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Original poster

Train pricing craziness

61 replies

Globules · 11/09/2025 07:32

I'm going away at the weekend.

Home to destination is £17.20, with one change.
Home to the station I need to change at is £17.80.

Same train. Same everything.

Why does it cost 60p less to travel an hour further?

OP posts:
Lilly11a · 11/09/2025 19:15

Radiatorvalves · 11/09/2025 13:42

There’s a special offer which ends today. It’s for travel in Nov /dec. Adding photo.

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We ve just booked a sneaky 2 nights in Brussels with this . Worked out 170 per person inc hotel with breakfast. So reasonable

crackofdoom · 11/09/2025 19:20

CraftyGin · 11/09/2025 19:12

An off-peak senior single trip to London for me is £9.70. An off-peak return is £9.80. Clearly, no-one wants me getting stranded in London.

Ah, now. Cheap day returns are a British oddity and a thing of beauty. Now, I think they exist because they're an inheritance from British Rail and it was a condition of privatisation that they were kept, but I'm willing to stand corrected on that.

crackofdoom · 11/09/2025 19:27

WestwardHo1 · 11/09/2025 18:48

I think the route from Exeter St Thomas goes into Waterloo on SW trains doesn't it.

The other crazy thing about getting to West Cornwall from Paddington is that you can get to Exeter in just about two hours with a single stop at Reading if you pick a fast train. It then takes over THREE MORE HOURS to get to the bottom end of Cornwall, and it stops at more or less every lamp post. Trundling along estuaries and over viaducts at 50mph is all very pretty (if it's daylight) the first couple of times....

Now, I would say direct trains that only stopped at Truro would be a good idea, but I have an inkling it could be because the track in Cornwall won't support trains going any faster anyway....

Not only a British problem. Have a look at a map of France, and ponder on the paradox that it takes 3 hours to get from Paris to Marseille and nearly a further 3 hours to get to Nice, which is about a tenth of the distance...

Yorkshiremum80 · 11/09/2025 19:29

Our train prices are ridiculous. I can get a train from Doncaster to Sheffield for £7 single but Doncaster to York is about £25 it takes longer to get to Sheffield!

We are going to Munich later this year and are having a day in Salzburg which is just under 2 hours away. 3 of us can travel first class for £60 return on a ticket valid from 9am to 3am the next morning and we can use it as many times as we like on the trains, buses and trams and subways in Bavaria in the time period! It's only £40 if we go second class.

CraftyGin · 11/09/2025 19:36

I went to Paris recently on Eurostar - £290 each way - plus about £10 for local transport to get to St Pancras.

Next time, I will fly for about half that price. The ridiculous thing was that I transferred from my local bus to the Underground in Terminal 5.

DS is moving to Paris so I expect to visit him a bit more than I do when he is living in London.

crackofdoom · 11/09/2025 19:38

CraftyGin · 11/09/2025 19:36

I went to Paris recently on Eurostar - £290 each way - plus about £10 for local transport to get to St Pancras.

Next time, I will fly for about half that price. The ridiculous thing was that I transferred from my local bus to the Underground in Terminal 5.

DS is moving to Paris so I expect to visit him a bit more than I do when he is living in London.

Did you shop around for prices at all?!

CraftyGin · 11/09/2025 19:40

crackofdoom · 11/09/2025 19:38

Did you shop around for prices at all?!

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I think first class is pretty much one fare. Plus, I only booked it 18 hours earlier.

taxguru · 11/09/2025 19:41

Zimunya · 11/09/2025 11:56

When we moved back to the UK several years ago, I was determined not to get a car. Public transport is so good, I said. Be green and save the planet, I said. Reduce the stress of following a map and driving, I said.

Now I drive everywhere. The train ticket costs for a family of three outweigh the cost of driving by such an incredibly large percentage that we simply can't justify it.

On a similar vein. When my son got his first job in a different city after graduating, we did loads of research, found him a flat on a good bus route that went straight to the railway station so that he could get a bus to/from work and also bus to/from the station for when he needed to travel by train to come home, or go to away football matches, training course with work, etc. He wanted to do the "right" thing and use public transport. After six months of a living hell with cancellations, delays, anti social behaviour on the buses, buses that didn't turn up, buses that didn't stop, buses running late or the driver randomly stopping for breaks without telling the passengers meaning he missed his train, randomly delayed & cancelled trains meaning he missed connections and several times couldn't get home in the evening or couldn;t get back to his city after a day out, etc. not to mention to ruinous cost of train fares, he bought a car and hasn't used a bus nor train since!

crackofdoom · 11/09/2025 19:44

CraftyGin · 11/09/2025 19:40

I think first class is pretty much one fare. Plus, I only booked it 18 hours earlier.

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Oh well, what did you expect then?! 😆 How much is a first class plane ticket to Paris booked with 18 hours notice?!

CraftyGin · 11/09/2025 19:52

I didn't have any expections - DS snapped his fingers and said I was going to Paris with him the next day.

I wouldn't bother with Club Class for a 40 minute flight, but the regular BA would be about half of Eurostar's Premier Class. And it would only be a £3 bus fare for me, then a few extra Euros to get from Roissy to Gare du Nord (to meet DS coming off his cattle class Eurostar).

crackofdoom · 11/09/2025 22:56

CraftyGin · 11/09/2025 19:52

I didn't have any expections - DS snapped his fingers and said I was going to Paris with him the next day.

I wouldn't bother with Club Class for a 40 minute flight, but the regular BA would be about half of Eurostar's Premier Class. And it would only be a £3 bus fare for me, then a few extra Euros to get from Roissy to Gare du Nord (to meet DS coming off his cattle class Eurostar).

I mean, you're hardly comparing like with like there, but you do you 🤷‍♀️

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