First class Rail..

Amp34 said:
How many times have you used the trains?

Conversely to your experience I've used cross country trains dozens of times and have only had to stand once (I think) and that was on the local leg of the journey. The trains have always been on time as well. Local trains on the other hand can be nasty, 10-15 minutes late and having to stand quite a lot. But that's what you get when travelling on a mainline from london at rush hour...
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I used to use trains quite a lot to get from London to Preston, but then I got a car and used that because it is better and cheaper. Almost every time I did the journey on a Friday/Sunday evening some poor sods had to stand up for a long time (the first time it was me!). I never realised that you could buy a first class ticket and have to stand up.

Amp34 said:
EDIT: And as for other countries, rail travel isn't much better either. Spain I've had to sit on the floor on a 5 hour journey because there were no seats for example... And TBH outside of europe I wouldn't travel standard class at all...
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Just because other countries have crap rail services, it doesn't mean we have to have one as well.
 
scorza said:
I used to use trains quite a lot to get from London to Preston, but then I got a car and used that because it is better and cheaper.
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Cheaper perhaps, how you find it better is beyond me. I live 80 miles closer to London than you and I wouldn't consider driving into the City, a place I worked for many years, travelling there 2-4 times a week.
 
scorza said:
I used to use trains quite a lot to get from London to Preston, but then I got a car and used that because it is better and cheaper. Almost every time I did the journey on a Friday/Sunday evening some poor sods had to stand up for a long time (the first time it was me!). I never realised that you could buy a first class ticket and have to stand up.
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As we keep telling you, you don't have to stand up. It's a rare and isolated incident. But you wont listen.

I am a massive car enthusiast. Everyone on this forum knows this. I love cars, I love driving, and I drive a car that is very well suited to long drives in complete comfort, probably more so than whatever it is you drive. But despite this I recognise there are still occasions when travelling by train offers a more convenient and better way of getting to my destination - certainly with London. I drove to London from here once - it took me 5 hours to get there, I paid £20 a day to park the car and I used nearly £70 of fuel.

I now pay less to travel First Class right into the centre of London in just 3 hours 20 minutes. And never once have I had to stand with a First Class ticket, even when the rest of the train is rammed to capacity.
 
Housey said:
Cheaper perhaps, how you find it better is beyond me. I live 80 miles closer to London than you and I wouldn't consider driving into the City, a place I worked for many years, travelling there 2-4 times a week.
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Yes all right I'll give you that, if I have to go into London for 9am I'll take the train as it's significantly quicker (significantly more uncomfortable too though). I'd certainly drive into central London at non-peak times and weekends though - much better than the train.
 
scorza said:
Yes all right I'll give you that, if I have to go into London for 9am I'll take the train as it's significantly quicker (significantly more uncomfortable too though). I'd certainly drive into central London at non-peak times and weekends though - much better than the train.
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Do you enjoy paying £30 for a days parking?
 
First on Virgin is so much better than standard it is easily worth paying up to 50% more ontop of the standard ticket for ime, the standard seats do not offer enough legroom for a normal sized adult and are always busy especially on weekends.
 
scorza said:
I used to use trains quite a lot to get from London to Preston, but then I got a car and used that because it is better and cheaper. Almost every time I did the journey on a Friday/Sunday evening some poor sods had to stand up for a long time (the first time it was me!). I never realised that you could buy a first class ticket and have to stand up.



Just because other countries have crap rail services, it doesn't mean we have to have one as well.
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Never found it cheaper to travel by car for a single person yet, unless you travel long distance last minute (buy at station), however I have a rail card so get a third off travel (pays for itself in one cross country trip usually).

Normally when people say "...in this country" it usually means they think it's better in other countries. It isn't the vast majority of the time, unless of course you pay a much larger amount for the TGV or the Spanish version. :)

I much prefer the one size train fare rather than a choice of a slightly cheaper slow train or a really expensive fast train.

