The price of train tickets!

I would say my DH and I earn well. We'd much rather travel by train both for work and for holidays. But the cost is just so prohibitive that it makes much more sense to drive.

On the rare occasion I need to travel into London for work it's £193 from Leicester. Mainly because I can't guarantee a time to travel back due to meetings over running or changing last minute so need an open return.

About 18 months ago i did the same journey approx 6 times over 2 months, travelling to and from an ill relative. Train should've taken approx 2 hours & involved 1 or 2 changes. Easy, right? Hahhahaa. Every single time there was a problem - train broke down, points failure, a connecting train left from the wrong platform with no notice given, several delays so i missed the connection....

A few weeks ago dh took a dc to the theatre in London. On the home journey several trains were cancelled - he messaged at one point to say they had no idea if any trains were going to run. One eventually did, but obv had to cram on several train's worth of passengers so dh & dc stood, packed like sardines, for over an hour. Arrived home 4 hours late. Paid over £100 for the privilege. Complete joke.

Eh!!!
London to Cardiff is only 150 miles
1 tank of petrol (£60) does 450 miles
Where are you getting £140 from.

I detest coach travel as the level of pain from being crammed into one of those for five hours left me barely able to walk. However, the journey cost next to nothing instead of £180 for a trip where we had to spend it sat on the floor by the toilet door because they'd cancelled the service before and suspended all the seat reservations, so there were giant suitcases blocking the aisles and in every third seat.

If we can get a seat, the train is far less painful - but there's no guarantee of that and pain+guaranteed seat+reasonable cost is better than pain+no seat+hundreds of pounds to pay for the privilege of seeing some twat's samsonite in your seats.

Oh, and coaches don't tend to go on strike every holiday or close down the entire road network at the other end of the break, so there's more chance of getting both there and back again in the first place.

Not looking forward to a 150 mile trip we have to do next month. But that would have been £285 for Advance tickets with a railcard for two. Compare to a tenner each on national express, plus getting to the coach station. Just have to hope that I can walk at the other end.

It's one of the reasons I fight the back to the office crew at work. People's commuting costs have sky rocketed but pay hasn't kept pace so our staff will be severely out if pocket if we try and force them in more

Do you have a Family & Friends Railcard? I've just checked fares from South London (checking several random stations for balance and they all had the same price) and Super Off Peak Returns to Cardiff came to £65.05 per adult and £18.70 per child, so £167.50 for a family of four.

It's still a lot of money but considerably less than you were quoted. Slight issue that you can't leave Paddington before 10:15 Mon-Fri but otherwise it's a flexible ticket which can be purchased at any point until boarding, no need to book ahead.

Driving would have cost around £140 or so, using the HMRC mileage rate.

Oh no. Where are you based, if you don't mind me asking, and where do you need to go?

Don't get it either.. thought we were meant to be using cars less!?

We (me, DH, 2 DC) looked at the price of train tickets from south London to Cardiff last year.

Even booking several weeks ahead, it was going to be well over £200 for all of us. Or we could drive it on one tank of petrol.

We drove...

Gets me so cross that it's considerably cheaper for me to drive to work than it is to get the train. And that takes into account all the costs of running my car, not just the petrol.

Why would anyone choose to help save the planet and use public transport when it's over crowded, unreliable, dirty and expensive??

By the time you include parking at the train station (£1500 a year at ours). You would be cheaper driving.

I just got a new job that is 50miles one way commute. My home and my work are both on a train line (in Midlands). Thought I'd look into an annual train ticket. Journey time is 1h on the train, 1h 10 driving, but costs just shy of £5k a year. I can buy a new car for that, madness costs.

I travelled Edinburgh to perth then back again today and it cost 23 pound for me and 3 kids so not that bad

The government don't want to get people using public transport at all. Didn't you see that they severely cut a project designed to boost capacity (and by consequence allow peak fares to drop to more sensible levels) on one of the busiest routes in Europe. Where did they decide to spend the money instead? Road repairs in London.

Rishi won't notice the high fares, the unreliablity and the overcrowding, not when he's whizzing over in his helicopter.

I wish I spoke Dutch, I'd move there in an instant.

My husband used to be a train driver on southeastern. We had free train travel for 22 years..until last year. He changed to freight driving and I so miss the free train travel!!! Its ridiculous trying to go to London from Kent.

Just tried to book a journey between two uk cities. I could drive it in 2 hours. It'll take 3.5 hours, two changes and a 'bus replacement service' for part of the journey. The cost is £35 but there are three of us travelling so hard to justify. Last time we went, all return trains were cancelled without warning. It's a fucking joke. Prices spiral while service declines.

I’m an expat with a family in London and I don’t bother traveling anywhere in this country, trains are horrendous, everywhere is overcrowded, and expensive. Shame because I’ve wanted to see some beautiful parts of this country. We take care very holiday abroad. Not worth it in the U.K. anymore.

Train prices are atrocious, there needs to be a railcard for single adults who catch a lot of trains. I don’t drive long distances due to disability, but don’t qualify for a disabled railcard as I’ve not applied for PIP (the process is too inaccessible), and there aren’t coaches to my destination. Just means I travel less now than I’d like to.

£6 return for one stop, literally 5 minute train ride away. Don’t think that’s great value tbh

We are 60 miles from London. We are going to London less as it is too dear. About a month ago coming home there was a ticket inspection. 3 separate people just in our carriage on a low occupation train had no tickets. If you do this every week, the lack of inspectors mean you would be cheaper with the odd fine.

Couldn't agree more. I'm a full time mature student in London, live in Surrey and don't really enjoy driving so would love to rely on the train. I would ideally also use the time to study since I'm on a very demanding course and have 3 kids at home so less flexibility and freedom than younger students.

But my 40 ish minute journey (on a good day without delays, cancellations, skipped stops and fastest route) costs £20-25 return even with split tickets/off peak for return journey, AND with a student Railcard! And my provider cuts out all the outer London interchange stations during peak times so I have no choice but to pay a zone 1 premium and pricier tube journeys to get to where I need to be on time. Off peak my journey time can sometimes be halved and cost approx £10 less but I often do need to be for 9am like many people.

It's completely unaffordable now that I'm not earning and get the very bare minimum maintenance loan (no tuition fee loan for previous graduates). I tend to drive halfway to three-quarters in to areas where I can park for free and use an Oyster card but I'd really rather not when I have a perfectly good train station within walking distance. I've complained/fed back a lot but of course they couldn't care less. Profit profit profit.

Italy also has such cheap prices and their trains are like modern spaceships!

I dunno, you know. Think DS & DH would sleep, if previous naps in airports are anything to go by, and if it saves us £100 odd quid a trip then it's gotta be worth a try.

Train journeys are hardly a joy, are they?

When we go to London we drive from the south coast. Last summer it was going to be £190 for 3 of us to go on the train. Petrol, parking and tube fares in London cost us £80 for the 3 of us by driving. It doesn't make sense to get the train and be tied to the times etc.... driving means we can leave when we want.