Why is train travel so bloody expensive?

[icantgetnopeace]

I’m going away in a couple of weeks with some friends and nobody fancies driving into the city so we are looking at trains.
A one hour journey (return next day) is around £50 😳 It’s no bloody wonder people don’t bother. Am I missing something? Are there ways of getting discounts that I’m not aware of? I looked at a friends and family railcard to see if that would make any difference but when I added one to the potential booking it didn’t give a discount (maybe cross country don’t accept them 🤷🏼‍♀️)

And so much cheaper in Europe. (parts of, that I have tried) And so much simpler.

Turn up, pay for a ticket, same price whenever booked.

It very much depends on where you are travelling to and from, on what day and what time of day, and how flexible you are prepared to be with dates and times.

You can get cheap options by booking long distance journeys in advance (not sure if your hour long one will fall into this category) and travelling at less popular times or via slower routes. For example, I can travel from Manchester to London on the train for just over £20 if I book a couple of months in advance and travel on slower trains.

But if it's a popular commuter run and you are travelling at the same time on a week day then the fares will be higher as there is limited capacity.

You don't mention whose going but you need children for the family/friends railcard.

My DD wanted a long weekend home (London) from Durham. Wednesday return Saturday was £90, Wednesday return Sunday was £250!!! With her discount card!! It was the start of half term but still. She could have flown to Majorca same dates for £75.

The further in advance you book it works out cheaper. Supposedly 🤣 I've done both options and sometimes the later ones are actually cheaper...

I do think rail cards increase the issue. You can have one if your under 30, over 60?, for kids, in the Forces...

But there's not one for middle aged adults travelling alone.

My commute into local city was £58 return last year, plus £10 parking plus £2 petrol to and from station. So £70 a day. Whole trip took 2 hours each way.

Or by car, 4 hours each way, £12 fuel, £15 congestion, £20 parking. So £47 but an extra 4 hours travelling.

In the end I gave up on city job as soon as local job became available. Life is much much better 😊

The answer is just don't go.

It’s insane. I live just outside London and used to commute in regularly - 20 mins train journey to central, working out at £27 return per day during peak hours, plus £12 parking. And that’s BEFORE you look at the fact there aren’t ever seats by the time the train gets to my station, and I’m paying that for the privilege of being sardined into someone’s armpit. Needless to say I leapt at the chance of going remote as soon as possible.

I live in Essex and can get a cheaper ticket from Manchester to London than from where I am to London. No advance fare discount on our lines. It's ridiculous.

Try Trainsplit to get a cheaper fare on your journeys. It 'splits' the component parts of your train journey into the cheapest tickets for that route without having to leave the train.

Sounds useful. On the other hand, how batshit is it that we need something like this because fare structures here.

Where are you travelling from/to and on what dates? If you tell us that information we can advise what tickets are available.

Sometimes it’s cheaper to go from a main station , is there a station further along the route before it reaches you that might be cheaper . Even though you won’t get on there ?

If I go somewhere I tend to go from Wolverhampton or Birmingham coz our local train stations are just so much more expensive . I’ve been known to get the bus to the bigger station as it’s so much more on the train from our local station than the bus fare to the bigger . I know it’s hassle but when it’s £3 on the bus v/s £20 extra on the train .

I’ve always found booking as early as it will allow you and splitting the journey up is much cheaper. So when I’ve travelled to Durham by train I did BRID to seamer. Changed at seamer. Seamer to York changed at York and York to Durham and then the same coming back home. The only thing I make sure I do is make sure the change over in York is long enough to grab a coffee, something to eat and have a vape. Seamer is literally a platform with a track either side. If I booked it as a straight through journey it would cost me about £80. Splitting it the cheapest I paid was £35 for a return journey. You just have to work out the arrival and departure times for each station

In answer to your question - because it's all privatised. They've got to make millions for their shareholders somehow...

No you don't. You can get a two together railcard.

Because it was privatised by Tories.

It can often be cheaper to go on holiday abroad!

Privatisation, greed, apathy from the general public/voters and useless governments.

The same applies to utilities and the post office.

And why not one for over 30’s?

If you’re travelling together you get a discount, you just need 3 people travelling at the same time. It’s called GroupSave. Funnily enough they don’t advertise it much.

I do get some good deals on the train, I almost always use Trainsplit. Their customer service for rectifying mistakes/changing your journey or getting refunds if needed is also very good.

I’ve looked at trainsplit, it’s not working out any cheaper. I’m just outraged because I’m sure more people would use the trains if it was more reasonable - as it is one of us will probably end up driving.
I’m also annoyed that people between 30-60 who travel alone can’t get a bloody rail card, why are we being discriminated against?!

Rail travel is disgraceful in this country. My daughter was on a train recently and they stopped at Birmingham and made everyone get off because it was so busy it was declared a danger to life. And yet National Rail sold the tickets! They really should have a limit on how many can be sold.

I guess two hours driving (100 miles, 50 mpg, £12?), overnight parking (£20?), ignoring insurance etc will always be cheaper than the train for 1 person, and even cheaper if split amongst others. The train ticket is about what I'd get reimbursed by work for driving (using HMRC rates). I agree that to get people to use a greener transport solution we need to incentivise train use ... For me, there's a cost to getting to the station as well (no car parks of course)....

I'm not sure that the train companies are that desperate to get more people using the trains (except on certain slowr routes during less popular off peak hours). Many are already close to full anyway and there is no more capacity on the network to run additional services.