TOTAL DISASTER !! (Stranded) Paris to London by ferry and train just like before Eurotunnel opened.

if i knew then what i know now there's absolutely no way i would have tried this journey it should have been so simple but the more i got into the journey the more i was convinced there was something trying to stop me slow me down from completing the journey sit back relax and watch this simple journey go totally pear-shaped hi everyone my name's scott this is planes trains everything and welcome to paris today you're going to see a video which has been a nightmare to plan an absolute nightmare it should have been quite easy but just things have not been going right for this video at all it is from 1994 and that's when eurostar started operating between paris and london and i decided let's go and try to recreate the old time journey and that is by train from paris to the channel coast ferry across the dover and then a train to london what could possibly go wrong well just about everything one train i would like to have traveled on was the night ferry and then operated floor from paris to london by dunkirk and dover and although it sounds like a great journey to do at the time i believe it was not a pleasant journey just because the amount of noise the clanking the banging as the train went on to the ferry came off again dover people generally didn't get much sleep but we look back and think yeah that'd be a great one to do so i thought originally let's do a paris to dunkirk dunkirk to do over over to london victoria what could possibly go wrong well the problem is the dunkirk to dover service is operated by dfds and they don't do food passengers because we are an inconvenience as you will find out that's why this has been such a nightmare so as a plan b i'm going via cali even that's not straightforward because there are very few direct trains between paris and cali there's just no demand anymore back in the day you could actually go straight to the ferry terminal there's a station called cali maritime but that closed in 1995 when neurostar opened a year earlier no one was traveling by a cali to get to the uk the original plan was to travel by tjv to a place called califorthon and then change onto our regional service was traveling first class until sncf cancelled that train two days ago due to a shortage of rolling stock so instead of having a leisurely couple of hours at cali i'm going to about an hour and a half ish and i have to get moving when i get to calais but first things first i need to find my train here garden ore so this is what happens when you book your train through a third-party website like trainline instead of doing a lake for a like changeover what they do is they use the value of the existing ticket and they buy a new ticket at the current price now i got a really good bargain first class that wasn't available and in fact i ended up paying five pounds more just for a second-class ticket to get me to cali that's what happens anyway let's go and find our train but firstly let's find some coffee naturally there are two trains leaving at the same time uh so i'm not quite sure which one is mine because of the change of the train i'm not sure what the final destination is i'll worry about that once i've had a coffee i've noticed that the party boards don't show intermediate stops so if you have to get off at a place called hazard brook you know perfectly well not to catch the train to valencian i worked that out after a cup of coffee right i'm just waiting for the departure board to show what platform because it leaves in about 15 minutes correction they do show intermediate stops but only after they've announced what platform it's leaving from [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so okay i'll let you know i was a little concerned there we were at rs where the train actually splits into the front part ends up going to valenciane and the rear end goes to dunkirk but we're delayed somewhere and there's a lot of concerned faces on the train i didn't understand any of the french language announcements but we've made it and we have a whole two minutes connection time so phew [Music] so [Music] i had all these different scenarios going through my mind the first one was just catch a later train to calais buy a ticket for a later ferry to dover but i knew i would be stranded in dover and i'll explain why later on plan b was to just give up and head back to paris and try and get a pass back to london well i can't believe it two minutes i hate tight connections like that anyway we're on our way and we're back on schedule so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is i wanted to give myself plenty of time here in cali but with sncf cancelling this morning's earlier train um things are a little bit tight here in cali not manically tight but i don't have any time to hang around you can't even get a coffee or anything i can't even buy a souvenir i'm on my way to the ferry terminal that's where things get interesting what ferry terminal back in the day up until what 1995 you catch a train to cali maritime step off the train onto the platform into the terminal and then with passenger numbers plummeting because of the opening of euro tunnel they moved the port slightly east to accommodate cars buses and trucks and let's face it we are an inconvenience passengers like us because um they would rather process a booking which has a car and three or four passengers in it and a solo passenger like me we are an inconvenience anyway as a result of brexit they've actually moved the ferry port further out again and i hate these new modern ferry ports they've got hectares of tarmac lanes with directional arrows booths they've got elevated roadways they've got concrete ramps they're really not very pedestrian friendly i do not like them at all so that's what the problem is what terminal do i go to because there's a pno ferry terminal at both the new place and the old place now on the confirmation that says go to port b that's really useful but no one actually refers to any of the ports as a and b not even p o on the p o website it's void of clues and even on the official port of cali website it doesn't refer to them as a and b so i'm gonna go