To be really funking fed up of the shit train services in this country

[Medschoolmum]

I paid £170 for an advance ticket for a trip into London this morning. Journey of around 1.5 hours. Booked a seat with a table so that I can work on the train. Got up 45 mins earlier than usual to get to the station on time. Parked at the station for an exorbitant sum. Arrive to be told that train is delayed by 22 mins. Annoying, but OK, I have built in additional time. Not a massive issue.

After waiting for 10 mins, they announce that the train is cancelled. Not stopping at my station because they are running late. (This is not some tiny village station with one person on the platform BTW- it is a substantial sized station with loads of people waiting for that train.

We are informed that the next train will depart half an hour after the original scheduled train. This will mean that I'm a bit tight on time but should just about make it to my meeting on time. This is why you build in a buffer zone, right?

So now the next train is delayed as well, who knows when or if it will arrive. When I finally manage to get on the train, it's clearly going to be heaving. No chance I'll get a seat. And in the meantime, I'm still sitting here in a dingy waiting room drinking crap coffee.

The last time I took a train was around 10 days ago. That one was also cancelled for a different reason. I was delayed by around 40 mins.

I know I can claim back the ticket cost etc, but how on earth do they get away with charging such extortionate prices for such ridiculously unreliable services? I used to live overseas in a country where the trains were much cheaper, cleaner and ran like clockwork. Why are we so incapable of doing the same?

I'm not convinced that nationalising them is going to fix the problem either... the days of British Rail weren't exactly much better.

I am so fed up of this shit show.

the days of British Rail weren't exactly much better The days of British Rail were before the better communications that we have now. Old style British Rail with today's communications I don't think was as bad as today's railways. And it had one huge advantage - no matter where you were traveling, if they messed up, they'd make sure they got you to your destination, because it was one organisation covering the whole country

I can remember seeing one train company whose PI was that 95% of trains should be on time (ie not more than 5 mins late). That's one in 20 allowed to be noticeably late, or one a fortnight if you're commuting. That's a dreadful level of service. (And I can't remember BR being that bad).

I use trains alot, whilst there are some fucked up journeys, most are great

I drive or get the coach now.

The coach is a a quarter of the price of the train. I'll happily save £90 by taking a longer journey, and it's only an hour or so more anyway.

Driving is about the same cost as the train in fuel so why on earth they think people will travel by rail instead I have no idea.

Last weekend I had a trip away with a friend - journey about 3 hours each way (well, that's what it's meant to be). The first leg was badly delayed and the return journey beset with the multiple cancellations. It was so bad they're giving me a full refund. I'd much rather have paid the money and not had my lovely weekend away ruined by a totally unreliable railway system.

There are earlier options
Manchester to Crewe £4.40
Crewe to London £70 arrives in London at 8:05am 9:35am - almost £100 saving if you’re willing to go early enough!
OR
Crewe to London £129 arrives in London at 8:35am which is still cheaper!!

Alternatively, If you’re willing to pay £170 for an unreliable train for an important meeting, and if options allow, then you might as well catch a train the night before, where they run as cheap as £32 with a railcard in the evening, and use the rest of the money to book a hotel!

It shouldn’t have to be this way, services are shocking and extremely poor, prices are high but there would be no way I’d willingly pay £170 when there are cheaper options!

It is shockingly bad. It's been bad for over ten years now. I would get the train more often as I don't drive, but I do everything to avoid them now. I would rather get the bus or change my plans! I've got to get a train to london in a few weeks for something really important and I'm dreading it!

Nationalising won't help, it's one of the reasons they were privatised in the first place. And of course with nationalisation on the cards, all the current franchise holders are not going to invest any more, why would they? The railways have been a shit show forever, although there was a brief window of hope in the 1990s.

The State already bought back Network Rail and LNER.

I have used LNER( GNER as was and various other names) for years.
It has been under public control twice in that period, and yes, much better both times than when it was private. It was at its worst and most expensive under Virgin trains.
The staff at LNER both on the trains and on the phones are excellent too, not sure if it’s related though.

Serious question - is there anywhere in the western world with a worse (more unreliable and more expensive) train network? I doubt it.

I was recently in Japan. The shinkansen is unbelievable. Its like living in the future.

I don't think re-nationalising will help things
The Labour party have seen the profits and will want to use them for social causes (as they may have realised they can't pay for everything by abolishing non-Dom status) and not for improving sevice.

Ha, last year it felt like Greater Anglia were paying me an income from all the delay repays I had back into my account. I've since discovered that if you book on Trainline, you can just press a button to refund and it does it immediately. Almost worth the booking fee. (But would still rather the train turned up, obvs)

I don't drive so I have used public transport all my adult life. The kids and I have had holidays all over the UK. This year, I have opted to take them somewhere an hour away by train because I just don't trust going anywhere further - the added stress of delays and cancelled trains is just rubbish before and/or after a holiday.

