[Closed] £188.00

Trains is for the rich, innit?

is that 188 each or for the two of you. Theres ways of wangling cheaper tickets on the train, but as soon as theres more than one person travelling it'll [i]always[/i] be cheaper by car

I'm very good with pooters but maybe I cannae work thetrainline.com properly?

one way to bring the price down is if there are any connections treat the legs of the journey as separate journeys, on longer trips through tickets are often more expensive than the sum of their parts

£113 for pretty much any service via scotrail website.

I get it coming in at £45 return, what times are you travelling at

I've only booked a train once, and that was about a fortnight in advance. AFAIA, leaving it until pretty much the last minute means you get hammered, they rather have you over a barrel. My knowledge of this is, quite clearly, very limited, so there might well be ways to wangle it to get tickets much cheaper.

Is that from Edinburgh?!
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I knew trains were pricey but...
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Fortunaely I've not had to use one for about 4 years. Two off peak singles from Reading to here in South Lincolnshire £96.
Diesel for same trip in my van £15.
And they wonder why there's so much congestion slowing the traffic down. At least the train will be quicker. Oh wait, no it's 2hrs in the van and 5hrs on the train when you get to Kings Cross and find yours has been cancelled.

Also, you can hire a tiny car for a weekend for about £50, petrol to Abderdeena and back (240m round trip?) would be about £20 in a runabout. Train looking a little daft TBH.
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Saw an article in a car mag a few years ago. Two blokes wanted to get from London to Newcastle and back. Price of 2 on the day return tickets, second class, was whatever it was.
They found it was cheaper to buy a car, insure it, tax it and buy petrol to get them there and back. It was an old Sierra they bought for about £200 IIRC.

I was only moaning; don't go asking a lot of questions. 😉

Between about three and five o'clock on Friday, returning after lunch on Saturday. Oh, and in fairness it was £188 for both of us.

The thing is, CountZero, they don't have me over a barrel at all. I'll just take the car and they'll get nowt.

Edit - aye, Edinburgh to Aberdeen and back, Andrew.

Aye - £113 for the pair of you. Off peak return.

The thing is, CountZero, they don't have me over a barrel at all. I'll just take the car and they'll get nowt.

Last weekend, wife and I were going to take the train, southampton - birmingham, cheapest rail fare was £66 each. Took the car, third of a tank of fuel there and back approx £35.

Even if I had travelled alone it was about the same price as driving, without the convenience of the car.

Surely people will stop bothering using trains?

Right you are, glupton, but the car still wins I think. Thanks for the tip though.

Darlington to Guildford return for me on Friday is £380 ish (can't remember exactly)

Andrewh, top gear did he same thing, bought 3 cars (an Audi, Volvo and a rover), taxed fueled and insured them to drive from that London to manchestoh for lots less than the price of 3 train tickets.

Makes me Laugh as the high speed trains in Spain are about to drop there fares from 30 to 70%

I remember once when I went unto Manchester on business 5 years back
and ask first for a return and that was £55 and for a single was £ 54 so returning they
valued it at £1 pound what the ffffff.

This one Tom?

Due to the snow I had to use a bus to get into Llangollen I live 4.5 miles outside of town it cost me and ms plecostomus £12 return! I thought we are supposed to be encouraged to use public transport! It's a rip off.

Could have bought 12 Volvos for that!

Unassociated post:

Can get from Edinburgh to Fort Bill and back with the bike for 20 quid with my 16-25 railcard.

