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It seems insane that for a journey that takes about the same, and changes in the same place (in fact, sometimes you don't need to change for the london train, but it does go through leicester) it would cost me three times as much to get to the capital as to the centre of the UKs second city...
And then you'll see that it doesn't matter if 5% of your tickets go for a very reasonable £13, because most of the others sell for rather more than you could call reasonable.
If you book two weeks in advance...
To fly next day with BA costs well over £250, which is what you should be comparing the railways to. And then you still have to get out to Heathrow, which is a tenner on the tube.
With most long-distance travel most people travel on AP tickets- few people would travel with an open return, and those that do are (generally) travelling on corporate expenses anyway. Last time I got to London for £15 return, which is much cheaper than it used to be, and I couldn't even pay the air tax for that.
And in any case, I don't think a fares increase of 5% is particularly horrific when energy prices have gone up by 15%. If anything that suggests that companies are taking hits on energy prices in order to keep fares lower.
As I say, its easy what you can go with statistics.
Even then the train is cheaper (£35 for tomorrow afternoon), and there's two trains an hour instead of two planes a day.
Cheapest rail fare available: £98.20
Easyjet: £80.98- and that was one of the more expensive ones! You could do it for £70 if the return flight was a little later.
Enough said.
We could do this all day. I'll probably continue to win
And who can blame them really, when they'd be looking at forking out between just under £100 to £200 plus if they don't book well in advance?
But that is why not that many people use the open ticket for that journey- the train cannot be as fast, and the business commuters who use the open tickets value speed over economy.
From Newcastle the train is cheaper and quicker, for the record, by about £60 against BA's fares.
I'd reckon 2.5 tanks of petrol from London to Edinburgh, probably about 7 hours time.
Trains are always there, and you're nigh on guarenteed a space on one (albeit not a seat), you can turn up for a trip from London to Edinburgh, buy a through ticket and there you have your journey. If one bits late you don't lose the rest of your journey and there will be a train leaving in the next 30 mins, and funnily ennough you pay for that flexibility.
Public transport isn't as convenient as a car for late evening journeys or rural journeys, there's no way that the train can ever be there just when you want it and only stop at the station you want it to, but its more convenient than other forms of transport (e.g. air). It's also usually quicker than driving, and definitely less stressful (for all the faults of the railway system, nothing beats being stuck on the A1 for 120 miles behind a truck doing 40mph for stress.
But you can still get there, without buying another ticket. If you get stuck in the traffic on the way to the airport, you miss your flight and you're stuffed.
Assuming you had told the seller this!
The journey I was referring to was London to Edinburgh, but trains are a darn site closer to always being there than planes are. Sunday travel is, often sparse, Sunday travel is also usually a lot cheaper. You get what you pay for.
I semi-regularly travel between Brighton and Luton. Booking two weeks in advance, for that is the largest amount of time I can book in advance, makes no difference what-so-ever to my fare. It costs me £33 off-peak return on the day and £33 two weeks prior to travel. I’m not sure whether this is a phenomenon exclusive to First Capital Connect trains, or perhaps the South-East.
Travelling on Sunday’s, which I’m often required to do, is a nightmare. The last three return journeys from Luton to Brighton (a straight through line) have involved two trains and a bus; a journey which should take a couple of hours tops, has taken me the best part of four. The idea that I’ll soon be paying more for the privilege of this sub-standard service does stick in my craw a little.
A good service? How the service should run?
I don't know what it's like where you are but here, and everywhere else I've been, the prices on Sunday are exactly the same as every other day of the week.
Also, if you have an advance ticket for the train and miss that train, your ticket is not valid on another train (same as a flight).
There are no peak fares on Sundays, and far more of the offers apply on Sundays.
It depends why you miss that train, if it's a through ticket and a late connection then the ticket is valid (and you're advanced ticket isn't one of the expensive ones).
And Kermit, it may just be the journey I happen to take, but home to uni by car took around 5 hours. The same journey took 6 and a half hours by train, assuming everything went perfectly. As usual, in any sort of rural area, you get royally fucked over by public transport. And trust me, no driver has ever had stress like trying to get from platform 14 to platform 1 in Manchester Piccadily in about 30 seconds, with a huge suitcase, being stopped for security checks on the way, all because your train.
CoatHanger, Sunday travel is often a problem because of engineering work, but at the same time, the engineering has to be done sometime. More people would be irate if they did it at 4.30pm on a Friday.
It does depend where you travel as to speed, I know trying to get from places like Aberystwyth is not good. For door-to-door from here to Bradford the car is slightly quicker and slightly cheaper, but to Leeds the car is much slower.
I appreciate that repairs and maintenance have to be done some time, but surely Sunday afternoon isn't the ideal time? How about 3am under flood-lights on a Wednesday?
To be honest it's not so much of a big deal my journey taking longer than normal, it's mainly just a bit frustrating and an inconvenience. I do resent having to pay so much for it though.
I'm sure the ever increasing cost of train tickets could cover the cost of a generator and time-and-a-half for workers.
Ah, fair point. Not all train-track is in built up areas though; perhaps work could be done at night if it's not going to disturb people?