The cost of trains

[AHungryCaterpillar]

Planning to take my children out tomorrow but looking at the price of trains it will cost us £25 😕 that’s me and 3 children. I can get the bus as that will just be me to pay for and the 3 children free (London) but it takes much much longer, I just don’t understand why trains are so expensive?! Is there some kind of discount I’m missing?

National rail card.

Normal prices I'm afraid. Just for me and daughter (who is still free!) costs us £25.70 to get into London (we don't live that far out) if we want the pleasure of taking the tube once we arrive.

Can you get a family rail card?

Both places are in London, that was actually on the trainline and I was saving a 1/3 apparently, as it was £35!

Have a look at split ticketing. A ticket from my home station to Banbury and a ticket from Banbury to my destination was cheaper than a direct one this week.

I just don’t understand why trains are so expensive

Privatisation.

Looks like we’re getting the bus!

I know. My grandparents live a 5 minute walk away from their local train station, we live a 5 minute walk away from ours. It would make complete sense for us to go on the train, but it costs more for me to pay for 5 tickets than it does for diesel, so we just go in the car. I’d rather use public transport for to help climate change, but we can’t justify paying more unfortunately.

It's always cheaper for us on the train than the bus when we've got the railcard

Train seems expensive because some of your family get free bus travel (in London.) Bus and train are comparable where I live but everyone in my family pays.

Won’t be cheaper than the bus for me as the kids are free I think it’s just £1.50 on the bus so will cost me £3 there and back

I guess it depends on what you are comparing it to. I'm going in to London tomorrow from the home counties, a group saver ticket for 3 people has cost me about £34 which I thought was pretty cheap. But in your case, I can see why it seems expensive compared to the bus.

We don't have local trains, but I use them to travel to other cities. I find the prices horrendous. Even with a railcard it's cheaper to drive, even just for one person. Once more than one person is going the train is massively more expensive. Three of us are doing a train journey together soon (long drive and we didn't want the hassle), and I'm having to close my mind to the cost of it!

Oh right well that explains why the trains seem expensive if the bus is free 🤣

costing me £16 tonight from Birmingham to London. Seems like the trains are cheap when there's more choice (3 operators/London stations)

Depends on the train company but some offer cheaper kids tickets that you can't buy online - you have to buy at the ticket office

Ridiculously expensive and awful service. Took DD to the theatre last night and for £20 return to London Terminals (no tube) we had a 2hr journey (should have been 40 mins), 2 changes (shouldn't have any) all because of train cancellations. 3 cancellations in total.

If you live in London and are travelling within London zones, get Zip cards for the DC. There's a charge for the card but then most trains within London are free (under 11) or cheap.