Rail fares increasing again

Oh smashing. My train is late several times a week,turning a 1.5 hour commute into a 2 hour one regularly. I pay around £4k a year for the privilege.

On top of that my employer now asks us to work from home one day a week to save on desk costs so they can close another building. But one day a week isn't enough to cut down my monthly ticket and I also still end up paying for heating and lighting while at home. Sometimes I feel like just throwing it all in soon and getting the tax payer to provide for me instead.

Yay, happy times :)
 
So I pay roughly 180 quid on average to go to London and back 1st class from Lichfield in peak time, bought in advance. Second class bought the same way is circa 140 quid. I am unable to plan months in advance, often a day before thing for me. I can't begin to imagine how much they will plan to charge on HS2 when it finally arrives. £350?

Train fairs to London are a cash cow. I can get a train on the day from Stafford to Manchester or Liverpool for circa £60 first class return. UK is broken.
 
I don't see how people on low wages can even afford to work in London. To expensive to live there and to expensive to get there. I can see there being a huge recruitment problem at some point.

They are never going to reduce the number of cars with prices being so silly and the service being so dire. I don't live in London but it costs me about £5-6 a day to drive to work and back. Which is cheaper than using the two buses I'd have to catch (which would also take twice as long to get there)...
 
Last edited:
_99061016_chart-railfare-hap0u-nc.png


The thing that surprises me is that almost 25% is spent on investment.

Where the hell is this investment? I never see any evidence of actual improvement to the lines. I'm sure the answer is that it only appears in London.
 
Same every year, raise prices, people complain but still pay it anyway.

Rinse, repeat.... Welcome to the UK!
 
Yea right. I'd flip the categories on that chart upside down.

We need to be more like the French. Mass disobedience until they get what they want.
 
Last edited:
malachi said:
Same every year, raise prices, people complain but still pay it anyway.

Rinse, repeat.... Welcome to the UK!
Click to expand...

Well, given it is the only way for me to get to work, I have to pay. Good thing I get a travel loan from work so can buy annual to save some money.
 
"it's a kick in the teeth", "rising much faster than wages", "we know this is unpopular - [insert some future promise] - but it's needed". It's one of the most prolific copy and paste stories going!

In my personal experience; Waterloo upgrade/disruption in August wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be, however the aftermath coupled with SWR being taken over resulted in a noticeably worse service. On the flip side, I have spotted some new trains.
 
It'll cost me a wallet busting 20p extra per day.
A 7 day season ticket only gets used for 5 days and one of those we will have to drive anyway. So its cheaper to buy daily anyway.

And I'm at the mercy of Southern.

Might start looking for a job closer to home...
 
exhashdotdot said:
The thing that surprises me is that almost 25% is spent on investment.

Where the hell is this investment? I never see any evidence of actual improvement to the lines. I'm sure the answer is that it only appears in London.
Click to expand...

Investment is a very loose term. Maintenance could simply be keeping the line functioning and repairing damage. Upgrading any of it would probably come under investment. Think of it like a computer program. You could change the code completely and still deliver a product that was identical to the old one, its just faster and more maintainable / future proof even if the consumer doesn't see any outward difference.

I wonder how much the London bridge work has cost. That must be running into the hundreds of millions easily.

(£6.5bn apparently and lets be honest, it will have gone massively overbudget)
 
while you might not perceive any improvements OP I suspect you'd soon perceive some issues/deterioration in a few years without these rises

I'd rather they kept bumping up fares and tried to improve services tbh... I don't agree with the TFL price freeze


Housey said:
So I pay roughly 180 quid on average to go to London and back 1st class from Lichfield in peak time, bought in advance. Second class bought the same way is circa 140 quid. I am unable to plan months in advance, often a day before thing for me. I can't begin to imagine how much they will plan to charge on HS2 when it finally arrives. £350?
Click to expand...

it is crazy how prices vary considerably, for example Solihull to London is a pretty similar journey in terms of time/distance yet on a different line and significantly cheaper than that - advanced peak time fares can be had for £35 only a couple of days in advance... 1st class doesn't exist but the coaches provided during peak time have decent wide seats anyway, all tables and plenty of space

special offers can be had for a tenner and if I turn up on the day on say a Friday evening and fancy popping back to see my folks I can get an off peak return from the ticket machine for £29 returning on Sunday evening or during the middle of the day or evening during the week
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom