Why is train travel in the UK so expensive.

[otolith]

chris7676 said:

In fact many not popular routes should be closed (but they tend to spark the protest of 6-7 villagers so it's hard to do...).

Wasn't this the logic of Beeching? The problem with closing the less popular routes is that people won't drive to a bigger station in a town centre, get raped for parking, take the train and then perhaps have to fanny about with buses and taxis at the other end, they will just drive to their destination.

[Podie]

Asterix said:

I'd go for a day trip to Paris instead!

Why? It's like Blackpool, only with the French.

[Mark.]

Puggit said:

Just booked Ipswich to Basingstoke, first class, for £25.50 - pretty pleased with that!

I'd say that was £25.49 more than I'd want to pay to get there

[chris7676]

otolith said:

chris7676 said:

In fact many not popular routes should be closed (but they tend to spark the protest of 6-7 villagers so it's hard to do...).

Wasn't this the logic of Beeching? The problem with closing the less popular routes is that people won't drive to a bigger station in a town centre, get raped for parking, take the train and then perhaps have to fanny about with buses and taxis at the other end, they will just drive to their destination.

But it's not a problem. The car gives you the flexibility which suits such cases best.
Running train occupied at say 10% is a huge waste, even in lib-lab-con politically correct terms it should ring their green alarm bells!

[otolith]

Depends what objectives you wish to achieve. The alternative to making train travel easier is to tax people out of their cars, on the whole I would rather they used the carrot.

[chris7676]

otolith said:

Depends what objectives you wish to achieve. The alternative to making train travel easier is to tax people out of their cars, on the whole I would rather they used the carrot.

Regardless of the objective, they have been taxing for decades yet the train is neither cheap nor always easy.

Would you not agree that:
Trains make sense between major towns / cities.
Cars make sense between smaller towns and villages.
Planes make sense for longer distances.

And what is the carrot? (I'm sure not a random cheap route between Ipswich and B..stoke).

[otolith]

The carrot is making public transport good and easy and cheap. The stick is making motoring crap and difficult and expensive. We get too much of the latter and too little of the former, and we get both applied in completely retarded ways - tackling unnecessary car dependency by people in the South East by taxing the arse out of petrol for the whole country, for example.

I agree that there is a point where you have to accept that running public transport over a particular route does not make economical or environmental sense, but you have to consider the network as a whole, not just individual nodes.

[Puggit]

Mark. said:

I'd say that was £25.49 more than I'd want to pay to get there

Going up in the car, then the wife and kids are heading off elsewhere for a week. Seems a bargain to escape.

Won't be staying in Ipswich, but rural Suffolk

[AJS-]

It's not really surprising, is it? Trains have been pretty much obsolete since the invention of pneumatic tyres. Even with all the subsidies and all the taxes on cars it is just marginally more economical and quicker between two train stations. If you happen to be going any further than the station take the car.

[StevieBee]

The viability of train over car depends very much where you're going, from where and when.

Last week, I went from Chelmsford to Workington and back on the train for £120.00. I'm not sure I could have done the journey in the same time for less than by car.

It's often the case that the further you travel in the UK, the quicker and cheaper it becomes. Couple of years ago, had a meeting in Edinburgh: £22 each way on Easy Jet from Stansted, £15 parking and there and back in the same day so no need for hotel.