To think that train companies are taking the piss??

[tigerbear]

Have just checked prices for 2 SINGLE train tickets from London to Winchester for DH and I - nearly fell off my chair when the price popped up as £58.60!!! This is a journey lasting less than an hour.

I just don't understand how they can get away with charging these prices.
Yet I bought a ticket for a similar length journey from London to Southend the other week and it was just £14 return - I just don't understand how they work out these mental prices!!!
Grrrr.

I just booked tickets to London from Leeds, £14 each way. It can be done, but that's with a family rail card and we've booked in advance for may.

Drive!

We took ds1 to London for the day last summer. Tickets on SWT from Portsmouth to Waterloo for 3 of us (2 adults, 1 child) were nearly £80. We took the car instead. £14 worth of diesel & £15 to park the car for the day in Wimbledon.

Plus you can come and go at whatever time you like. It took us an hour to get to Wimbledon as opposed to the 1hr 45 it would have taken on the train. And we weren't tied to the times that the trains ran.

I've never got the train, and never will take the train to London again as it's just too expensive.

DP and I have a running joke that for the price they charge for a 2 hour train journey, we expect pointy loo roll and a chocolate on the pillow.

(Winchester is a feature in our journey - YADNBU!!!)

If you book in advance it can be cheap but I agree it can be a complete rip off. Can you imagine what the prices will be if or when they modernise the railway though?

Hmmm. That is expensive, and I've just looked on thetrainline to check it. It wouldn't be much more for the return - 58.80 for an off-peak day return for the two of you, or 62.40 for an off-peak return (ie returning on a different day) for the two of you.

For this route it looks like the single is almost as expensive as the return.

The fares are confusing. Some bargains can be had if you book ahead and have a railcard, but nor for your single London to Winchester journey it would seem.

How do you get the cheap advance fares? We've tried booking 12 weeks in advance like they say and it always comes up the same price as buying at the station on the day. The only time is when SOuthern do any book in advance offers and they work right up until a few hours before the train leaves. Other than that I've never found them to be cheaper booking in advance.

DS has travelled to London for 18 appointments at Great Ormond Street, since August last year.

He travels from Sheffield, I travel from the Midlands and we meet in London. It's cost me over £1,400 in rail fares. DS has the 16-25 railcard, but it's still a fortune. Then the trains are way over-crowded for parts of the journey.

Really annoys me - so much for encouraging people to use public transport.

Tiny bit cheaper if you buy a single from Waterloo to Woking (18.80 for two) then another single from Woking to Winchester (32.80 for two). Total 51.60. Not a great saving though.

I use qjump.com they give you loads of options including singles and returns. Really good site. Tickets arrived the next day.

I've just booked a trip to Edinburgh - university visit! - and the costs on Virgin, Trainline and Qjump are pretty much the same.

All extortionate!

megabus.com are brilliant if you don't care what time you go - fares from a quid. I get a return to Southampton from home then a megabus cheapie from Southampton to London when I know i'm travelling in advance ;)

mypanda - neither DH or I can drive :(
Hmm, might look into whether Megabus go to Winchester...

Bugger, Megabus don't go to Winchester!

Yeah, but if you can get a ticket from Southampton for £4 like I've done in the past it'd be worth getting on at Winch, surely?

I have just had the same problem - £66 for DH and me. Our issue was exasperated by the fact we have to be in London bt 9am. If we could have waited til after 9.30, it would be £36

Booking early cheap deals etc aren't readily available on comuter trains, especially during rush hour.

singles are the most expensive thing to get on the day. saver fares retrun are just the single plus 50p or £1.

they charge it because they can. When you have to be somewhere at a certain time, you have to pay it.

What Undertone said, with knobs on

I'll join your rant Undertone - and I haven't even got the smoking excuse!!!

(Good luck, btw)

pmsl at blistered arseholes... I must be a total newbie here, because I still get a kick out of all the bad language on a site for mums :-)

Any advice for travelling from Sunderland to London? I could get a family railcard I guess, just wondering what the cheapest rates seem to be in others experiences, as I am not having much luck finding cheaper tickets and I am not fixed by dates since it is for sometime this summer...

at Undertone!