Even locally, trains and buses are just increasingly shit. I've commuted by public transport all my working life and never has it been so stressful as it is now. I've never felt the need to drive in the past (can't afford it, environmental factors, driving lessons made me ill with anxiety, many reasons I don't drive!) but more and more I am finding it frustrating that I didn't manage to get my licence when I was younger. That's 30 years of adult life travelling on public transport, with 3 kids, we've never missed out. The last year it has just got worse and worse. It's thoroughly depressing.

I don't think the OP had specified that they were travelling from north to south had they? 1.5 hr journey, so unlikely tbh. So whilst you might be able to find a cheaper option for that specific route, many (many) other routes don't have that option.

You've mentioned a railcard a few times - what railcard could be used for this journey? My understanding is that you can only get one if you're a student, travelling as a family or a group, or a senior. But happy to hear if there is one that I could use when travelling on my own!

Rail franchise holders don't really invest anything. Very little cash is required to run a TOC which is one of the appeals to investors. They don't own the stations merely operate them. They dont own or invest in the track or infrastructure. The trains are owned by the government and leased to the franchise.

At £170 I'm guessing it's the Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington route.

Crewe to London can take as little as 1.5 hrs!

You can buy a Network rail travelcard which gives you a third off your journey. Have a look at the railcard app for different options. All cost £30 per year but the savings can be great.

but how on earth do they get away with charging such extortionate prices for such ridiculously unreliable services?

No clue - but it awful and getting more expensive and less reliable. Bus are similar - they'v just stripped a load of buses out here causing problem for DS and college and me and a course and prices have also just gone up.

We don't drive and I'm honestly wondering how much longer that's feasible for. Like PP 3 kids now teens - one at uni- never worried about not having a car before.

You can still have good journeys - but the constant worry is stressful all by itself.

Interesting I remember years ago reading in a paper a ex transport minister article where he said fed up of people complaining about privatised railways went back to BR stats convinced they'd be equally shit - only to completely shocked to find they were sustainably better. I feel like that with Welsh water so many complaints on here - it's a not for profit -but having dealt with and been billed under English water companies - they are miles better and cheaper than ones we paid.

I don't think nationalisation will solve rail travel problems - but at minute I don't think it would hurt.

I've had to make 3 trips on this route this week at £180 a pop to visit a relative in hospital.

I mentioned Manchester and Crewe as a pp stated that Manchester to London can cost £170, I was showing cheaper options which aren’t direct but not too taxing.

I was searching for tickets to see if I could catch a train to a port, and it work out cheaper and easier than driving then parking for the week.

Turns out I would need to leave the evening before and it would cost two of us EIGHT HUNDRED AND NINETY SIX POUNDS.

I'll do the four hour drive.

This would be the one for you, Network railcard in blue.

I live in Tokyo. We have excellent train services, and if you live in the central area of a town or city you do not need to own a car. When you do drive (we sometimes hire a car), it's usually a good experience, as excellent public transit means that the roads do not usually get badly congested and are smooth and pothole-free due to not being crushed to death under too many cars.

British trains make me weep whenever I come back. I'm coming back this summer for a visit and am already dreading it, to be honest.

And the booking system! If you complain about the high prices of the UK's terrible trains, you just get some smartarse fucker saying things like "Oh, but don't you know, you could have got a much cheaper price if you'd booked eight years in advance, driven to a random station at 3AM in the morning to start your journey, split your ticket and changed in 11 different places after transferring in Yemen."

I just don't understand why British people stand for such mindblowingly complex systems and lack of certainty about how much your journey is going to cost you, and having to plan train trips with military precision to avoid being hellishly ripped off. No wonder people drive everywhere in this country, which is why the roads are congested and covered in potholes.

A huge problem is that hardly any progress has been made on electrification of the train network. Until that makes headway, British trains will be plagued by unreliability.

@MichelleMcBelle - thank you, I never knew that existed. But sadly can only be used after 10.00am Mon-Fri so no good for travelling for work (and I rarely go in to London for pleasure). Never mind, I will just have to continue with my finance team grumbling about how expensive my trains are when I need to go in to London!

How much does it cost to be a shareholder in one of these companies? One share, can't be much shy of 10 x £170. Instead of buying tickets we should all buy shares, take the fuckers over and force them to run properly.

YANBU, trains are such a shitshow. I don’t understand how so many European countries can have such efficient, inexpensive rail travel and we can’t. Suppose someone could argue that the UK is probably one of the poorer countries now but it hasn’t always been, and trains have been shit for about as long as I can remember.

I had to travel from Sussex to Yorkshire and back last week with my teenage daughter. Would have liked to have gone by train so I could relax/get some work done/have a nap, but they wanted £300 for the journey. Fuck that. I drove, which is a shame as it was too far for my electric car so I had to drive my husband’s massive diesel car. I’d prefer to be able to make better decisions for the environment, but not at that price.