Madam, – The recent flight disruptions coincided with the planned scattering of the ashes of my father, Pádraig MacKernan (Obituary, January 30th) at Ballynahinch, Connemara on April 24th, a situation whose irony has already been remarked upon. However, the travel chaos found my mother stuck in Paris and me in London and as a result I was obliged to make other travel arrangements for both of us.
It was striking that the ferry companies have made no effort to co-ordinate their timings with available rail services. Thus, for example, the Holyhead-Dublin Irish Ferries crossing departs at 14.10, four minutes before the first available train from London arrives! Iarnród Éireann offers its first Rosslare train departure for Dublin at 17:55, though the ferry from Cherbourg arrives at 14.00, taking a remarkable two hours and 43 minutes to cover 90 miles. The same total lack of co-ordination is also apparent with Sealink Stena lines. The consequence of this lack of co-ordination is to add three to six hours to what might, from London, be a five-and-a-half hour journey.
Indeed if a decent fast train service existed for the 85 miles between Chester and Holyhead, or indeed from London, it could be a little over four hours and competitive with flying. One has to conclude that serious people are not engaged planning or co-ordination of these organisations’ timetables. – Yours, etc,