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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Frigging hell! The price of train tickets to London!!

358 replies

Hellotoallmyfans · 02/09/2021 12:28

Why have train tickets become so expensive? (I don't use public transport usually so not very aware of fluctuating prices)

Every couple of years or so I book for us to go to London as a family (2 adults, 3 dcs) to go see a show and take in some sights - the theatre tickets were £600(!) but I was expecting that as I know that's what it costs for decent seats, ditto the hotel which is £500 for two rooms for one night. But what I wasn't expecting was to then have to pay another £340 on top for train tickets from Manchester to get there! Last time we went, before covid, the train was £90 for a family ticket! There doesn't seem to be any options for family tickets and all the websites I've looked at are showing the same price.

I don't know what I'm looking for here, just having a moan really! Or maybe the name of a secret website that does cheap train tickets? Grin

Everything is so bloody expensive isn't it? I guess I will have to suck it up and pay as I've booked the theatre tickets now which I'm sure will non-refundable. It's just gutting that I am looking at close to a grand just to get there and stay for one night. We could literally have flights/hotel for a week in Europe for that! Not taking into account the theatre tickets and the £££+ we will probably end up spending on food/drink and other attractions (wanted to maybe do a boat ride and some museums).

It's going to be at least £2k+ spent on one night in London! I don't know if it's even worth it? Grrr.

OP posts:
Hawdyerwheesht · 02/09/2021 20:22

Tesco voucher for railcard, costs £10

Comefromaway · 02/09/2021 20:56

For a double room sleeping two adults yes.

For two adults and 3 children it’s £204.97

But that is a cheap week. During half term the same rooms are over £450 and that’s not including breakfast.

StoneofDestiny · 02/09/2021 21:03

As long as this pricing continues the government is never going to get people to leave their cars at home. It's cheaper to fly to Europe than get a train between Britain's cities.
We don't need HS2 - we need more rail lines between places and cheaper fares.

Tooembarrassingtomention · 02/09/2021 21:06

@Againstmachine

Whilst I don't agree hotel prices are that cheap 250 a room per night is pricey, and 600 for tickets is rediclous. But the least expensive part of trip is bit she is complaining about
They really unbelievably cheap

I have spent 50% of my time London hotels for the past 11 years.
They have never been as cheap.

Original poster
Hellotoallmyfans · 02/09/2021 21:10

Back with a quick update - I had to go out earlier so just reading through the rest of the thread.

I got a family and friends railcard (£30) and then managed to get the return tickets I wanted for £124! So that's a saving of around £185 which is brilliant.

I'm going to look at some of the other hotels mentioned too as that can be easily changed.

Thanks very much for all the tips everyone!

OP posts:
Kylereese · 02/09/2021 21:15

Have tried travelling a bit further to pick up another line?

We’re in Leicester and Leicester to London is a fortune, but Rugby or Nuneaton is much cheaper so we taxi/lift/drive there and even with paying for parking all weekend it’s a much better deal.

Blossomtoes · 02/09/2021 21:17

@Comefromaway

For a double room sleeping two adults yes.

For two adults and 3 children it’s £204.97

But that is a cheap week. During half term the same rooms are over £450 and that’s not including breakfast.

Still £60 a night.
essentialhealing · 02/09/2021 21:23

£2k to go to the theatre and spend a night in London

I'd rather fly to somewhere warm for a week

Againstmachine · 02/09/2021 22:08

*They really unbelievably cheap

I have spent 50% of my time London hotels for the past 11 years.
They have never been as cheap.*

I'm not sure if you are agreeing or not but you have easily been able to get London hotels for less than that.

SunShinesBrightly · 02/09/2021 22:17

@Hellotoallmyfans

Back with a quick update - I had to go out earlier so just reading through the rest of the thread.

I got a family and friends railcard (£30) and then managed to get the return tickets I wanted for £124! So that's a saving of around £185 which is brilliant.

I'm going to look at some of the other hotels mentioned too as that can be easily changed.

Thanks very much for all the tips everyone!

Just coming on to say you need a family and friends railcard!!

Glad you got it sorted!
It’s the best railcard ever -my DC are too old now unfortunately but we saved £££ when they were younger.

BrendaBubbles · 02/09/2021 22:28

Trains are a luxury now. Drive to Westfield (either one) and you're minutes from the west end on the tube.

Toddlerteaplease · 02/09/2021 22:28

My friend almost had to pay £270 for return trip. She got the coach Instead

RedRum27 · 02/09/2021 22:35

@Hellotoallmyfans What show are you seeing or where are you sitting for £120 a ticket to the theatre? 😧 I don’t know whether a matinee show or booking via a discount app will give you cheaper tickets but yes train tickets have gone up a lot recently.

