Train Journeys - Are They REALLY This Price ?
Discussion
I've only ever caught the train a few miles to the city centre which seems a reasonable price.
I'm looking at a car in Taunton and I live in Solihull so as the guy said he'd collect me from the station I took a look at tickets.
Off peak return cheapest price I can find is £70 - most are £138
That is for either tomorrow or Wed.
Is this really the price or do I have to book further in advance or on a different site because I can't believe people pay these prices.
I'm looking at a car in Taunton and I live in Solihull so as the guy said he'd collect me from the station I took a look at tickets.
Off peak return cheapest price I can find is £70 - most are £138
That is for either tomorrow or Wed.
Is this really the price or do I have to book further in advance or on a different site because I can't believe people pay these prices.
Its apparently 132 miles from Solihul to Taunton, at 40 per mile thats £52.8 one way by car, or £105.60 both ways.
Petrol is currently around £6.31 a gallon, assume 35 miles to the gallon and thats 7.5 gallons or £47.60 in fuel alone, ignoring the opportunity cost for the time of your mate / wife etc.
Petrol is currently around £6.31 a gallon, assume 35 miles to the gallon and thats 7.5 gallons or £47.60 in fuel alone, ignoring the opportunity cost for the time of your mate / wife etc.
Yes they are.
Only way to reduce them is to tie yourself to a specific train.
And this gives my the chance to point out to f
king tainline.com that they have not saved me £64 this year. I have saved £64 by committing to certain trains. They charged me £2 booking fee which means on the few occasions that I have used them they have cost me money. grrr...
Can you report to ASA for false marketing emails?
Only way to reduce them is to tie yourself to a specific train.
And this gives my the chance to point out to f
king tainline.com that they have not saved me £64 this year. I have saved £64 by committing to certain trains. They charged me £2 booking fee which means on the few occasions that I have used them they have cost me money. grrr...Can you report to ASA for false marketing emails?
surveyor said:
Yes they are.
Only way to reduce them is to tie yourself to a specific train.
And this gives my the chance to point out to fking tainline.com that they have not saved me £64 this year. I have saved £64 by committing to certain trains. They charged me £2 booking fee which means on the few occasions that I have used them they have cost me money. grrr...
Can you report to ASA for false marketing emails?
I believe there are sites that will allow you to book without charging a fee. Also once you have identified the route and trqain company you require use their website to buy the ticket, should be no booking fee!Only way to reduce them is to tie yourself to a specific train.
And this gives my the chance to point out to f
king tainline.com that they have not saved me £64 this year. I have saved £64 by committing to certain trains. They charged me £2 booking fee which means on the few occasions that I have used them they have cost me money. grrr...Can you report to ASA for false marketing emails?
What I don't get is those that buy split tickets because say its cheaper for to have tickets Edindburgh Newcastle, Newcastle London, rather than Edinburgh London. How to you find all these out?!
Chrisgr31 said:
Petrol is currently around £6.31 a gallon, assume 35 miles to the gallon and thats 7.5 gallons or £47.60 in fuel alone, ignoring the opportunity cost for the time of your mate / wife etc.
Ah but I cunningly converted my wife's car to LPG so it's closer to £25 and I can sit in leather seats with AC on, listening to my music and come and go when I want.I believe my opportunity cost of marrying her was forgoing sleeping with anyone else... for that cost she can drive me around a bit !
Like anything else it's about taking the time to look around if you have it!
I found a way of getting a colleague from Bournemouth to Birmingham rtn reduced from over £160 to about £40 by booking singles for separate sections of the journey - It's a bit fiddly but it can save some serious money - Albeit you are almost certainly (but not always) restricted to specific trains (no flexibility.
I found a way of getting a colleague from Bournemouth to Birmingham rtn reduced from over £160 to about £40 by booking singles for separate sections of the journey - It's a bit fiddly but it can save some serious money - Albeit you are almost certainly (but not always) restricted to specific trains (no flexibility.
Chrisgr31 said:
surveyor said:
Yes they are.