They even let you get pished and talk Gaelic with the locals. BOOSH!

managed to get 2 of us on the train from stonehaven to glasgow once for 22 quid each - had to book 12 weeks in advance

but had to book from aberdeen to glasgow - then get on at stonehaven to do it as parking at aberdeen is more than my train - stoneys free

then i got on the train - was standing room only , found my booked seat with someone in it , explained that they were in my seat - they didnt seem too fussed about moving and were not at all disabled so just explained move or ill get the conductor to move you as i have paid for that seat and you have not - they moved begrudgingly.

given the chance again i think id just take the car and be done as it was not convienant , it wasnt plesent and it wasnt comfortable.

the ukraine has a better rail service than we do , ours is a bloody joke - and dont get me started on the busses , my mother works for stagecoach , i got free bus travel when i lived at home. I took a bus to uni once and decided not to bother again - took me 2 hours to travel what i can do on the train in 20 minutes with less walk at each end.

but had to book from aberdeen to glasgow - then get on at stonehaven to do it as parking at aberdeen is more than my train - stoneys free

then i got on the train - was standing room only , found my booked seat with someone in it , explained that they were in my seat - they didnt seem too fussed about moving and were not at all disabled so just explained move or ill get the conductor to move you as i have paid for that seat and you have not - they moved begrudgingly.

You may not have found the conductor quite as amenable as you think. If someone books a seat but doesn't get on at the correct station then it becomes fair game. Booking a seat doesn't (or didn't) cost anything, you paid for a ticket not a seat. Also on most train journeys you aren't allowed to break your journey so you would have been more in the wrong than the person sitting in "your" seat.

wah wah wah. took me that long to find my seat if the conductor asked 😉

Can I break my journey? Yes
•You can break your journey at stations along the route of travel.

from the scotrail website - seems scottish trains actually have a sense making system unlike virgin and eastcoast.

just another reason NOT to use our failing antiquated rail system.

Was looking at moving down into sunny Sheffied not so long ago.

Decided on staying in Scotland as the GF can get London quicker, for less money. Go figure.

(there's a requirement for short notice travel)

The better half recently had to travel to London from Manchester at short notice. At peak time, the standard ticket price quoted was £270 return! 😯

She declined Virgin Rails perfectly reasonably priced offer, and made alternative arrangements.

like a private hire car ? a limosine ? a private jet ? all of which are probably on par with our train service at short notice :d

Its pretty simple, how much do you want the government to subsidise the railways?
Should it always be cheaper than the fuel for 1 person in a car, what about 2 people? Should you factor in the other costs of running a car, or just the marginal increase for your journey once you already own it?

The tories don't want you to get out of your car and save the environment either (what makes you think that?!), they've stopped increasing fuel duty, tried to make the speed limit 80mph and made it harder to install speed cameras.

Also on most train journeys you aren't allowed to break your journey so you would have been more in the wrong than the person sitting in "your" seat.

In Scotland you can break your rail journey anywhere you like - certain tickets which are few and far between have some limited restrictions on them.

I needed to be in aylesbury for 9am. leicester to aylesbury on an anytime return ticket is £181. and takes 3:38 minutes. I could hire a car, brim it with fuel drive there and back, brim the tank again, pay to get it washed and hoovered out, return it to hire company and a taxi home from hire company for less. and get there at least an hour quicker.

181 for 3:38 minutes ....

3200 quid an hour* .... i need to get in on that ......

*course i know you mean 3:38 hours* !

* i hope

...certain tickets which are few and far between have some limited restrictions on them.

At a guess I'd say that the ones that get you from Aberdeen to Glasgow for 22 quid a head having been booked 12 weeks in advance probably fall into that category. Also the "I've only just got to my seat" is laughable for anyone who knows how trains from Aberdeen to Glasgow actually run. They are only four carraiges long, and generally sit in Aberdeen train station for quite a while allowing you to get to your seat long before the train even departs. Oh and the journey to Stonehaven typically takes about 20 mins further emphasising the ridiculousness of the statement.

Between about three and five o'clock on Friday, returning after lunch on Saturday. Oh, and in fairness it was £188 for both of us.

Edit: [url= http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/EDB/ABD/tomorrow/1757/arr/260113/1836/arr ]Clicky[/url]. Outbound the 14:27 is £21.50 each, return on the 14.52 is £17.50, so that's £39 each, £78 for the two of you. Not cheaper than the fuel (although cheaper than the 'true' cost of driving), and less than half the price you found!

And remember to take some tinnies on to share with the riggers

hours. 🙂

It's all about the times. I was told by Virgin that 3:00pm is off-peak, 3:01pm is peak. Rather than travel 'between 3 and 5', go slightly earlier; it'll be loads cheaper.

