Train prices

Guest2

Guest2

Guest2

Soldato
Joined
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Why are train prices stupidly expensive in UK?

I am looking at going from Bristol to Leeds and a train ticket is £79. You can fly from Bristol to Leeds for £80!

In many other counteries train prices are reasonable unlike here. Same goes for bus (un)fair prices
 
Booking early is the only way to get an even half-reasonable ticket price, really. If you're not in a particular hurry, see if the route (or bits of it) are on megabus / national express routes, as it can save you a load of money.
 
Just checked and I returned a price of £61. This is £20 less than using the plane, and the journey of 3 hours 30 minutes is probably quicker, city centre to city centre, than flying when you take into account check in time, etc. If you dont want to come back, the ticket is £30.50 for a single.

For comparison sake, driving an average car would cost approx £50 in fuel (£25 for one way) + a proportional amount of wear to tyres, depreciation to vehicle, parking expenses which would mean its about the same price as the train.

Seems reasonable to me?
 
Train prices only seem really expensive if you buy them on the day - if you can get them a few weeks in advance it really drops the price (and also if you have a young persons railcard).

Rich
 
Like others have said, try to book well in advance to get the cheapest tickets , also look into buying singles as they can sometimes be cheaper than a return
 
I was discussing this earlier with a fellow OCUK'er saying that I've just paid over £200 for a return ticket to London from the SW (1st c). It's just crazy pricing IMO. It's outrageous!
 
As above, it's also often cheaper if you buy two singles rather than a return, but you can also sometimes save money by buying each journey in stages, rather than a ticket for the whole way.
 
UK train prices are about 10x what you'd pay in Spain or Belgium; and the rail service is better there
 
The reason why it is so expensive hear and a bit naff is becuase it is one of the oldest rail networks in the world, and only quite recently (20 years or so) have they started to improve it as much as they are. Also rail prices keep going up because they want the majority of cost of improving the network to come from those travelling by train and not the general taxpayer.
 
If you're < 25 and spend £75 or more a year on train tickets a young persons rail card is a must and makes train travel quite affordable.
 
Fegruson said:
The reason why it is so expensive hear and a bit naff is becuase it is one of the oldest rail networks in the world, and only quite recently (20 years or so) have they started to improve it as much as they are. Also rail prices keep going up because they want the majority of cost of improving the network to come from those travelling by train and not the general taxpayer.
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So what have they been spending money on before then instead of maintaining the rail network?
And how can it take 20 years to "upgrade" the current system, it took less time to build most of it from scratch.
 
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Shame on you people, moaning about prices. Some of us in the UK dont have access to the rail network. In fact I live in the biggest region of western Europe to not have a rail line. It was scrapped in the 60 to save money. :rolleyes:
 
dangerstat said:
I was discussing this earlier with a fellow OCUK'er saying that I've just paid over £200 for a return ticket to London from the SW (1st c). It's just crazy pricing IMO. It's outrageous!
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If you do not receive the added value by buying first class, you're an idiot for buying a first class ticket. Paying £200 for a ticket is entirely your own fault - there are better value tickets to be had.
 
Hatter The Mad said:
If you do not receive the added value by buying first class, you're an idiot for buying a first class ticket. Paying £200 for a ticket is entirely your own fault - there are better value tickets to be had.
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That's a really silly comment, if your on a business trip you have little choice you need an open ticket (which pushes the price up massively) and you need to get to the capital at around 9AM (and you get raped for that). Quite simply it should be cheaper and they are ripping customers off.
 
dangerstat said:
That's a really silly comment, if your on a business trip you have little choice you need an open ticket (which pushes the price up massively) and you need to get to the capital at around 9AM (and you get raped for that). Quite simply it should be cheaper and they are ripping customers off.
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There are such things as standard class open return tickets, y'know. Also, the chances are that the business trip will be planned >7 days in advance - giving access to the value tickets.
 
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