In article ,
(Annabel Smyth) wrote:

On Sun, 2 May 2004 at 10:20:39, wrote:

Does anybody know of a firm doing regular trips to Cite Europe
(Calais),
via the Euroshuttle from London or the Croydon area (or perhaps
regularly
from Ashford?).

I'm afraid not. But knowing this newsgroup, somebody will!

A few years ago there used to be an excellent, little publicised, turn
up
and go service from Charing Cross station and other places. You got the
ticket from the station, travelled to Ashford, and there was a regular
coach service on the hour for most of the day to/from Cite Europe and
Calais. Unfortunately the rail company stopped these "due to lack of
interest"!

I know - and it was dirt cheap! Alas... Actually, I thought it was
withdrawn after the demise of duty-free, when there was a huge drop in
the numbers of people crossing the Channel, not realising that even with
French duty paid, wine, spirits, beer and coffee were far cheaper than
they are here. And tobacco is cheaper in Belgium, just an hour up the
road!


The duty free was still on at the time. I (often with a friend and his
son) used to get the coach around twelve or one o'clock from Ashford and
the 19:30 (I think it was the last but one) back from Cite Europe. At
times there were only 3-5 people on board. It was a pity, because if
they'd advertised it properly then it would have probably paid its way. I
think there were around 8 (or 10) journeys each way on a daily basis. They
could have tried cutting the amount of trips down and advertising it more.
It was a nice day out and, other when there was a ferry strike right at
the end, there were never any problems other than the odd delay because
one of the shuttles was cut out due to lack of customers.

The day of the ferry strike was the last one I went on. This was when the
motorway was being used as a lorry park and, of course, all the lorries
were trying to get on the lorry shuttle. It didn't affect us on the actual
shuttle, but because it took so long to get from Ashford, we were that
late that the coach driver stayed in Calais instead of going back to do
another round trip. We then became the last coach to leave.


Roger

I know - and it was dirt cheap! Alas... Actually, I thought it was
withdrawn after the demise of duty-free, when there was a huge drop in
the numbers of people crossing the Channel, not realising that even with
French duty paid, wine, spirits, beer and coffee were far cheaper than
they are here. And tobacco is cheaper in Belgium, just an hour up the
road!

I was at connex at the time this service ran and I tried very hard to
persuade the publicity people to plug it more. Their response was
quite negative which can only be given a Gaulic shrug of the
shoulders. It stopped running because of a lack of passengers and
connex have gone now as well. Ho Hum.

I used the service on "privs" quite a bit, it was ony £2.50 !!

I regularly went to Calais to do some French diesel "bashing" as well
as using it as a cheap way to start other train trips in Europe, with
the added bonus of the Euro Shutle locos for interest.

One extremely funny trip saw us delayed for THREE hours on the outward
journey. I was with a friend going to Belgium via Calais and Lille.
There were only two other punters. We wanted to get out and get a boat
but were denied. The bus "HAD" to go to Calais. The rest of the days
service was suspended and as I say we got there late. I wrote a
standard whinging letter to Eurotunnel in which i was totally honest
about the priv fare paid and was surprised to be sent a voucher for my
car for a retur "whenever I wanted". Needless to say in mid summer I
took a weekend trip with the car, out on a Friday to calais and Back
Sunday Tea time. Face Value of the ticket was £180.00 for a £2.50
complaint !!!!

Now my circumstances are different I regularly join the booze cruisers
to satisfy my good laies taste in Wine. I get a day out in the car
doing the trains as long as i stock up in a local supermarche on the
way back. Still not bad value at about £25-£30 if booked in advance.

Fat Richard

I was at connex at the time this service ran and I tried very hard to
persuade the publicity people to plug it more. Their response was
quite negative which can only be given a Gaulic shrug of the
shoulders. It stopped running because of a lack of passengers and
connex have gone now as well. Ho Hum.

I used the service on "privs" quite a bit, it was ony £2.50 !!

That was for a single, though!


Fat Richard

After the first time, mine were priv fares (I didn't realise till one of
the other passengers told me that they did priv fares). A few that I spoke
to had privs, so perhaps Connex just wanted to keep it in house :-)

It is such a pity that it did stop. Whatever the price of the ticket (as
long as it's not too expensive) the concept is very good. From my
experience of the trips, most of the people were going out as a day trip
to do some shopping (rather than stocking up with lots of duty free) in
the same way that they might pop up to London to the day or go on a day
trip to Lakeside or whatever. The hourly service meant that you could stay
on the coach to Calais, have a wander round and then hop on a later one to
Cite Europe to finish the day off. Ideal for non car owners like myself,
or just for a relaxing day out without having to rush around.

I did lots of trips, some on my own, some with a friend and his son, some
with my/his family. All enjoyed it.

Now, who can we persuade to start it up again :-)

Roger

On Mon, 3 May 2004 at 16:56:48, Fat Richard
wrote:


Now my circumstances are different I regularly join the booze cruisers
to satisfy my good laies taste in Wine. I get a day out in the car
doing the trains as long as i stock up in a local supermarche on the
way back. Still not bad value at about £25-£30 if booked in advance.

It's not as good value as it used to be, though. Sigh. Ah well... last
time we went over for the afternoon, a colleague commented that "it was
a very long way to go to the supermarket, when there was one just down
the road!"

True, but then there's an awful lot of things you can't get in our
supermarkets that you can "over there".... (roll on the end of this
month!).
--
Annabel Smyth
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/index.html
Website updated 8 March 2004