To be really funking fed up of the shit train services in this country

Was the car free and no running costs ?

Oh actually saves £8 🤣

I could get £60 instead of £80 fare in the rail sale. Not much to get excited about really!

Exactly - even for those who do find a good bargain it doesn’t mean they won’t face delays or crowded trains. Even if I’m buying something at a “discounted” price I still want a good experience.

Good point about the delay repay - no doubt we the customers are paying the price for this one way or the other.

I had the sale message flag up on my Trainline app as well but nothing included from my local station. Not much of a saving if you have to drive to a station miles away to get a cheap train ticket. Especially as the train will undoubtedly be cancelled or running hours late which means it’ll be packed and you end up standing for hours!

Another thing that bothers me is that if a train is delayed you are refunded, but if there are so many refunds they’ll presumably need to put prices up, so there’s nothing spare to improve services , so there’s more delays ….. and round and round we go, nothing gets any better !

Apparently there’s a sale on train tickets. I looked at tickets from my town to London and wasn’t that impressed but maybe others can find bargains.

Same in Sydney. Moving back to the UK was a culture shock!

The government should continue to champion remote working, rather than let dinosaur employers force staff back into offices. WFH meets avoiding this commuting nightmare and not spending so much of your salary on travel

Precisely. I think it’s absolutely shocking that UK employers, many of whom are not paying their staff well are demanding they go back into the office. Civil services wages for example have been falling behind inflation for so long but the Tories (and now labour) suddenly insisted on 3 days a week in the office despite the cost of living crisis. It seems like it was more to appease Jacob Rees Mogg and the Daily Mail.

I have a friend who’s a fairly senior lawyer and she went from WFH in the pandemic to working 2 Days a week in the office to having to work 5 days a week.

If specific people are taking the piss while working from home they should be dealt with but a blanket policy for everyone to come back under the current circumstances is appalling.

I’m very fortunate that as a reasonable adjustment my work allow me to work remotely. Even pre-pandemic I only worked 2-3 days a week in the office. But I know things can change which is partly why I’m keen to get my driving license in case I need to go to the office more in the near future or if I change job and they’re not as flexible.

They need to sort out public transport and wages first before dragging us all back into the office unnecessarily- and how does this fit in with the UK supposed green agenda??

They're greedy AF. My line on Great Western Railway has introduced a ban on off-peak travel OUT of London from between something like 4pm to 9pm because of "rush hour". They were directing everyone to "upgrade" their tickets to peak, which was bollocks as when you did that you just had to buy a peak ticket rather than pay the difference. It was literally extortion. And it's put me off travel into London on a weekday because by the time I've got there I only have a couple of hours before I need to start thinking about leaving.

@Ineffable23

Good to know, I’ll definitely check out stats for any specific journeys I’m thinking of in Germany.

That surprises me too about France. Maybe I’m seeing other countries transport through rose tinted glasses but again I’d have assumed their trains had minimal delays.

I was in Lisbon for a few weeks a while back and I found their train/metro system reliable and good value but wasn’t there long enough to really know for sure.

Agreed.

Appalling service but extortionate tickets.

It is the usually story with privatisation: profits are what matters and the money goes to shareholders/directors with little being invested in running a decent service.

The government should continue to champion remote working, rather than let dinosaur employers force staff back into offices. WFH meets avoiding this commuting nightmare and not spending so much of your salary on travel...

I got various trains in Germany this summer and all mine were fine - clearly it's quite variable but may be worth seeing what the stats are for timeliness etc.

Edited to add: French trains on the other hand were horrendous - we had massive disruption and they didn't even refund your ticket price. There were hours and hours of delays and the refunds were only on the "long distance" portion (about half our trip) and even then weren't the entire ticket cost for that portion. And we had bought the tickets as single tickets rather than split ticketing or anything.

I’ve never had to Wait Awhile for a train though.😁

Yes but it’s Perth, Wait Awhile….

