The price of train tickets!

I took the train this week (off peak return tickets not bought in advance and we reckon it cost £25 more than driving (£125 vs £100 in fuel) paid for parking at the station but would have had to pay for parking if we had driven. We have a 2 together railcard that helped. Its less stressful taking the train for sure but anything longer than 3 hours I just fly

It's a moot point surely, because you'll get your money back in full when Avanti cancels your train at the last minute?

The Uk is crumbling on so many fronts. The Tories will walk away with very fat pockets while the infrastructure is left in tatters. Our rail service is shocking compared to other western nations. We are becoming the strange ancient disheveled relation of the western world who occasionally comes to and spouts off some memory of the good old days.

I go on holiday next week. For the cost of a one-way ticket to the airport for 3 adults, I can pay for an overnight hotel, car parking and the fuel both ways. Now add in the return journey and the taxis to/from the station and there is just no way I can consider public transport. It's far too expensive, unreliable and generally crap.

The government seems to think that the reason people don't use the trains is because they're not fast enough. It's not. It's because they're ridiculously expensive. I'd love to hop on a train for a day out, but it's pretty much always cheaper to drive, even on my own. If I've got company it would be ridiculous to waste money on train fares.

I use trains regularly and often don't pay the full fare as I can claim back part or sometimes all of the fare when the train is late or cancelled .

Probably best to keep your glorious memories of fuck o'clock in the morning coach journeys as they are rather than spoil the magic by attempting to recreate them in middle age, with a family.

I paid £157 return Bristol to Penrith. Luckily it turned out to be free as the service is so horrific that I was delayed over 2 hours.

My dad lives about 10 minutes by train from the nearest city and it costs £5 return.

If we can make early booking then we save a lot. DS lives a long way away but we need to see them and luckily can book in advance we can cut the fare by two thirds with a Railcard

Very frustrating. Councils up and down the country are doing everything they can to stop people driving while at the same time public transport is bloody awful and trains especially so.

Privatisation. Thanks Tories!

Yup. I need to travel to my aunts funeral in the new year but I cannot afford the train ticket so it looks like I can’t attend. It’s horrendous.

It's ridiculous. We went to London recently and one of us didn't even have a seat it was so busy (one of the only weekend days in weeks there was no rail replacement services).

I live an hour and a half from London and if more than one of us is travelling, it’s cheaper to drive in, pay for ulez, congestion charge AND park than it is to get the train. It’s ridiculous.

It really is a disgrace. I never get trains in the uk in recent years. Ironically (given the government apparently want to get people using public transport) it more comfortable and cheaper to drive and pay carparks, even the extortionate NCP ones!

I don't understand it. I use trains in Spain every year. They are clean, on time, air conditioned and very affordable. Why is it so bad in the uk?

Not meaningless as can see how fares have increased

It's awful. I could cry when I see train prices in e.g. Belgium, Netherlands.

Are trains just an outdated form of public transport now, in a country as backward as ours? Coaches are our future because we aren’t as technically competent to get it together as our euro/Far Eastern counterparts?

I have to get trains as I don't drive

I’m familiar with that journey. I would sit online, keep scrolling down, sometimes every morning and evening until a £25 fare showed up, with my railcard. £190 is
extortionate.

I've been thinking the same, recently. I loved a 4am coach into London, as a student. Slept the whole way, came back late and slept on way back, too. Think is was a tenner return, back then.

Might do that next time we pop down.

I can’t drive due to disability so I’m stuck with public transport. Even with a Railcard the prices take the piss. I wouldn’t even mind if it was a good service we’re paying for, but it’s not, it’s unreliable, infrequent, overcrowded, dirty, and just generally grim. I have to book assistance to get help on and off trains, around stations etc, without which it’s impossible for me to travel, and it fails to turn up more often than not. I’ve been left stranded on platforms more times than I care to remember.

Train prices are utterly ridiculous.

I wanted to go to a specific place with DP & DS in the summer, Major South Midlands station to Liverpool, not even on a Saturday or in the am/pm rush hour windows - over £80 EACH!

Absolute madness. It would take less than £80 of petrol in my little car to drive there and back!

The whole thing is just messed up.