Train prices

[TW]Fox;14095518 said:
I live in the SW and I always travel First Class to London - and I usually pay about £45 return. If you've paid £200, more fool you.
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It's all fine and well if you are flexible about when you can travel AND you have enough time to book an advanced ticket - in reality for me that's *very* rarely true.
 
dangerstat said:
It's all fine and well if you are flexible about when you can travel AND you have enough time to book an advanced ticket - in reality for me that's *very* rarely true.
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Most people don't wake up one morning and suddenly with 34 seconds notice develop a requirement to immediatly travel to the other side of the country, though.
 
[TW]Fox;14100403 said:
Most people don't wake up one morning and suddenly with 34 seconds notice develop a requirement to immediatly travel to the other side of the country, though.
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It's completely common (well for all those I know) to need to book a ticket at 2 days notice or less - and in *ever* such event, I've never been able to book anything cheaper than this time round.

If you travel from the SW to London frequently (as you say you do) you'll know that getting a discount ticket at that short notice from a train from one of the major SW stations to London for 9AM is almost impossible.
 
Just booked a train to London from Manchester, for £22 return. Bearing in mind i booked this in advance :)

It's cheap if you know what you doing and if you know where you going a few weeks in advance.

'On the day fares' our trains are are an absolute ripoff.
 
dangerstat said:
If you travel from the SW to London frequently (as you say you do) you'll know that getting a discount ticket at that short notice from a train from one of the major SW stations to London for 9AM is almost impossible.
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Pre 9am sure but you pay a premium for arrival at that time becuase thats peak period, its simple demand management.

I travel from Plymouth so unless you leave at 5.30am a pre 9am arrival is hard to get anyway, and discounted tickets are valid for trains arriving after 10am at Paddington. Closest I've booked was a week before travel, that landed me a First Class return for £52 IIRC.
 
[TW]Fox;14100718 said:
Pre 9am sure but you pay a premium for arrival at that time becuase thats peak period, its simple demand management.
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Demand management? Why not just run more frequent trains you know ... or even better larger trains, double decker, longer
 
rypt said:
Demand management? Why not just run more frequent trains you know ... or even better larger trains, double decker, longer
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A better option may be to fly Plymouth - London City which is reasonably cheap given that you get straight to London in 70min. Bit more out of the way than the train station but that depends on where you live in/around Plymouth. Checkin times are nice and short too iirc.
 
[TW]Fox;14100807 said:
Who should pay for those? Remember, thanks to privatisation, the companies are private companies - they are not charities.
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That are heavily subsidised by the tax payer.

In all fairness travelling by train can be fairness cost effective, especially if you book in advance, what annoys me is the inconsistency of the pricing.

Cambridge to Oxford - £40

Stamford to Oxford - £40

Bare in mind that this is the same line and train at the same time, but Cambridge is 60 miles further away.
 
aproctor I got a better one ...

Oxford -> Edinburgh to leave tomorrow as a single journey
The fares are all in the £100->£150 range, except for one train leaving at 11:07 that lets me have a £65.50 fare for the single
 
rypt said:
aproctor I got a better one ...

Oxford -> Edinburgh to leave tomorrow as a single journey
The fares are all in the £100->£150 range, except for one train leaving at 11:07 that lets me have a £65.50 fare for the single
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And how often do you, at 21:24, decide you suddenly need to leave for Edinburgh tommorrow morning? Virtually all long distance journeys are known about in advance - and the few that don't pay a premium.
 
[TW]Fox;14101552 said:
And how often do you, at 21:24, decide you suddenly need to leave for Edinburgh tommorrow morning? Virtually all long distance journeys are known about in advance - and the few that don't pay a premium.
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I have before been told by a friend of Sweden that he's coming to his companies UK office(s) - one of them being in Edinburgh - and often at sub 3 days notice, so I personally feel prices should be the same no-matter when you book - train has to run anyway afterall?
 
rypt said:
I have before been told by a friend of Sweden that he's coming to his companies UK office(s) - one of them being in Edinburgh - and often at sub 3 days notice, so I personally feel prices should be the same no-matter when you book - train has to run anyway afterall?
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It's simply capacity management. You have finite capacity on each train, selling a set number of seats at a certain price means you can guarantee they are sold, once they are sold the prices steadily increase to tail the demand off as the train reaches capacity. Thats the theory, anyway.
 
Except for that half the time the train is empty and yet they still try to charge you a silly fare (like when I went to MPH last year at NEC). Bought MPH and train tickets last minute - paid silly price and train was almost completely empty :(
 
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