I don’t see any recent notes on this
I’m trying to see the possible to get from the continent to Dover. I was thinking that the Calais ferry’s but I will be arriving to Calais by train
Is it even possible to foot passenger the ferry anymore?
It seems like perhaps there are coaches serving Calais-Dover routes, which I assume take the ferry. Is this a better bet?
Thank you
Matt
P and O are the only carrier currently conveying Foot Passengers between Calais and Dover, and then only on 3 sailings a day- late morning, mid afternoon and early evening.
There is a previous thread about ethical concerns over the Company and the condition of their ships.
Also the port has now relocated and is a long way from Calais Ville station, furthermore there is now a 90 minute foot pax check in.
The reality is that this is a barely viable routeing now, only for the very determined with a whole day to spare.
No coach picks up in Calais or sets down in Dover. You have to go from Paris to London then backtrack to Dover if that is your final destination. Check the timetable very carefully for each coach as most use the car Shuttle in the tunnel. A few use one of the other ferry companies- DFDS or Irish Ferries. Again this is a long journey, but the only way to do it if you are set on using the traditional ferry route, and /or if cost is the key driver.
It is far faster and overall more convenient to use the Eurostar train from Paris or Lille Europe to London St Pancras, and forget about Calais entirely. Eurostar is not calling at Calais Frethun until at least spring 2024, and don't bank on it happening even then.
We did the crossing many years ago, so I don't know if this still works. This was the procedure: drop rental car at Calais (careful to not accidentally get in the queue for cars boarding the ferry), check in at the ferry port, board a shuttle bus that took us onto the ferry. From there we went up to the passenger decks for the crossing. Arriving in Dover, we were shuttle bussed off the ferry, entered a cavernous arrivals hall that was nearly empty. We then went out to the street and took a taxi to the train station and then the train to London. The taxi ride is only about a mile, but do NOT attempt to walk - this is a port area with dozens of lorries - I think it would be dangerous for pedestrians.
The experience is totally worth it if you are an Anglophile and it is a clear day. You can see the white cliffs for nearly the entire distance of the crossing.
Back in the day SNCF took you all the way down to Calais Maritime station (as they did at Boulogne and Dieppe as well, to special dockside stations), which was right at the (old) port, and at Dover the rail connected ferries ran into Dover Western Docks (now the cruise port) where there was a railway station, and the dedicated non stop boat trains ran from there into London. The current ferry port is at what used to be called Dover Eastern Docks [DED in travel parlance as against DWD for the other port- colloquially known as Dread and Dead]. For those of us as a certain age we still refer to the Tonbridge and Canterbury routes to Dover as BTR 1 and BTR 2 [boat train route] with great affection.
One time when I docked at Dover at gone midnight after a 6 hour wait circling off port in a storm I felt both dread and dead!!
From Calais Maritime connecting trains ran to all over Europe, not just France.
Many a time I used both the Calais and Boulogne routes, through both Dover and Folkestone.
Until the end of last year a shuttle bus ran from Calais Ville station to the port. It was reported by users to be unreliable and with the effective end of foot passenger service I doubt very much it still runs.
There even used to be train ferries which conveyed through trains from London to Paris- like still exists to Sicily and did until recently between Germany and Denmark, and Germany and Sweden.
I have finally found the free shuttle bus which links Calais Ville gare and Calais ferryport-
https://www.sitac-calais-opale-bus.fr/page.php?rubrique=1&id=la-baladin
That took a bit of research
By the way Rome2rio gives totally the wrong information- it must be 20 years or more out of date.
I am becoming seriously grumpy about Rome2Rio and their really poor information in so many cases.
What makes me more frustrated is that I have to waste time looking at Rome2Rio then add a comment about it.
Here I have sought to answer the OP thoroughly. Even if I think he is ill advised to take the route he wishes to, then I will give him as much information as he needs to complete the trip in the manner proposed, if he still wants to take that route, given that the route is still nominally possible.
Here I have had to dust off old text books, then essentially bring the old information back up to date, which has taken time because bus companies change, as do routes. It is also reasonable to say that the local websites for Calais are not the best presented I have ever seen.
It was only that I am aware of someone who used the shuttle bus last fall (or tried to, it didn't turn up) that I knew there was a case to pursue.
In this case Trip Advisor is also wrong.
I so wish that it was still sensible to take the Dover/Folkestone/Ramsgate/Sheerness ferry routes to the Continent.
This is the instructive story of one journey from Paris to London via the classic ferry route and P and O.