EDIT: Car examples: I've been in three different cars from home (half an hour up the A1(M)) to Plymouth and the only car that came close cost wise in fuel was a VW Polo and TBH 4-5 hours stuck in one of those is even more uncomfortable than flying! That just beat the cost of a "saver" return (which you can buy upto the day before). The other two cars are much nicer to travel long distance in (still not as nice as a train but...) those were a new C/E class auto merc and a Nissan X-Trail (4x4). Both cost in the region of £100 there and back in fuel. cheaper if there is more than two of you and you don't buy in advance but otherwise much more expensive.
 
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That said I am dissapointed that for my forthcoming trip (Plymouth to Edinburgh) the train works out almost twice as expensive as taking the car (There are 2 of us going).
 
Just looked at train prices and I can get from Carlisle to London Euston & back for £32 in standard class, nearly £100 more for 1st class


at £32 i'm tempted to go down for a day
 
Can you fly from Plymouth/Exeter to Edinburgh Fox? I'd prefer to do that than drive/take the train, purely from a time point of view although it will obviously cost more. The Cross Country line does get very busy, but of course if you're in first and have booked then it's not a problem. The vast majority of the time I prefer to drive but agree with Fox about going to London. Having said that I'd like to get the East Coast Mainline from Newark to Edinburgh, would be a nice trip- only about three hours too, one could never drive in that time. Good 'ol electrification and straight, flat lines!
 
Personaly, I've made the journey Newcastle - Birmingham with Virgin trains several times, always in standard, and never had any problems. Most of the time I could just walk in and get a table seat. Stick my laptop on, plug in at the wall and 4 hours later I was there.

Other times I couldn't get a table seat, and had to go in one of the normal seats, these were rather cramped, but a book or a couple of hours on my DS made these pass just as quickly. I certainly wouldn't pay for the upgrade, I had a nice enough time in standard.
 
Gotta pick the GF up from Worcester on the way so we'd fly from Birmingham and by the time you've faffed about doing that you may as well drive all the way.
 
[TW]Fox;17932925 said:
Gotta pick the GF up from Worcester on the way so we'd fly from Birmingham and by the time you've faffed about doing that you may as well drive all the way.
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Ahh fair play. How many miles are you doing a year now driving up to Worcester and back on what must be quite a frequent basis? (Sorry for thread derailment, question has pretty much been answered now :p)
 
Not a huge amount, still under 10k, I tend to alternate between the train and driving and my commute to work and back is about 8 miles.
 
[TW]Fox;17932478 said:
That said I am dissapointed that for my forthcoming trip (Plymouth to Edinburgh) the train works out almost twice as expensive as taking the car (There are 2 of us going).
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First class I take it? :p

(However I can see that journey being about £100 each for a standard "saver" return?)

iviv said:
Personaly, I've made the journey Newcastle - Birmingham with Virgin trains several times, always in standard, and never had any problems. Most of the time I could just walk in and get a table seat. Stick my laptop on, plug in at the wall and 4 hours later I was there.

Other times I couldn't get a table seat, and had to go in one of the normal seats, these were rather cramped, but a book or a couple of hours on my DS made these pass just as quickly. I certainly wouldn't pay for the upgrade, I had a nice enough time in standard.
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Got to say I now normally grab a pair of seats instead of a table. Put the laptop on the other seat tray and the bag on the seat then sit leaning against the window. Comfortable and you have your own space for the trip. It has backfired a couple of times when the train was really busy and people needed the seat though. :(
 
Amp34 said:
First class I take it? :p

(However I can see that journey being about £100 each for a standard "saver" return?)
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Nope - Standard! I can never seem to find decent deals on Cross Country First Class. It's actually £163 return, just for me.

Whereas 1000 miles @ 35mpg = £155 :(
 
Wow that is expensive! But I guess that is pretty much the entire length of the country... :p

EDIT: Have you not got a railcard? I thought you were the same age as me, 24-25? In which case you should be able to get one? £107 then.
 
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[TW]Fox;17933098 said:
Nope - Standard! I can never seem to find decent deals on Cross Country First Class. It's actually £163 return, just for me.

Whereas 1000 miles @ 35mpg = £155 :(
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35mpg?

Sell the beemer and get a Diesel :p
 
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