I would if I could but I'm not all that flexible on the times. I can't even make the earlier and later trains njee used to get the price down.

I'm not even going to start on buses and taxis from the train station to where I actually want to get to. 🙂

I had to get from near Gatwick to Manchester at short notice a few years ago.

The train was more expensive than flying...

...flying Gatwick to Holland, Holland to New York and then New York to Manchester!!

I can't even make the earlier and later trains njee used to get the price down.

So when you said:

Between about three and five o'clock on Friday, returning after lunch on Saturday

You didn't really mean "about" 3 and 5, and what time is 'after lunch' if not 2:30? If you get the 18:32 outbound it's the same price, and coming home at any other time is only about £8 more. Admittedly travelling in the evening peak is more expensive. That's fairly simple supply/demand really.

It's all about the times. I was told by Virgin that 3:00pm is off-peak, 3:01pm is peak.

Fair enough really, they've got to have a threshold at some time.

Someone mentioned splitting tickets to get cheaper fairs. Money Saving Expert have a handy tool for working it out for you;
http://splitticket.moneysavingexpert.com/tool.php

try 2 sets of return tickets -> edinburgh-perth and perth-aberdeen
doing this between dundee and glasgow is around 40% cheaper than buying dundee-glasgow returns.

They make the peak time tickets so expensive so that the off-peak ones can be cheaper, innit.

Peak time trains are still full. Problem is with trains there is only so much capacity.

And most people travelling in the peak have no choice, and (within reason) will pay what they're asked.

Hence my commute is £38 a day.

£78 for the two of you. Not cheaper than the fuel (although cheaper than the 'true' cost of driving),

What is the 'true cost' of driving? My first car for an example:
Cost £200. Sold for £60 (scrap) Lifetime (1 year) depreciation £140
MOT £40
New tyre £40
Insurance £620 (I was young and had points)
Tax £185
Fuel £0.10 per mile
Cost for 15k miles = £0.168/mile
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Last time I used a train it was 140 miles for £48 = 0.343/mile, over twice as much!
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Current van.
Cost £2,300 Depreciation at about £300/year
Repairs to date £15
Tax £215
Insurance £320
Fuel at £0.15/mile
15,000 miles per year = £0.207/mile, still 2/3 the price of that train ticket, and that's a 2 litre Transit, hardly a little runaround.

I kinda did mean it, njee. My tale here is not invented to make the railways look bad. I thought the return was much later for some reason (an error on my part, no doubt) and I can't make the earlier one.

Thanks for playing along at home, everyone.

gonefishin

You may not have found the conductor quite as amenable as you think. If someone books a seat but doesn't get on at the correct station then it becomes fair game. Booking a seat doesn't (or didn't) cost anything, you paid for a ticket not a seat. Also on most train journeys you aren't allowed to break your journey so you would have been more in the wrong than the person sitting in "your" seat.

How can a booked seat become "fair game" if someone starts sitting in it at a station prior to the start of the reservation? Not all booked seats are for the entirety of the train's journey.

Split tickets, a good way of saving some quids.

And a good example of something that's wrong with rail transport, in that they exist in the first place.

Trains can be great value - travelling to the Event Production Show in 10 days time, booked yesterday and got £36 each way in First Class. Add £9 per day parking and it's and all up cost of £90. Free coffee and WiFi so I can work for the duration of the journey and load up on caffeine. If I can work for 2 hours each way, at our hourly billing rate we are ahead of the game.

Last time I took the car I left London at 8pm after a drive down and a very long day - started to feel very drowsy on the M1, huge matrix sign saying "dont drive tired, take a break" - good idea, pulled into a services and grabbed a nap - woke up, got a coffee and mars bar and set off thinking good advice. Got a £90 fine from the services for overstaying the 2 hours, I slept for 3. Appealed adn was told that I should have woken up at 2 hours and got a ticket then gone back to sleep. You got to love the logic! 😀

I lurves trains, I do.