How Do People Afford To Use The Trains?

Whitespirit66

Whitespirit66

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It's been 15 years since I have used trains in this country. Now I know why.

Single ticket, Bristol to Brum, departs 6.30am..............................£47................£47 for a single. They're having a laugh.

Was in the Czech Republic last year. Went on a train there, return ticket - 1.5hrs each way. The cost was only £5 return. OK, it wasn't high speed (old Russian built trains for the anoraks out there), but I had a compartment to myself, like we used to have on the old BR trains. So relaxing, I fell asleep. No drunken, foul-mouthed, ticket-dodging hoodies, blaring music and shouting into their phones.

Think it may be another decade or two, before I step on a train in rip-off Britain.
 
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I know what you mean Whitespirit. Last year the wife had to turn down a job as it would cost £2.5k a year for a rail season ticket to travel from Fife to Edinburgh (a car journey of just 25 minutes).
Parking in Edinburgh is almost impossible so you are either having to take 3 busses and leave at 6am to start work at 9am (cost for this would have been marginally less at £1.9k) or take the train.
So a job that was paying £3k more a year just became infeasible due to the hassle involved in travel for a nett gain of £500 a year.

Rip off indeed.
 
Djnikon said:
So a job that was paying £3k more a year just became infeasible due to the hassle involved in travel for a nett gain of £500 a year.

Rip off indeed.
Click to expand...

Isnt that what you take into concideration with where you live against where you work.
Is what you are saying, lets work in London (earn good ££) & live 50 miles or so away & travel for peanuts.
 
Diyisfun said:
Djnikon said:
So a job that was paying £3k more a year just became infeasible due to the hassle involved in travel for a nett gain of £500 a year.

Rip off indeed.
Click to expand...

Isnt that what you take into concideration with where you live against where you work.
Is what you are saying, lets work in London (earn good ££) & live 50 miles or so away & travel for peanuts.
Click to expand...

Err yeah, that's why we took it into consideration and decided that my wife was just as well in her current role.
As we live in Scotland and the detail is concerning Edinburgh (where there is no inflated wages like in London) I fail to see what London has to do with anything.
I was using our experience as a validation that travelling via train is expensive.
 
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Getting to Brum before 9am seems to bump up the price, if you travel later in the day and book a week in advance you can get a single for £23, cheaper fares may be possible with more advance booking.
 
OwainDIYer said:
Getting to Brum before 9am seems to bump up the price, if you travel later in the day and book a week in advance you can get a single for £23, cheaper fares may be possible with more advance booking.
Click to expand...

Trouble is, I have to arrive before 9am, or I miss my flight. Normally fly from Bristol, but timimgs made this impossible, so had to fly BMI from Birmingham.

Crazy thing is, the single train ticket is more than the cost of flying one way to eastern Europe.

Talking buses: Bristol has some of the highest fares in UK. 2 stops = £1. A shortish retun journey in middle of day is more than 4 quid. So much for using cars less, it's cheaper to have a big gas guzzler than travel everywhere by public transport.

As Djnikon has found out, this situation affects your employment prospects, and acts as a tax on the mobility of labour.
 
Aye it's amazingly expensive considering how much my diesel costs in relation to it subsidising this archaic form of Victorian experience.

Yet all the whingers who don't have private vehicles still moan.... If it wasn't subsidised by us drivers there would be no trains for the masses...(in the SE)
 
Not really fair to compare it to czech.

We don't subsidise it as much, and our wages are much higher.

Someone also pointed out to me recently that we have twice as much rail miles as say France, (compare the London tube to France it's 280 miles vs 160 miles of track).

But the costs are shared throughout the whole network in regions.

It is expensive, but it's not a rip off, it's just what a ticket costs when the prices are not tax subsidised.
 
I've only used it of late from Perth to Glasgow in the evening when a cheap day return is comparable to my fuel costs for driving...but means at a gig I can have a few beers, save 120miles wear and tear on the van etc. Peak time though, forget it!
 
1 Book in advance
2 For work - season tickets, get a job that subsidises or pays well enough.

For occasional use always book well in advance and go at off peak.......1st class isnt expensive then
;) ;)
 
Took an unexpected train ride Warrington (Manchester) to Petersfield (Portsmouth), mid day on a Saturday last September. Two adults £189.00. Taxis to/from stations £15.00 on top. My car would have cost £20.00 diesel.
Trains not good value if you turn up and buy tickets on the day.
 
Alarm said:
mitch66 said:
Took an unexpected train ride Warrington (Manchester) to Petersfield (Portsmouth), mid day on a Saturday last September. Two adults £189.00. Taxis to/from stations £15.00 on top. My car would have cost £20.00 diesel.
Trains not good value if you turn up and buy tickets on the day.
Click to expand...

See

1 Book in advance
Click to expand...

Or

For occasional use always book well in advance and go at off peak.......1st class isnt expensive then
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

But I question Manchester to Petersfield on £20 quid.
 
I couldn't book in advance. My crystal ball failed to warn me that some tossa would rear end my new car as it was driven out of the dealership for me. :(
As for the £20.00 trip I'm getting 47.8mpg around town ave speed 29.9 mph. Last long trip, cruise control on 60mph brought in 71mpg.
I've done the fill up, travel then fill up again and 71mpg is real.
 
mitch66 said:
I couldn't book in advance. My crystal ball failed to warn me that some tossa would rear end my new car as it was driven out of the dealership for me. :(
As for the £20.00 trip I'm getting 47.8mpg around town ave speed 29.9 mph. Last long trip, cruise control on 60mph brought in 71mpg.
I've done the fill up, travel then fill up again and 71mpg is real.
Click to expand...

Manc to Petersfield = 242 miles ( http://www.theaa.com/route-planner/...|Petersfield, Hampshire|STREET|474891|123356) So just over 3 gallons if your correct.
So your figure is wrong somewhere.

Only asking.
 
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