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Original poster

The price of train tickets!

182 replies

PopNotPolitics · 30/12/2023 18:19

The cost of train tickets is rising AGAIN! We seem to get this every single year!

I earn okay, but I almost always take the coach when I travel between cities as I just can't justify the cost of the trains anymore as they are.

Surely they will just be unaffordable to most people soon, and what will happen then?

OP posts:
RH1234 · 30/12/2023 18:47

Grantham to Kings Cross.

My wife (no railcard) sometimes has to pay £190 for the same journey as me, if we are not together.

(prices are return tickets)

SOxon · 30/12/2023 18:45

RH1234 · 30/12/2023 18:42

I begrudge paying for the train. It was £50 return to London for me during covid.

Now on a good day it’s £85, normal £135 and that’s with a railcard.

Driving is far cheaper, even with fuel, maintenance, tyres, insurance etc

RH, this is meaningless information if we don’t know from where you are travelling?

SOxon · 30/12/2023 18:42

OP we live east of Oxford which runs the Oxford Tube, double decker bus/coach, wifi, toilet, comfortable, darkened windows, quiet, civilised, busy at weekends as you can imagine, prices just risen about £11 single, cheap return, into Victoria via Notting Hill Gate, Marble Arch. Its wonderful.
As students at Leeds took the coach to Victoria booked in advance, a smooth journey albeit longer, headphones, book, sandwiches, flask, bliss, a gentle hum of conversation, .we prefer it now.

Train travel is so grim. Chiltern Railways will run a busy 11.00am Saturday train Marylebone to Birmingham via Bicester Village, either direction, with 2 carriages, standing room only, prams, luggage, crying babies, fretful children, stuffy.
Awful.
This Shows the utter contempt in which rail passengers are held, a scandal and
disgrace.

RH1234 · 30/12/2023 18:42

I begrudge paying for the train. It was £50 return to London for me during covid.

Now on a good day it’s £85, normal £135 and that’s with a railcard.

Driving is far cheaper, even with fuel, maintenance, tyres, insurance etc

SisterMichaelsHabit · 30/12/2023 18:28

And by "we just don't go to London" I mean I've even seen decent-paid jobs that I'd love to apply for but that I can't afford to take because of the cost of commuting on the train.

ANightmareBeforeChristmas · 30/12/2023 18:24

Yep - we have already 'defected' to coaches for many longer trips where we don't fancy driving.

It's particularly galling that you are paying £££ for a train service that is often unreliable and overcrowded. Trains cancelled altogether is increasingly common, and being late is pretty much a given nowadays.

SisterMichaelsHabit · 30/12/2023 18:22

It's already unaffordable for us. If we ever go into London, it's cheaper for the four of us to pay the ULEZ and Congestion Charge and parking than to buy tickets, and we're only 2 stops from our nearest underground station. We just don't go to London most of the time and we're only just outside the M25.