a couple of weekends away in the summer......
First we went for The Dutch Flyer - a website which lets you book tickets from any One Railway station in the UK, a ferry ticket, onwards to any Dutch railway station. Good Idea! We fancied a weekend away in Noordwijk on the Dutyc coast - sounds good, doesn't it!
Wellllllll..... first, the nearest One Railway station to Leicester is probably Cambridge (or we could have gone via London, Liverpool Street), but the site doesn't let you order connecting tickets, or let you even look at timetables - but, never mind - carry on regardless.
It's a bit of an odd site, where you have to book the UK rail trip, pause, then book the ferry, and the Dutch bit just falls into place (I think).
So, I did the required messing about, gave it my credit card details (secure site etc etc), and Hey Presto! "This site cannot be displayed". I've no bloomin' idea whether I'm going to get my tickets, and no idea if some scoundrel in Kurdistan has got my credit card details - and there's no contact details on the website, and the WhoIs leads to an advertising agency.
I'll wait and see if my tickets turn up (I've waited a week already now).
Next.
Sailrail, is another great idea - integrated rail and ferry tickets from any UK rail station to any Irish railway station via almost any ferry route. Great! Lets work out which way is the most econonomical, whenI can go, polish the credit card and.......... Oh, I can only buy the tickets by phone or at my local railway station. How very modern!
I think I'll try that at Leicester station at about, say, 8:15am one Monday morning!