Train travel-seen everything now

[Globules]

I despair of our train ticketing system.

Station A to London

Same day return £30.80
Next day return £20

Station B to London (having left from station A to get to station B, then continue onto London)
Same day return £52.40
Next day return £72.30

The exact same trains being priced up here.

This is madness.

If you can, get the bus. It’s £2 per single journey until November. Train prices are crazy and the public are being taken for fools with the bewildering variety of prices and bad service.
Put your journey into Google maps and select public transport. £20 doesn’t get you far on the train.

www.gov.uk/guidance/2-bus-fare-cap

No bus from station A or B to London.

The only way to do it would be to take about 5 subsequent 2 hour journeys.

Trains are becoming unaffordable for many people and the prices are changing all the time. I got the train from Birmingham to other location. It was something daft like £25 , from my local station it would've been £70, and from Wolverhampton also £70...
However the train had to go from Birmingham TO Wolverhampton then onto location so should've been cheaper as Wolverhampton was how many stops down the line after Birmingham!!!

Bizzare.

They need to regulate train prices before they get out of hand.

So a similar scenario @Ladyandherspaniel ?

Loopy!

It's £10 cheaper for me to buy a ticket from my hometown to Crewe then a ticket to Euston than it is to buy a ticket starting and finishing at my hometown, despite having to change at Crewe anyway. Exactly the same trains but a price difference.
This is why I either drive or get a bus. Even with the congestion charge it's still cheaper to drive especially when there are 2 or more of you going.
It's part of current rail strategy to price passengers off the railways as the network and rolling stock can't cope.

Check Megabus, or flick. Not much longer, but way cheaper.

I'm similar to OP. I live between station C and station D. Prices up tickets to London. Free parking at both but station C easier to get to.

Ticket from station D to station C is £2.40
Then change train at station C to go to London.
However station D to London is £14.60 cheaper than station C despite being longer and going through station C, albeit with a change of train.
So I buy I ticket from station D and get on the train at station C.

Always thought it was radiculous, thought it was just me. Now I know it's not!

Look at railcards. We’ve just saved £50 on one return journey after taking the cost of the card off, and the railcard is valid for a year

Is it two different train companies?
Or different train companies sharing the line?
You sometimes have different prices on the same line because one train is an InterCity style train but the next train is a commuter style train.

I would be sitting on the same seat on the same train. I pay more to sit on that seat on that train from a station closer to London than a station further away.

@Globules hmm...that does sound odd.
Are you looking at prices on the website of the train company or a third-party one like Trainline?
Trainline sometimes has very odd prices. I always buy direct from the relevant train company.
Or is it a difference between peak and off peak when you are looking at prices?

Isn't this why you look at tickets on split ticketing sites as they automatically split the tickets so you get the best prices from stations you pass through rather than your starting point and final destination.

I really don't think you're getting this @Needmorelego

The train goes from station A to B to C to London.

If I get on the train at station A, it costs LESS money than if I get on the train at station B.

It is the same train starting at station A then going onto station B.

yes this is familiar and it is deeply annoying. I assume it is due to commuter demand.

As pp said, often the answer is split ticketing. Trainline does this automatically now.

Is it worth your while to buy a ticket A to C and a ticket A to B?
Or could you go to B on the way back? I believe you can break a return journey on most tickets.

If it's not an advance ticket, you can buy A-London and just get on at station B. Ticket pricing is layers of restriction on tickets from 1996 so it's incredibly difficult to get anything that didn't make sense then, to make sense now.

Sorry I think I misunderstood, I thought you wanted to go to B as well as C.

@Globules I travel by train all the time so I know there are all sorts of weird ticket pricing that pops up.
I was just attempting to help see if there was a reason why the cost is coming up the way you say.

I remember reading about this a few years ago. People going A to C (via B, but not getting off) were charged less than people going A to B. So in theory you could get a ticket from A to C and just get off at B. But, if you were caught at the barrier, you were fined! Ridiculous.