Only way to reduce them is to tie yourself to a specific train.
And this gives my the chance to point out to fking tainline.com that they have not saved me £64 this year. I have saved £64 by committing to certain trains. They charged me £2 booking fee which means on the few occasions that I have used them they have cost me money. grrr...
Can you report to ASA for false marketing emails?
I believe there are sites that will allow you to book without charging a fee. Also once you have identified the route and trqain company you require use their website to buy the ticket, should be no booking fee!Only way to reduce them is to tie yourself to a specific train.
And this gives my the chance to point out to f
king tainline.com that they have not saved me £64 this year. I have saved £64 by committing to certain trains. They charged me £2 booking fee which means on the few occasions that I have used them they have cost me money. grrr...Can you report to ASA for false marketing emails?
What I don't get is those that buy split tickets because say its cheaper for to have tickets Edindburgh Newcastle, Newcastle London, rather than Edinburgh London. How to you find all these out?!
Podie said:
surveyor said:
Yes they are.
Only way to reduce them is to tie yourself to a specific train.
Booking well in advance also helps. If you can book over a week ahead there are usually cheaper tickets to be had.Only way to reduce them is to tie yourself to a specific train.
Podie said:
surveyor said:
Yes they are.
Only way to reduce them is to tie yourself to a specific train.
Booking well in advance also helps. If you can book over a week ahead there are usually cheaper tickets to be had.Only way to reduce them is to tie yourself to a specific train.
surveyor said:
Podie said:
surveyor said:
Yes they are.
Only way to reduce them is to tie yourself to a specific train.
Booking well in advance also helps. If you can book over a week ahead there are usually cheaper tickets to be had.Only way to reduce them is to tie yourself to a specific train.
Chrisgr31 said:
Podie said:
surveyor said:
Yes they are.
Only way to reduce them is to tie yourself to a specific train.
Booking well in advance also helps. If you can book over a week ahead there are usually cheaper tickets to be had.Only way to reduce them is to tie yourself to a specific train.
The starting point for booking singles is to find out whose trains you're actually going on for each bit of the journey and then booking each operator separately. So for example, if you regularly travel from Manchester to Newcastle you're on Virgin Trains to Leeds and East Coast from Leeds. The cheapest fare is to book singles to and from Leeds as that's where the operator changes. I presume if you book direct you're paying Virgin a fee to use East Coast's line etc.
I used to do this a few years ago most weekends, was £60 return then (so I guess £80 now), but the singles could bring the price under £40 quite easily. Generally meant sitting in Leeds for 20-40 minutes waiting for the cheaper connection, though occasionally you could just stay on the same train. Risk is that one train is delayed and you get an unaccommodating conductor on the 'wrong' train that you end up on.
My worse experience of this was turning up at Piccadilly to find out it was rail replacement buses to Huddersfield. Should be OK timing wise, but it was rush hour on a Friday and for some reason the bus went West out of Manchester, all the way around the M60 to the M67, then dived off and took us over the Woodhead Pass and god knows where to get to Huddersfield. I missed my train by over 2 hours as the whole lot was grid-locked. No one at Huddersfield wanted to accept responsibility and sort me out with a new ticket, so I just got on the next train and explained it all to the guard. It was the last train going North, so was nearly a complete disaster.
I used to do this a few years ago most weekends, was £60 return then (so I guess £80 now), but the singles could bring the price under £40 quite easily. Generally meant sitting in Leeds for 20-40 minutes waiting for the cheaper connection, though occasionally you could just stay on the same train. Risk is that one train is delayed and you get an unaccommodating conductor on the 'wrong' train that you end up on.
My worse experience of this was turning up at Piccadilly to find out it was rail replacement buses to Huddersfield. Should be OK timing wise, but it was rush hour on a Friday and for some reason the bus went West out of Manchester, all the way around the M60 to the M67, then dived off and took us over the Woodhead Pass and god knows where to get to Huddersfield. I missed my train by over 2 hours as the whole lot was grid-locked. No one at Huddersfield wanted to accept responsibility and sort me out with a new ticket, so I just got on the next train and explained it all to the guard. It was the last train going North, so was nearly a complete disaster.
