The price of train tickets!

[PopNotPolitics]

The cost of train tickets is rising AGAIN! We seem to get this every single year!

I earn okay, but I almost always take the coach when I travel between cities as I just can't justify the cost of the trains anymore as they are.

Surely they will just be unaffordable to most people soon, and what will happen then?

I've just priced Scotland to Wales for a wedding in June, it was coming up as cheapest £645 for family for 4, and take 7hours. It'll be £200 to fly to Birmingham from Edinburgh and then hire a car for a few days will be £90, also will take less than 4hrs.

Driving would be even cheaper at around £100 for fuel and having the convenience of our own car.

For environmental reasons I don't want to fly but I just can't justify the train at double the price. This is also booking months in advance, not last minute.

Oh, the joys of privatisation. Particularly with no oversight. The government needs the private companies to keep making profits, so that they can keep paying in to party coffers, so they're allowed to make above inflation rises every year. Obviously they're also in hock to the fossil fuel industry as well, so they don't actually want people to stop using their cars; that might harm their donations.

And as for the muppet up thread saying that public owned transport would be awful, maybe take a look at how it seems to work better on the continent.

Don't think my 200k 13 year old car is going to depreciate much with 310 mile round trip to Wales.
Besides I bought the cad to drive not to sell

National express need to have more journeys and more locations available not easy getting where you want to go with them at all.

We pay nearly £900 for a season ticket so DS can travel half an hour to college. In the four weeks before the Christmas break nearly half of his trains were cancelled which often meant someone had to fetch him. We have applied for delay repay and have been given around £4 back for each journey. It's ridiculous.

I have to travel to England regularly (from Scotland) and always fly.

Door to door timings - trains and planes are roughly equal but on price - flying is so much cheaper I can't justify a train journey.

It's ridiculous

This is why driving is the best option is almost all cases, for car owners. No justification for paying for crap, overpriced train services

Son has moved for work just 110 miles away in a different city. He planned to come home on Friday evenings for the weekend. Has to leave his work city at a ridiculously early 6-30 to get to the intermediary city for the last train home at 7-15 to get home for 9pm. Total journey time is 2.5 hours for just 110 miles! Over half the time, he gets to the intermediary station to find the "last" train at 7-15 is cancelled. Staff just shrug when he asks about alternatives such as a rail replacement bus, alternative route options, etc. He has to go back to his work city and give up on coming home. Once or twice fair enough, but at least twice a month is taking the piss.

He's bought a car and now drives instead!! He'll probably never try using the train again!

What fools think that the "last" train at such an early time of 7-15 is any kind of acceptable public transport system, and which fool thinks that cancelling it so often without any alternative is remotely acceptable??

Again do you have a Family Railcard? I've just checked the fares for Carmarthen to Aberdeen (so the longest possible journey between two population centres) and even open returns without splitting anything didn't come close to that.

Splitting at Crewe knocked £200 off of your price, again with walk-up tickets you could just buy from the Conductor, not need to book ahead.

It's a mixed picture though isn't it! Reading up, UK advance tickets are very cheap compared to Europe, on the day and peak fares are very expensive. Yes, most if our railways are "private" but most are run by European Government owned railways, how does that work then? Network rail is government owned, still a shit show. Our track and train infrastructure, and work practices are stuck in the dark ages, Union intransigence, and the workers are the highest paid in Europe.

So, as with the NHS, it needs changing and updating. Unfortunately we were the first, but not necessarily the best.

Yes, that's with family Railcard. It's the specific dates of the wedding though, I can get it for less but not on the dates we need to travel.

Just wanted to say my other half has a disabled railcard and has never applied for PIP. So I don't think it is essential, in case that's helpful.

Ah see England to Scotland is one train journey I do find cheap - expensive up front but they are always so delayed you get your full money back!

The trick is to split your fare to avoid fares set by XC as successive governments have forced XC to hike fares instead of buying longer trains. South Wales to Crewe or Manchester is priced much cheaper by TfW and kids go free on TfW (though it's worth still paying for one of them to take advantage of the railcard discount).

Crewe to Scotland is set by Avanti and Manchester to Scotland is set by TPE. Splitting at Manchester is £438.40, splitting at Crewe is £448.35. These are walk-up tickets, no need to choose a specific date (though TfW do have a lot of cheap Advances available even up to the point of departure). The only restriction is that the journey from Scotland back to Manchester can't start before 9am M-F, whereas to Crewe the only restriction is that you just can't use the Sleeper.

Prices quoted are Carmarthen to Aberdeen. As you mentioned that the journey time is seven hours I'm guessing that you're not travelling quite that far so it would be even cheaper.

As a PP says, any journey involving Avanti or TPE is likely to end up refunded.

Trouble with split ticketing is that if one leg is delayed or cancelled, you can only claim delay repay compensation for that leg. If it means you miss a later train, you can't claim compensation for it if it ran on time.

Not true, you are entitled to Delay Repay for the whole journey. You may have to appeal to get it though, the first stage of Delay Repay validation is usually automated.

@PattyPan

One example recently

£198 return on train to Birmingham from Edinburgh which also needed 2 nights in a hotel due to timings so £400 total

Versus

£55 return on easyJet with one night in a hotel. £150 total.

@PattyPan also I'm travelling for work so can't do the delays.

Now they’re not shutting the ticket offices, it does make me wonder where they’ll make savings instead. I understand fare evasion is massive too.

DD gets Exeter to Woking for £35 return. Three hours. Bargain. My ticket from rural village to local town. £6. 5 mins. NOT a bargain!

You do not need PIP to get a disabled railcard...

Family member has epilepsy no PIP and has disabled railcard .. please read the criteria carefully or talk to them ....

I agree, my mum finds coach seats more comfortable than train seats but there just aren't the buses.

When we were in Germany last year we used Flixbus - we could do with far more of them as well.

I am a fan of train travel but clearly if you travel with other people it's a lot cheaper. That said, trains are so often delayed you get your money back! My mum's train home was cancelled and the replacement delayed after Christmas so she'll get the whole of that leg back.

I am not sure fare evasion is massive as most stations have barriers now.

@SisterMichaelsHabit

Isn't that sad though.
How many families live close to London but just cannot afford to access it!

Might be an option for some - the Veteran's Railcard saves me a fortune on train travel. To the extent that it's cheaper for me to get into town by train than by bus. (£2.50 return versus £4 return) Plus I can take a named adult (my DH) and up to 4 children. There are time constraints and other ts and cs.

I can use it when alone which is fab. I work for a charity now so am able to pass the savings onto them for relevant work expenses.

Sometimes it's worth applying for something like a "two-together" even for one journey! The savings you make on the rail journey often pay for the card.

I saw an instagram video with Ian Hislop today (sheer coincidence) and he was saying that re-nationalised railways are performing exceptionally well and returning money to the exchequer.

Scotland's railway has been re-nationalised. It's not perfect but it's working well and improving.

In Scotland the young Scot card gives young people a discount on trains but many prefer the bus as that's free for them.

Here's a way to find a card that works for you

www.railcard.co.uk