Thanks for that fairydust. When I bought the tickets I said I had to be in London before 10 am. The first cheap day train arrives at or after 9.56 am. (This is what I was told) With being on the later train it was gone 10 when we arrived & it was only luck (& not having to wait for the Tube) that my son got to his interview on time.

I just want to rant about this too. I have to go to London today to collect ds from ex dh and I've just looked at times and prices etc. For me to get from Bristol - London and get him back will cost £52 return for me and half for him at £26 = £78!!! This is ridiculous - I can fill my car up twice (maybe more actually) and drive for at least 1,000 miles for that money. I really would love to get the train since we'll be able to read and play games etc but no way can I justify this sort of money to travel what, a 240 mile round trip? I'm not happy. And this being a Sunday there are probably engineering works along the way so it probably wouldn't even be particularly fast. I would love to use public (ha! at that description!) transport today but I just can't at that price. Very annoying, thanks for listening, don't expect any responses but ranting has made me feel a bit better.

Have you booked it yet, www? If not had you thought about National Express ?

DD1 got a coach from London to Leeds for £7 when train would have been about £40 - you can book and print out your ticket on the spot - it wasn't even that much longer than the train would have been and she enjoyed the trip.

have a good and safe journey

No, I haven't booked it janh. Wow, the coach is only £24! but goes to Victoria - ex dh is in West London and won't be happy at that (but I could try it, he would have had to have met me at Paddington after all) - didn't seem to be able to return from Hammersmith, which would have been ideal. I might just do that, thanks!

Um, WWW, the real variable costs (that means per mile, and leaves out insurance, MoT and other fixed costs) of motoring is 2.5-3.5x the cost of petrol. I can find you references for that, if you want, or just look in What Car? for running costs for your motor. Thus reducing your 1000 miles to more like 300-400.
She says, scuttling off to a dark corner.

Yes, but zebra, those costs are incurred even if you leave it at home, surely? IYSWIM....

(Or are they? I did Business Studies at college and one of the elements of Accounting was fixed costs v variable costs and I never got the hang of which you had to adjust your prices to cover. One of the reasons I failed! )

Variable costs means only the costs you incur by running the motor: petrol, wear and tear, repairs due to wear and tear. What Car? calls these 'Running Costs' and lists them in separate column from Fixed Costs which are purchase price, depreciation from purchase price as new, MoT, insurance, garage rental. All that stuff that doesn't necessarily mean you ever drove anywhere.... So when WWW says £52 would take her 1000 miles, she means it would cover petrol for 1000 miles, but the real cost of driving her car 1000 miles would be 2.5-3.5x that.

Actually, I guess depreciation is both a fixed cost and a variable cost, given that things like higher mileage on a car increases depreciation, too!

www - have you looked into family railcard? Although it may not make it much cheaper this time, if you need to take the train again, it definitely will. I made my money back on the first journey I took (me, dd1, dd2 from S. Wales to London), and therefore am saving all the way since. And (shhh don't tell anyone), it doesn't have your photo on it, so you can lend it to friends - my sister and her dd have used it to come & visit me. Even though dd2 isn't 5 yet, I tend to buy her a ticket when we go on long journeys (so we can be guaranteed a seat) which I wouldn't do if I had to pay full price.

Sorry to sound like an advert, but I really appreciate my Family Railcard - even going from Newport to Cardiff (v. short journey), it saves me £3 a time.

zebra, take yr point - according to the aa travel should be calculated at 50p/mile - so the train's a bargain on that basis! emsiewill, i can't since you have to have a child with you to use a family card and ds isn't with me if i'm on a train going to get him i don't ususlly take dd since she's so small. I drove in the end but thanks for listening!

Result!!!

I got a really apologetic letter from South Eastern trains & they are going to refund the difference between the standard & cheap day tickets!