Where can you get by train from each ferry port?

[mjr]

One train, ideally starting at the port so there's less worry about missing it or it being full of bikes already. Here's what I've found so far:

Ijmuiden: nearest station only seems to go to Alkmaar, Hoorn and Amsterdam. Riding 15-20miles to an Amsterdam station gets you most places in NL plus stations to Brussels, Frankfurt and Berlin.

Hook of Holland: ride to Rotterdam for trains towards Amsterdam, Alkmaar, Venlo, Utrecht, Vlissingen, Eindhoven and Brussels. Daily sleeper to Berlin and Prague.

Dunkerque: trains towards Lille, Arras and Paris; or ride to De Panne for trains to Antwerp; Poperinge for trains to Brussels or Antwerp; arguably Oostende for trains to Liege and Eupen is also within range.

Calais: Paris, Lille, Arras.

Le Havre: Paris. Sometimes there are mid-afternoon TGVs to Lyon-Avignon-Marseille but it doesn't look to me like bikes are allowed unless dismantled and bagged.

Caen: Rennes, Tours, Rouen, Paris.

Cherbourg: Paris

Saint-Malo: Rennes

Santander: Valladolid, plus bagged to Alicante, Madrid.

What else?

[Will]

De Panne to Brussel-Midi/Zuid is via Gent-Sint-Pieters. On weekdays you have to change platforms at Gent-Sint-Pieters (no elevators). At weekends the change of trains at Gent-Sint-Pieters is the same platform (9) and every other train from De Panne to Brussel-Midi/Zuid is a direct service.

The IC service to Brussel-Midi/Zuid that you connect to at Gent-Sint-Pieters is the IC service to Eupen, so you can get right across Belgium. SNCB have placed an order for multi-system TRAXX locomotives and it is rumoured that in the future the service to Eupen will be changed to go to Cologne instead.

Will

[mattheus]

Great thread!

[ANTONISH]

Dieppe - Rouen, Paris

[Richard Fairhurst]

Really good idea for a thread!

Last time I looked, Brittany Ferries to Le Havre didn't accept bike (or foot) passengers, sadly.

From Hook of Holland you can also ride to Schiedam which is a little closer and has lots of intercity services.

As well as Santander, there are Portsmouth–Bilbao ferries, and several opportunities for bagged bikes on coaches from there (including into France) plus various trains.

SNCF do a handy PDF map of their trains.

Birkenhead–Belfast is an easy overnight ferry, and you can then cycle over to Belfast Grand Central for the train to (London/)Derry and enjoy some lovely cycling around Donegal.

[st599_uk]

Newhaven to Dieppe seems to be missing. Gets you on to the regional TER services or the Avenue Vert to Paris.

[borisface]

When I was an impoverished student, I spent a trimester 'studying' at Rouen University. I got the Newhaven-Dieppe ferry and was expecting to catch a train to Rouen. I had taken the 7am ferry arriving at lunchtime. However, when I arrived at the station the next train wasn't until 9.30 the next morning. The moral is that French trains, although very good, quite often don't run every hour or so as they do in the UK.

[Richard Fairhurst]

Yes - my memory of travelling by train in France in the 90s is that the timetable often included a standard shutdown for engineering works in the middle of the day, so you'd have nothing outside the peaks. But it's much better these days, I think - not always as frequent as an equivalent line would be in the UK, but fewer long shutdowns.

[nigeld]

Hook of Holland: ride to Rotterdam for trains towards Amsterdam, Alkmaar, Venlo, Utrecht, Vlissingen, Eindhoven and Brussels. Daily sleeper to Berlin and Prague.

Yes, though I usually just cycle to Schiedam Centraal (for Amsterdam) which is slightly nearer. Though Rotterdam Centraal has direct trains to different places, notably Brussels. I also sometimes cycle north to Den Haag Centraal because it's a terminus and all trains start there so you've got lots of time to find a space for your bike, which I find a bit easier. Cycling from Hook of Holland is lovely, even if I'm on my way by train to Germany.

Note that you can take your bike on the metro (RET) from right outside Hook of Holland ferry port to destinations in Rotterdam, including Schiedam Centraal. Bikes are free. No bikes before 9am or between 4pm and 6.30pm Mon-Fri, so if you arrive on the overnight boat at 8.15am you'll need to wait for a bit.

[scragend]

Pedant alert...

The good burghers of Schiedam would be flattered* by their station being given the Centraal suffix, but it's Schiedam Centrum.

In the Netherlands the suffix Centraal is only applied to the most important station in a city/town, if that station has more than 40,000 passengers per day. Otherwise the main station is Centrum.

Currently there are eight Centraals: Utrecht, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Leiden, Eindhoven, Amersfoort and Arnhem.


* I'm sure in reality they couldn't care less

[scragend]

When I was an impoverished student, I spent a trimester 'studying' at Rouen University. I got the Newhaven-Dieppe ferry and was expecting to catch a train to Rouen. I had taken the 7am ferry arriving at lunchtime. However, when I arrived at the station the next train wasn't until 9.30 the next morning. The moral is that French trains, although very good, quite often don't run every hour or so as they do in the UK.

At the moment there appears to be a train from Dieppe to Rouen almost hourly throughout the day (but at differing minutes past the hour) except for the hours of 9 am, 11 am and 3 pm.

The first one is at 05:20 and the last at 20:05. Ties in well with the overnight ferry I suppose - the 05:20 might be cutting it fine but the 06:17 would be the next one.

I've been stranded in Dieppe myself in the past (not with a bike) so I can sympathise!

[scragend]

What else?

Roscoff doesn't have a station, but Morlaix is 18 miles away and there are TGVs to Paris which take bikes. Also TERs of course, but they only seem to go to Brest, with the occasional one to Rennes.

[mjr]

I also sometimes cycle north to Den Haag Centraal because it's a terminus and all trains start there so you've got lots of time to find a space for your bike, which I find a bit easier.

Actually, I've done that once too, for the same reason, plus it's closer to the port (20km instead of 32 to Rotterdam, I think). But it only adds Enschede as a destination, which I suppose is useful to connect to the Dortmund regional train, and it loses more.

[Bowak]

If travelling from NI, Birkenhead Park station is good for getting to Liverpool Lime Street. As well as that one, Birkenhead Central & Hamilton Square are good for not only Lime Street, but are also on the line to Chester so handy for heading to Wales.

[Traction_man]

If travelling from NI, Birkenhead Park station is good for getting to Liverpool Lime Street. As well as that one, Birkenhead Central & Hamilton Square are good for not only Lime Street, but are also on the line to Chester so handy for heading to Wales.

Irish Sea ferry connections actually have quite good rail-head links, on both sides of the Irish Sea, eg for GB: Holyhead, Fishguard, Pembroke Dock, Liverpool/Birkenhead, only Stranraer is now not great, as ferries all go to Cairnryan now from Larne and Belfast.

Belfast, Larne, Dublin Port, Rosslare and Cork all good easy links to train services onwards across Ireland (north and south).

From Ireland, to Cherbourg and Santander/Bilboa, all again enabling onward rail travel from ports. Roscoff is no longer rail connected by the looks of it