to the older of the two and keep my fingers crossed now there is a shuttle bus which operates in cali it's called baderlin or is it belladin belladin that's where it's belladin and i can't remember whether it operates every 20 minutes or it takes 20 minutes to do the full loop either way i haven't got time to hang around on the off chance it turns up so i'm walking because i know i will be there in 20 minutes like i said i'm heading towards the older of the two terminals i looked on google street view and actually shows the paladin bus stop next to a big sign that says foot passengers and i thought aha we're on the right track then looked at the date of the image and it was a year before the new ferry terminal opened which opened it i think it was october 2021 so i guess we'll find out in around about 15 minutes won't we [Music] when i travel i like to be organized and this morning has been very disorganized and i don't like that i like to be organized because it reduces the chances of something going wrong and the need to use a plan b but if you think this morning has been disorganized wait until you get to dover there are storm clouds on the horizon i'm not looking forward to dover because i think we might have a slight problem i'll tell you about it when we get to dover one thing i've noticed about the drivers in cali they're a little more polite and courteous than the ones in paris already while standing at pedestrian crossings i've had a few actually cross and actually indicate go ahead in paris actually speed up or aim for you right i think i'm heading the right direction this looks like an industrial estate but i think that's the plan i'm just thinking i hadn't seen any sign of this ballad in bus and i was crossing the pedestrian crossing there and what stopped and wait for me the driver of the belgian bus i don't know how many of them they have but he was heading away from the port so i definitely missed that one so i'm sort of glad i didn't hang around for the next one and i think if google's street view is correct [Music] it should be just up there [Music] i just spotted something which is a little reassuring just over there there's a humongously large piano ferry that could in fact be ours because it's due to leave in around one and a half hours and there is actually what looks like trucks coming off it now i'm just looking for any sign to indicate foot passengers it's just around this corner here [Music] we're there they've extended the route up there i better get moving annoyingly on the balladin website and their official map it still doesn't show that extension and uh this new place opened in october i'm sure last year so that's now eight months come on right we should be there in about 10 minutes yeah we're gonna be running a little bit late but i'm pretty sure we'll still get on well i've just been overtaken by a ballad and bus um which is a little confusing because according to their map the bus stop was back there at the roundabout but he's now entered the port itself and has disappeared around that roundabout and underneath so who knows i've always said foot passengers often arrive on foot the clue is in the name ah they make it so difficult for foot passengers these days we are an inconvenience so i'll tell you let's hope we can track down this belly and buff see where it's wind even the pavements here have disappeared that's not a good sign [Music] absolutely sweating but i've just made it just okay oh well the next problem to be overcome is the fact that ferry is running about 20-25 minutes late i've got a 50-minute connection time at dover and i'm not convinced i'm gonna make it stay tuned to see if i can make it in the meantime i got myself some lunch and a coffee at least that's us on our way this was the one part of this trip which hadn't been affected by any uh cancellations or amendments of any sort and this is what could look at the entire journey um we're running 25 minutes late i have a 50 minute connection time 25 minutes it's going to take me about 30 minutes to walk into the center of dover that could be interesting all right let's go outside so oh like many people in the uk i've got an issue with p earlier this year p o sacked several hundred employees and then probably replaced them with foreign workers at greatly reduced wages i didn't go down very well unfortunately on this kind of route you don't have much choice because like i said before dfds on the dunkirk to dover route don't accept good passengers well guys the white cliffs of dover are in sight i booked this trip about two weeks ago and it was supposed to be a straightforward journey and i swear 20 minutes after finishing the last part i switched the tv on watched the news and the headline was britain is facing its biggest rail strike in 30 years and i thought i bet you one of the days affected is what i've just booked sure enough yep good morning and welcome the biggest rail strike in 30 years is underway with an almost total shutdown of the network in england scotland and wales so there are no trains from dover to london now that's reminiscent of british rail in the 1980s isn't it uh dried sandwiches dirty trains and train strikes so the rmt union have actually put a train strike on just for me today so i'm having to use a national express bus at least from the center of uh dover normally i'd have 55 minutes to get that i think we're down to about 25 to 30 minutes to cover two miles and i think i'm going to have to run for this i really do so i'm not going to be chatting to you between dover dock and the bus fingers crossed i make it otherwise i'm going to be stranded in dover tonight thank you there's a way that london would set a thousand buses just got me the address from where i'm going the timetable is dated 2017. slightly out of date um [Music] it's very pretty though okay okay time for an update the 25-minute delay on the ferry turned into a 50-minute delay and as a result myself and four others missed the bus from dover to london we all jumped into a taxi the guy drove like a maniac through the streets of dover but we actually uh missed the bus by five minutes so two went off on their own and myself jess from seattle and eve from zurich all decided to