The ridiculous cost of train fares

[garlictwist]

I have a few unexpected days off work coming up and thought I might have some time in London as the weather is good there.

The train fare is coming out at over £300 return. I can fly to Spain for less than that. Then I looked at going to Devon on the train - same thing.

I understand they have their book miles in advance thing but a) I don't always know that I want to travel in advance and b) how can they justify such insane prices even at the more expensive end?

They should have put all the money they've slung into HS2 into subsidising train fares. It just makes no sense on earth for it to cost that much.

We use national express or one of the other bus services. Longer but fraction of the price. It’s typically £4 each way to London on the bus vs £75 on the train return pp. For the airport the bus is actually quicker in normal traffic conditions

@ElegantlyDressing they have been increasing a lot in the last 2 years, it was reduced during pandemic and they didn’t lease as many vehicles. We are up to every 40 minutes to London and hourly n, s and w. Hourly to Heathrow

Used to be.

last few times I have travelled by train it’s been delayed by over an hour /had a rail replacement bus.

I try not to travel at weekends now because at least weekdays are less likely to have engineering work.

My adult DCs use coaches now they have to pay for themselves! We used to pay for their train fares to:from uni but since graduation, if they want you to visit uni friends, it’s the coach. They’re sooo much cheaper, but of course much slower.

Went to a uni open day and it was cheaper to drive and stay overnight then get a train there and back same day (for two people with railcards). By contrast went to Italy recently and the trains are clean, comfortable, allocated seating and cheap.

Last month it was cheaper for me to take the train the night before and stay in a central London hotel (admittedly only premier inn) than get a peak time train ticket into London the next day.

Where are you travelling from @garlictwist ?
Being creative with the route can make a lot of difference to the price.

I travelled from Sheffield to Cardiff before Christmas and going via Bristol was much more expensive.

The train journey to Glasgow from Sheffield is cheaper if you go via Carlisle.

You see that is nuts!
Train companies seem to be able to charge whatever they want & unless you can plan your journey months in advance then train travel just isn't a viable option.

It wouldn't be so bad if these overly expensive trains were run well and were reliable but you can end up paying a fortune & still face delays.

The state of train travel in this country in this day & age is something for us all to be angry about.

It costs me around £40 per day to commute approx 40 mins from Berkshire to London.

Just spent a week in Paris where it cost approx £27 for a whole week for all trains, buses, metro etc covering all zones including airports, Disney etc.

It’s a joke.

And this is is ridiculous too. The price should be the price, I would accept a discount for advance bookings.

Every time I go in to London I am confused by the prices. I live 24 minutes from a London main station and it costs over £45 sometimes.

But there are random fluctuations. Eg to get to one place I go regularly, you can change at station X or station Y, one route takes 35 minutes the other 37. The faster one is £3 more. But I can never tell how on earth the contactless would know which one you got?!??

That's the difference with a state owned train system.
Cut the greedy shareholders out and it's a different story.

I agree. I find it really frustrating. Gosh those prices are mad. I live in rural Wales, so have no idea of London prices. It really does need to be simplified though. Getting a train ticket shouldn't be so complicated!

Of course. It's the drivers fault. Not the private companies being subsidised by the Government

I looked at going to Oban from our local station (Keynsham). Not only did this involve multiple changes- the first before stop from us at Bristol Temple Meads- and a travel time of up to 15 hours, the cost for 3 adults was over £560.
If we share the driving, and the ferries are running to schedule we can take the car onto Mull for about £200 (fuel and ferry costs) and it takes us 10 to 12 hours.

(We can't fly because there's no airport on Mull).

This is just regurgitated right wing claptrap.

The reason our fares are so high is fairly and squarely because of privatisation.

see also water, electric, broadband, postal service etc.

The coach and train don't stop in the same place. If I go to London it's a few stops different on the tube. But I know for other cities it can be quite a distance

I guess they're high because there's usually someone who will pay it, we are now a very overpopulated country so there's an abundance of people to pay the high fares for each journey.

She still gets a third off though.

The Trainline app does the fare split for you now and it makes a massive difference.

Couldn't you get the bus if it is close ? I get the car is convenient but the bus must mean no faffing about getting a car park and paying for it .

We booked tickets months ago glasgow-London and did this, took £s off the ticket price,

I appreciate pp might want to go on a whim but split tickets might be cheaper.

It's swings and roundabouts though. Travelling by train between London and Edinburgh, takes 4 hours. Sydney to Melbourne, which is a slightly longer distance, takes 11 hours! Ironically, for many years, on the same design of train.

Agreed. Have recently travelled in Europe using clean, efficient and incredibly cheap train networks.
Like so many other parts of UK life we are the very poor relations to our European cousins.

Agree @garlictwist . I live in commuter land, only 35 miles outside central London. It is cheaper for me to drive into central London and pay to park just outside the congestion zone, than it is for me to take the train. That includes petrol costs!!!! Really pisses me off. I often do take the train because the drive is stressful and despite the obscene price I pay, I usually stand the whole way in and out and 30% of the time there are delays, cancellations and issues with the train service.

They still don't come any nearer to here than the town that is a 40 min bus ride away. The ones from DS's uni town still only go to London. No use whatsoever.