😋

We've just booked tickets for a 1.5 hr high-speed journey in 2 weeks time, it'll cover 220ish miles and hit 195mph at points (there are 2 stops hence why its not a 1hr journey). Price per person is 40 quid, and it will be clean, airy and a nice trip. Based on the performance of the system over the last 3 years it won't be more than 30 seconds late either ... unless there is an earthquake.

UK trains are a joke, HS2 not going to central london or even to Manchester is a joke. HS2 needs to go from cetral london to Edinburgh with a stop at Manchester and then non-express trains stopping elsewhere. Then they need to build HS3 on the east coast. Then HS4 to Devon etc etc.

They also need to get Heathrow 3 and 4th runways sorted, that place is creaking under the strain too. No point building the 3rd one without building the 4th.

@ObelixtheGaul if you miss a connection because of late trains you should be allowed on the next one. Although I'd always hunt out a member of staff to get it sorted.

The fact is, privatisation was never going to really work, here. We simply don't have a big enough network to support multiple companies, so it was always going to be monopolised. There was never going to be the competition to improve service or reduce fares.

I would love to take advantage of the cheaper pre-booking system, but if I do that, I have to meet every connection. I can't just get on any train going my way. This means I have to check every connection, otherwise I risk pre-booking an entire journey online and then discovering I can't possibly make it from platform 2 to platform 10 to make the connection. Never believe Trainline's fastest journey time if you have to change. It only works if you can teleport.

I do remember British Rail, and it wasn't perfect, but I miss the simplicity. I miss the option of getting the slightly delayed connection because it's going to be going earlier than the one you planned to catch without having to pay the extra for the 'any network' tickets.

And don't get me started on the fact that, as a 50 year old who isn't a student, there is no railcard I can have apart from the two together, which I can only use if I travel with DH. It's great, it's saved us a lot, but we aren't joined at the hip and sometimes I need to travel alone.

I actually prefer National Express to trains most of the time as it can be a lot cheaper, you are guaranteed a seat and your luggage is safely stowed in the luggage compartment below. I realise coaches aren't available to everyone though. We did use trains for our holiday in Dorset last summer.

Not to mention there is no thought to how packed and uncomfortable the trains get when you’re squeezing what should be 3 journeys worth of passengers on to 1 train. I’ve had to stand with my child on a 2+ hour journey. Travelling to the airport on the train (night before of course) with our luggage even with just one connection was by far the most stressful part of our transatlantic holiday. Worrying about cancellations, fighting our way on, trying to find space for our luggage and get seats.

YANBU. I don’t drive and rely on trains for day trips and holidays. It grinds you down. As you say I have to build a buffer in to everything. I will take a long time to plan a journey with enough of a buffer to allow for late/cancelled trains but there is a limit time wise if you are having a day out.

Even just booking an activity at the other end is risky because it is non-refundable and if the train you’re meant to catch and the next 2 are cancelled you’re stuck - I am from a quiet town and transport isn’t that regular to begin with.

£170 for a 1.5 hour train journey? Wtaf?

I hope to learn to drive this year - I have been taking lessons off and on for years and have my test booked. However if for any reason I’m not able to, I will seriously consider relocating (don’t have kids yet) to a country where they have good public transport.

So I’m reading with interest people’s views on which European countries have good train services!

I have lived in Italy for the past thirty years and the rail service in that time has gone from below average to excellent in my opinion. The difference is that a lot of money has been invested into high speed networks and rolling stock and usually my journeys are pleasant and on time and the prices are still somewhat reasonable. Nobody seems interested in actually investing in British railways and the costs are just exorbitant for the passengers.

Crazy. This is the type of madness I don’t understand. In the situation you describe, I’m sure no-one who has a car will sign up for the train unless they’re planning to have a drink in Leeds.

And even then- if there’s more than one person going out, they’d probably be cheaper splitting a taxi/Uber there and back.