Silver Fox

Agree, although I suspect for different reasons to council houses.

Oxon Flyer

My recommendation is Eurostar from London to Lille, which takes about 90 minutes, and then a return train trip from Lille to Dunkirk, which takes 45 - 75 minutes each way depending on whether you take the fast train from Lille Europe, or the slower train from Lille Flandres.

You can combine a few hours in Dunkirk with a bonus visit to Lille (well worth a stop) in a single day trip.

stut

It was a double-riser lock, IIRC. If you can imagine how much water it takes to fill a lock catering to ocean-going vessels, you can probably imagine how slow the whole process is.

From a quick Google, most of the swing bridges work on schedules, but those over locks tend to be operated on demand. It's not like it's a major route or anything - the path along the sea wall is barely there!

mad_rich

stut

Basically, so few people want to do it these days because you have a train that goes directly through the tunnel instead, and flights to other places that cost tuppence ha'penny.

There are still port stations with connections (Harwich International, Pembroke Dock, Holyhead, Ardrossan Harbour, etc) but the services are a shadow of their former self (although the Harwich-Hook of Holland service is rather good - Hook of Holland Haven being on the Rotterdam metro if that conversion is complete.

I'm old enough to remember when there were stations at Dover Western Docks (aka Dover Marine), Folkestone Harbour, Newhaven Marine and Weymouth Docks, and correspondingly at Calais Maritime (effectively, you'd get off the boat and there'd be a bunch of railway carriages right opposite, on some tramlines), Boulogne Maritime, the wonderfully named Boulogne Aéroglisseurs (for the Hoverport) and Dieppe Maritime.

The journey down to Weymouth Harbour was pretty bizarre, as it involved coupling a diesel locomotive to the front of the (electric) train, and taking it down tramlines through the town to the harbour. In later years, with an infrequent summer service, it would be accompanied by railwaymen whose job it was to walk in front of the train and bounce cars that had parked too close to the tracks out the way.

farci

...if we're strolling down memory lane about crossing the channel I had the experience of using the Night Ferry during its later years
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Ferry

stut

https://youtu.be/x6XEVvVRB_4

​​​​​

Silver Fox

@stut brilliant link, have to copy/paste it into browser though as it is not hot (an observation, not a moan!) and it amazes me that 116 sad souls gave it the thumbs down! I miss BR for all its warts over the privatised money grab it has become now. Great link!

enviroian

Dover is awful. From Smeeth to Walmer we have to go right through Dover.

My sister witnessed a stabbing a few months ago while she was driving through.

Horrible place and all the seedy hotels look quite dodgy at best.

I am having a good day though.

Silver Fox

I last went to Dover with the Army. I think we were underarmed compared to the locals.

NickB

Boy, trip down memory lane, this. Have I not used those stations countless times when I was young... I could not recall "Boulogne Aéroglisseurs" as the name of the station though, as I suspect that it existed only in written French and not in spoken French, as even my Boulogne-resident non-English speaking French relatives referred to the thing as "l'hovercraft" (pronounced "l'overcraft", bien sûr ) rather than "l'aéroglisseur"

tom tulpe

I did this in 1993 , just before the tunnel opened. Boat Train (slam door carriages obviously) non-stop London Victoria to Dover Western Docks, Jetfoil to Ostend, train to Brussels. Took about 6 hrs all in.

Silver Fox

And, I was intrigued by the name of the loco, so found this that I found interesting: Captain Bill Smith RNR

enviroian

Didn't the French bound hovercraft depart Ramsgate? I have vague memory of leaving from there in the 1970's as a child. My mom's family at that time lived in lovely Cliftonville

stut

Ramsgate had the Ostend ferries, but only after the Jetfoil service from Dover ended. It traditionally only had the Dunkirk service.

Dover Western Docks, after Eastern Docks opened, had the boat trains and the fast ferries, including a separate hovercraft site. Otherwise, Dover Eastern docks and Folkestone (also with a boat train via a very awkward line at Folkestone Harbour) both competed for both Calais and Boulogne traffic.

Newhaven served Dieppe.