CrimeJunkie01 · 02/09/2021 22:45

@essentialhealing

£2k to go to the theatre and spend a night in London

I'd rather fly to somewhere warm for a week

Me too. I paid £280 for 2 of us to go to Corfu for a week in October this year!!
Hawkins001 · 02/09/2021 23:08

Back in my uni days I was going to go on a day trip to the British museum and then they were around 110 each way.

backtolifebacktoreality · 02/09/2021 23:14

Drive to london and leave the car at one of the Westfield Shopping Centres (either Stratford or Shepherds Bush).

jakeyboy1 · 02/09/2021 23:25

Totally agree. I'm going next week and have decided to drive instead. Not only the cost but I wanted to go on Chiltern and they aren't running on the Sunday so I would have gone out on Chiltern and come back to a different station via Avanti. And the theatre tickets too - I paid £400 for crappy seats at Aladdin because I was too tight to pay for the decent ones - it's extortionate.

Comefromaway · 02/09/2021 23:48

I’d much, much rather go to watch a West End show than fly abroad somewhere. Doesn’t appeal to me at all.

backtolifebacktoreality · 03/09/2021 00:56

Have you booked the hotel yet? I recently went to London for the weekend and got a really nice, clean, contemporary two bedroom, two bathroom apartment that slept six in Central London (just near Oxford Street) on Airbnb. It was less than £200 a night.

LuluJakey1 · 03/09/2021 01:07

A friend and I were looking at going to Belfast for a weekend from Newcastle. Flights were anything from £265 return to £10 return. To go on a £10 return ticket we had to go via Faro in Portugal ! It is just bonkers. We aren't going. We couldn't bear to give Ryanair even a penny.

MyPatronusIsACat · 03/09/2021 11:06

@StoneofDestiny

As long as this pricing continues the government is never going to get people to leave their cars at home. It's cheaper to fly to Europe than get a train between Britain's cities. We don't need HS2 - we need more rail lines between places and cheaper fares.
100% this.

I have to agree with a few other posters, that although @ouchmyfeet said you can't get a family hotel room for £60 a night in London, you CAN. As a few people have mentioned, you can get a Travelodge room in central London for that, or even less sometimes. You can rarely get one for the same price the night before, or the night after though, and those prices are more likely to be £110-130 ish.

So you can't usually get 3 nights in a row at £60 a night - or even 2. But if you only want one night, you can usually find at least one Travelodge within striking distance of the place you are visiting, that will be around £60 for the one night. If you're very lucky, you can get it as low as £35. Especially if it's a Sunday.

Sandinmyknickers · 03/09/2021 11:11

It's always been like that. I grew up in London, obviously had no car, and my mum would book train tickets to visit family well in advance. In fact, she had figured out exactly how many days in advance they release tickets and when they would be cheapest..so for example, if we wanted to go on 1st September, she would calculate backwards backwards 60 day best 'window', or whatever it was and book the tickets then.
I'm afraid you just have to plan much more in advance
It could be worse...living in London means you always have this problem when trying to get out the city, and we all would never book tickets or hotels for something in ma Chester without checking trains first. Trains dictate what dates you can do, not the other way round.
Sorry you found this out the hard way..that price seems way too excessive to be worth it

randomlyLostInWales · 03/09/2021 11:21

@SwedishEdith

This was on Newsnight last night. Private motoring has got cheaper while public transport has got dearer.

I only go to London via the train when work are paying now.

Sadly that doesn't surprise me.

We don't drive - for several reasons though cost is in there - and I do think we might have to re-think at some point.

We're facing a long train journey soon we won't be able to pre-book - family member no visit allowed in hospital but want to check on situation once home - and can't pre-book because it's dependent on things outside our control.

Otherpeoplesteens · 03/09/2021 11:24

@StoneofDestiny

As long as this pricing continues the government is never going to get people to leave their cars at home. It's cheaper to fly to Europe than get a train between Britain's cities. We don't need HS2 - we need more rail lines between places and cheaper fares.
Actually, I think this underlines that we do need HS2. The West Coast mainline has been running at full capacity for years, almost since it was electrified in the early noughties. The prices reflect laws of economics at work in this particular situation: supply cannot increase which is what would normally bring prices down, a significant proportion of the demand curve is both inelastic and price-insensitive, and so everyone else is quite deliberately priced out. HS2 was never about getting from Manchester to London faster, it was always about additional capacity to free up the existing WCML for surplus demand from both passengers and - probably more so - freight.

Manchester-London has long been one of the most expensive rail routes in the world. In terms of price per minute of travel it is actually more expensive at full price than the Heathrow Express, which no-one would ever accuse of being reasonably priced. It's the same distance as Faro to Lisbon but somehow costs TEN TIMES as much, has done for decades.

Like with so much in Britain (with references to the threads about the costs of UK holidays) I have reached the point where I am just not going to support these prices any more. Government wants me to take the train instead of drive? Fuck right off.

exiledfromcornwall · 03/09/2021 11:37

randomlyLost I sympathise, I am in exactly the same situation with an elderly parent over 5 hours away by train. My husband had to surrender his license 9 months ago because of a medical condition, and I don't drive because I just couldn't manage to pass my test, I was hopeless, and I've left it too late now, too old.

I sometimes think this government want us plebs to never go anywhere and just stay put.