Drumstick
NORTHSTANDER
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Train fares...WTF?
- Thread starter Lady Whistledown
- Start date
Coming to an 'NHS' service near you soon!
Yes, and as somebody who relies on the NHS for management of a lifelong disease, it's bloody worrying!
The system is a joke. Had to go to Liverpool a lot last year. Splitting the journey a Brighton-Euston and Euston-Liverpool halved the price. And we're not talking about a small amount - an £80+ saving. This was for using exactly the same trains.. It's nonsensical.
The Large One
Who's Next?
Getting a Network Card (£28 for a year) will help.
Bollocks though the system is, it will pay for itself within half a dozen journeys, reducing your £18.00 journey to £13.00.
Bollocks though the system is, it will pay for itself within half a dozen journeys, reducing your £18.00 journey to £13.00.
Colossal Squid
Returning video tapes
It's because rail travel in this country is an absolute JOKE.
I recently went on a trip around the Balkans, travelling by train, and the difference in price between what we pay and what the rest of Europe considers normal is shocking.
For example, you can get the Balkan Express between Belgrade and Istanbul, a journey that takes over 24 hours, covers over 500 miles and includes your bed for the night in a shared compartment for €60 standard (considerably less with concessions).
That much money wouldn't even get you to Bristol on our rip off British trains (anytime single £84.50). A journey that takes under two hours from London, covering approximately 100 miles.
Now I appreciate this is an extreme example, using an outdated rail network run by state controlled operators who subsidise the services through some very poor countries (Serbia and Bulgaria) but even still, the difference is astonishing.
If I want to travel long distance in the UK, I'm better off getting a flight. Getting from Brighton to Edinburgh would cost me £205 on an overnight train (journey time 9 hours 27 minutes).
Easyjet will get you from Gatwick to Edinburgh for £18.99 (journey time 1 hour 25 minutes).
Even if you hate Easyjet, it's a no brainer. Who in their right mind would pay more than ten times more for a journey that takes over eight times as long?
Pound for pound, mile for mile, we pay MORE for train travel than anyone else in the world. Granted we have a fairly extensive network, when compared to a lot of countries, but even those with better networks than us (France, Germany, Spain etc.) don't charge anywhere near as much as the private companies running Britain's railways do.
And don't get me started on the entirely nonsensical, baffling ticketing system that seems to fluctuate considerably by the minute.
We're being taken for mugs, as usual
I recently went on a trip around the Balkans, travelling by train, and the difference in price between what we pay and what the rest of Europe considers normal is shocking.
For example, you can get the Balkan Express between Belgrade and Istanbul, a journey that takes over 24 hours, covers over 500 miles and includes your bed for the night in a shared compartment for €60 standard (considerably less with concessions).
That much money wouldn't even get you to Bristol on our rip off British trains (anytime single £84.50). A journey that takes under two hours from London, covering approximately 100 miles.
Now I appreciate this is an extreme example, using an outdated rail network run by state controlled operators who subsidise the services through some very poor countries (Serbia and Bulgaria) but even still, the difference is astonishing.
If I want to travel long distance in the UK, I'm better off getting a flight. Getting from Brighton to Edinburgh would cost me £205 on an overnight train (journey time 9 hours 27 minutes).
Easyjet will get you from Gatwick to Edinburgh for £18.99 (journey time 1 hour 25 minutes).
Even if you hate Easyjet, it's a no brainer. Who in their right mind would pay more than ten times more for a journey that takes over eight times as long?
Pound for pound, mile for mile, we pay MORE for train travel than anyone else in the world. Granted we have a fairly extensive network, when compared to a lot of countries, but even those with better networks than us (France, Germany, Spain etc.) don't charge anywhere near as much as the private companies running Britain's railways do.
And don't get me started on the entirely nonsensical, baffling ticketing system that seems to fluctuate considerably by the minute.
We're being taken for mugs, as usual
Albion Dan
Banned
Oyster is just for greater london travel so im afraid for further afield journeys the peak applies.
Ernest
Stupid IDIOT
It's supply and demand, a day return from B Hill to Victoria at 8am costs twice as much as a day return from Victoria to B Hill at the same time.
I hope you investigate your cases more thoroughly than you have this, no wonder there are so many miscarriages of justice
Forever the company man.
This is a bit rich coming from someone who works for an industry which has put profits before safety and lives.
Nottseagull
Well-known member
You can test the various fare combinations on the interactive fare finder here National Rail Enquiries - Official source for UK train times and timetables
And what about the cases where it cheaper to buy two seperate tickets for exactly the same trains instead of a single one?
Supply and demand? Or morons without joined up thinking running our rail system?
Nottseagull
Well-known member
Masses of tips here (splitting is just one of them). e.g. did you know Tesco Clubcard vouchers can be worth 3x their value when used to buy tickets?
Ernest
Stupid IDIOT
You mistake the fragrant Ednas original post, she wanted to know why such a difference in fares, as for cheap tickets anyone with an ounce of intelligence can work out savings such as how to save 40% on a standard day return from the coast to London in peak times.
I gave you a scenario and asked a question (one already raised by another baffled poster.) The clue was the question mark after "supply and demand."
What is the reason for the scanario I gave? Is it supply and demand? Or..........
FFS. What is all this crap? Why can't I just buy a friggin rail ticket? Why do I need a to have a Phd in mathematics, know a heap of tips AND a f***ing Tesco Clubcard to get the lowest price?
I got the shitting Spanish inquisition last night and all I asked for was a day return to South Bermonsey.
Ernest
Stupid IDIOT
A train from B Hill to London at 8am is a lot fuller than a train from London to B Hill at the same time and the opposite applies at 5pm, Dame Edna quoted the £13.40 fare which is super off peak and is a train filler for when it's quiet so it's not applicable to her case as the standard singles are pretty much the same fare whichever direction you travel.
So of course it is supply and demand, why do bars have happy hours ? Why do planes have myriads of different fares for the same journeys ? Not just trains operate in this way. It is a case of a high basic fare to discourage travel when it's busy (according to the DFT) and promos when it is quiet to fill trains, no different from air travel or any other business.
Ernest
Stupid IDIOT
Blame the government and the DFT they set the fare structure
Did they set up the buck passing culture as well?
Do they decide that Gatwick is not far enough away to return from?