catch a local bus to canterbury i was heading in the right direction but we're still a couple of hours away from our destination in london they've gone for a wee walk i'm trying to work out where national express leads from tonight the problem is the bus at 6 pm tonight is full and i'm hoping that if i stand around and i'm nice to the bus driver and some of those shows i'll be able to get on board that should give me at least enough time to get into london because the plan was after this video was shot to catch the overnight bus back to glasgow but the whole thing is kind of falling apart on a positive note i've missed two very nice people we're very relaxing time at starbucks and i saw a bit of canterbury cathedral but i still rather be getting home so i've got a little while to go i'm going to try and find out where this bus leaves from because the main bus station seems to be operated by stagecoach and there is no signage whatsoever for national express so i'm guessing they still leave from there who knows this has turned into a an unusual video now if someone had said to me two weeks ago do you think you'll ever find yourself in canterbury i would have said somewhere between nil and none and here i am worst case scenario is i have to overnight and there will be trains running tomorrow but it's just the additional expense and blah blah blah blah right let's try and find out where national express leaves from okay i'm tired of wandering aimlessly around the streets of canterbury time to return to the bus station i know exactly where the bus leaves from now i couldn't work that out before because it's not at the bus station and then i'll practice what i'm going to say and turn the charm on we might actually get on the bus tonight i hope no comment so [Music] not tonight it would be nice to have stayed at the hampton by hilton tonight but unfortunately i'm already out of pocket too much i'm staying at a little hotel down here just on the outskirts of the town center through booking.com 55 pounds a night that will do and then they've got free wi-fi and i can work out how i'm going to get back to london tomorrow morning i believe the trains are only off today there should be a train service tomorrow and then i still have to get home to glasgow this whole thing has gone a bit pear-shaped i'm staying at a place called the maidens chambers which is actually above a pub but uh it's a beautiful room uh two single beds 55 pounds a night that will do me nicely thank you it's got free wi-fi and i'll be able to work out what i'm doing tomorrow to get into london and to finish this video off because it just seems to be dragging on and on and on right i'm gonna have an early night i'll see you in the morning hi everyone it's just gone 8 a.m i should have been home by now in glasgow but i'm still here in canterbury but the good news is i can hear trains running that means i should be able to get home and finish this epic video so in around the nervous time i'll be heading off to canterbury east station wish me luck i arrived here with plenty of time because i had to collect my prepaid ticket from houston up to glasgow and i was buying my ticket from the guy at the ticket office and he said you may as well catch this train and not wait for your normal 9 19 am departure because that one might have technical issues that could have meant i was stranded in canterbury again i'm feeling confident i'm confident i can at least get to london and finish this video [Music] goodbye canterbury [Music] good morning ladies and gentlemen i hate to be the bearer of bad news but this service is going to be delayed for by approximately about 30 minutes we are currently awaiting an attachment to come up from the brands gate which is running about 30 minutes late at the moment just like to apologize for the delay to the service and the inconvenience this is causing your journey plans um any more information we'll keep you updated but at the moment it's running approximately 30 minutes late just like to apologize once again for the inconvenience this is your day before service to london victoria now calling it him sitting ball newton raynham jillian chatter rochester bromley south vandal victoria many apologies for the late start of this service this was due to electrical supply problems being switched on this morning and unfortunately they didn't take too kindly to be switched back on [Music] [Music] now [Music] [Music] [Music] well firstly guys if you're still watching this nonsense at this point you must be enjoying this video so can i ask you to subscribe if you haven't already done so because after all you're worth it and could you please give me a thumbs up because i deserve it after what i've been through making this video i deserve a thumbs up now i contacted piano ferries and i thought let's see if i can get some of my 179 pounds back because that's how much i was out of pocket i know under uk law you have to be delayed on a ferry more than an hour before you can get compensation but i thought it doesn't have to try although i thought the chances of getting something from them were somewhere somewhere between nun and nil guess what i got back from piano ferries absolutely nothing nara zilch zero so the company that sacks 800 staff members and then fills the posts with cheaper employees when you have a complaint they don't even acknowledge your existence that says a lot about piano ferries will i be traveling with them again probably not anyway guys i hope you enjoyed this video it has been fun to make i think i hope you appreciate it and i'll see you next time

Channel: Planes, Trains, Everything.

Views: 90,824

Keywords: inoui, P&O ferries, calais port, port of calais, foot passenger calais, dover port, foot passenger dover, travel paris to london, train and ferry to london, train and ferry to paris, balad'in, how to travel from paris to london, train from paris to calais, ferry from calais to dover, cross channel ferry, p&o ferries UK, paris to calais train, calais to dover ferry, dover to london train, london to paris by ferry, paris to london by ferry, dover, tgv inoui, tgv, sncf

Id: e-fmomveHNg

Length: 31min 58sec (1918 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 24 2022