Chrisgr31 said:
I believe there are sites that will allow you to book without charging a fee. Also once you have identified the route and train company you require use their website to buy the ticket, should be no booking fee!
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/
Chrisgr31 said:
What I don't get is those that buy split tickets because say its cheaper for to have tickets Edindburgh Newcastle, Newcastle London, rather than Edinburgh London. How to you find all these out?!
By looking 
The National Rail enquiry website that I link to above will give you the time and prices for trains between the points that you enter in the boxes. And if you like you can do some research yourself for tickets to and from intermediate points to see if you can get a cheaper price for the overall journey.
Just one point to remember - you'll find yourself at the losing end of an argument if the Revenue Protection lads come around and your tickets are to a place en route where the train doesn't actually stop.
Mind you, 'twas ever thus even in the days of BR and their days of a flat rate per mile (whih was pre-1963 IIRC). There were various cheap day returns that you could buy for the various portions of a journey, could add up to a lot less than the normal return fare for your whole journey.
Went from Bath to Ipswich and back today. We initially planned to go on the train - however in order to be in Ipswich at even a vaguely sensible time for a meeting (11:30) we had to travel on peak - so £270 each for two of us. £540 in total. £540!!
Instead we drove to Richmond from where it was "just" £79 each
In all we left at 6:45 this morning, getting home at 19:15.
The train from Liverpool Street to Ipswich was, whilst on time, filthy, old, decrepit and generally rubbish. The basic benefit of going by train was to be able to do some work - however Overground from Richmond to Stratford is impossible to work as it's essentially a big tube train, so out of 11 hours of travel, the maximum amount of time to sit and use a laptop was 2 hours. Next time I'm driving.
Instead we drove to Richmond from where it was "just" £79 each
In all we left at 6:45 this morning, getting home at 19:15.
The train from Liverpool Street to Ipswich was, whilst on time, filthy, old, decrepit and generally rubbish. The basic benefit of going by train was to be able to do some work - however Overground from Richmond to Stratford is impossible to work as it's essentially a big tube train, so out of 11 hours of travel, the maximum amount of time to sit and use a laptop was 2 hours. Next time I'm driving.
V8RX7 said:
Thanks for the replies but it confirms what I suspected that trains are too expensive and the booking / pricing system is a joke.
Yep, there was something to be said for British Rail before the politicians and marketing people and fatcats got hold of it. Now it's just an expensive confusing mess. Thanks to a friend who works for a rail company I was shown how to get from Essex to Wales for £32 return - but the journey was so stressful and complicated I've taken the car ever since and will continue to do so.miniman said:
Went from Bath to Ipswich and back today. We initially planned to go on the train - however in order to be in Ipswich at even a vaguely sensible time for a meeting (11:30) we had to travel on peak - so £270 each for two of us. £540 in total. £540!!
Instead we drove to Richmond from where it was "just" £79 each
In all we left at 6:45 this morning, getting home at 19:15.
The train from Liverpool Street to Ipswich was, whilst on time, filthy, old, decrepit and generally rubbish. The basic benefit of going by train was to be able to do some work - however Overground from Richmond to Stratford is impossible to work as it's essentially a big tube train, so out of 11 hours of travel, the maximum amount of time to sit and use a laptop was 2 hours. Next time I'm driving.
The Ipswich service is indeed an absolute disgrace. Instead we drove to Richmond from where it was "just" £79 each
In all we left at 6:45 this morning, getting home at 19:15.
The train from Liverpool Street to Ipswich was, whilst on time, filthy, old, decrepit and generally rubbish. The basic benefit of going by train was to be able to do some work - however Overground from Richmond to Stratford is impossible to work as it's essentially a big tube train, so out of 11 hours of travel, the maximum amount of time to sit and use a laptop was 2 hours. Next time I'm driving.
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