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£292 return railway fare London-Newcastle WTF |
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#26 |
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Join Date: Jun 2012
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The £292 was the price quoted on ITV news.
The £42 return Belfast-Dublin is first class including breakfast. Why all the advance booking stuff whatever happened standardised fares, when you turn up pay your fare and go all at a reasonable price Is it time for England to Nationalise their Railways , seems a bit of a mess for profiteering investors and shareholders , not the ordinary everyday commuter. |
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#27 |
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Derbyshire / UK
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I do agree that train fares are extortionate if you don't book in advance and use the money saving deals. But at the same time is it right that tax payers subsidise the fares?
I can understand the argument for subsidising the infrastructure, to an extent. But vehicle drivers receive no subsidy on fuel, parking, maintenance and other assorted taxes. In fact we are taxed extremely high on the fuel, plus another 20% VAT for the privilege of paying the other duty! I accept these costs are higher as I need a car, so shouldn't rail users pay for the cost of their 'chosen' transport? |
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#28 |
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Join Date: Dec 2015
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Quote:
Still, the Irish train prices look cheaper to me. Mile for mile.
Rail network systems in Europe are heavily state subsidised but not just by their relative states, they also own some UK networks. https://www.theguardian.com/politics...ok-uk-for-ride |
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#29 |
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Derbyshire / UK
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Quote:
Rail network systems in Europe are heavily state subsidised but not just by their relative states, they also own some UK networks. https://www.theguardian.com/politics...ok-uk-for-ride |
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#30 |
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 5,614
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Quote:
Rail fares are crazy, unless you book in advance. If I needed to go to London tomorrow, and had to travel before 9.30, the return fare would be getting on for £60. It's only 50 miles, so that makes it 60p a mile.
I reckon it's about 250 miles from London to Newcastle, so if the price per mile was the same, the fare would be £300 return. |
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#31 |
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Welwyn Garden City
Posts: 29,544
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Quote:
The £292 was the price quoted on ITV news.
The £42 return Belfast-Dublin is first class including breakfast. Why all the advance booking stuff whatever happened standardised fares, when you turn up pay your fare and go all at a reasonable price Is it time for England to Nationalise their Railways , seems a bit of a mess for profiteering investors and shareholders , not the ordinary everyday commuter. |
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#32 |
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Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Scotland
Posts: 3,484
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Quote:
The £292 was the price quoted on ITV news.
The £42 return Belfast-Dublin is first class including breakfast. Why all the advance booking stuff whatever happened standardised fares, when you turn up pay your fare and go all at a reasonable price Is it time for England to Nationalise their Railways , seems a bit of a mess for profiteering investors and shareholders , not the ordinary everyday commuter. |
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#33 |
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Retford
Posts: 20,449
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Quote:
Why should other taxpayers subsidise commuters journeys to work
The public are going to have to have a very frank discussion on the future of funding for collective transport such as trains and buses and whether they are prepared to have trains, buses, trams and other forms of collectively funded transport become a relic in museums. |
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#34 |
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Join Date: Aug 2007
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It's either subsidise public transport or we'll end up in a situation where public transport is untenable at which point people are going to have no choice but to drive, use a scooter, other personal form of transport or charities fill the void for the elderly and disabled.
The public are going to have to have a very frank discussion on the future of funding for collective transport such as trains and buses and whether they are prepared to have trains, buses, trams and other forms of collectively funded transport become a relic in museums. It could be some more sophisticated and efficient bus services, minibus sharing, very short term car hire, taxi sharing, vehicles running where train track currently are, who knows? That's only what my limited imagination can dream up. We'll never find out while we're subsidising the existing services. It's an artificial market. |
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#35 |
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Join Date: Dec 2015
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I often wonder how much of our fares go back to help subsidise fares in their parent countries!
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#36 |
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Retford
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If subsidised public transport were to disappear overnight something else we haven't dreamed up yet would spring up to provide a service.
It could be some more sophisticated and efficient bus services, minibus sharing, very short term car hire, taxi sharing, vehicles running where train track currently are, who knows? That's only what my limited imagination can dream up. We'll never find out while we're subsidising the existing services. It's an artificial market. a) Unsubsidised taxi services; b) Charitable organisations running dial-a-ride services for the elderly and disabled, or; c) Promoting car-sharing. |
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#37 |
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Join Date: Oct 2011
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If you go to somewhere like Holland there is the price of the ticket, from A to B, no peak fare, off peak, saver, super saver, advance saver, and all the rest of the nonsense we have to put up with. And that price is considerably cheaper than the equivalent journey in this country.(
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#38 |
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Nailsworth, Gloucestershire
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Why should other taxpayers subsidise commuters journeys to work
National infrastructure, road as well as rail, is the responsibility of national government and should be paid by everyone. |
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#39 |
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Join Date: Mar 2014
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I had to do the Newcastle to London trip, end of October a couple months ago. I booked the journey one week ahead, and it was around £125 return journey, kind of gives you a comparison. I didn't have the choice of booking in months in advance, as an important meeting came up.
I still feel over £100 is still expensive, and it really affects social mobility for people. I think it should be under £100, around £60-£80 maximum. Even if you are paying more than the price of what I paid for, you aren't getting anything different or extra with your journey. |
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#40 |
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Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 953
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Quote:
London Kings Cross -> Newcastle
Departing 08:45 on Sunday 12th March 2017 £28.00 advance single £20.00 if you depart at 9pm. Book in advance. Try to work your plans around the cheapest days/times. Expect to have a bus replacing the train for at least part of your journey if you're a Sunday rail traveller. |
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#41 |
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 878
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[quote=jra;85038906]You can get a single for £65 tomorrow, provided you travel off peak.
Don't get me wrong. Rail fares are expensive in the UK, but you can save a lot of money if you know how to work the system. True. But why should you have to be a bit of an anorak to avoid getting stiffed? The OP is absolutely right in pointing out how mad pricing has become but I am at a loss to see how it can be brought back under control so long as we have a government who only sees the railways as a cash cow. |
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#42 |
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 40,632
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But to me that is part of the problem, you shouldn't have to waste hours searching online to "work the system" just to get reasonable train fares.
If you go to somewhere like Holland there is the price of the ticket, from A to B, no peak fare, off peak, saver, super saver, advance saver, and all the rest of the nonsense we have to put up with. And that price is considerably cheaper than the equivalent journey in this country. Why were the train operating companies allowed to get away with such nonsense? ![]() |
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#43 |
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 40,632
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Quote:
Like I said though, that was just a quick check online a few seconds after reading the thread. Yes it is expensive.
But rhe point being that if people just go to a website and ask for a return then they're going to get the most expensive but if you spend a bit of time looking around or planning in advance you can get these things cheaper. |
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#44 |
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 40,632
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Quote:
You can get a single for £65 tomorrow, provided you travel off peak.
Don't get me wrong. Rail fares are expensive in the UK, but you can save a lot of money if you know how to work the system. Quote:
True. But why should you have to be a bit of an anorak to avoid getting stiffed? The OP is absolutely right in pointing out how mad pricing has become but I am at a loss to see how it can be brought back under control so long as we have a government who only sees the railways as a cash cow.
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#45 |
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 40,632
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Most of the UK rail network is run at capacity, there is no incentive to grow. Just squeeze the pips.
If there was no incentive to grow, why are the following projects for example taking place. Electrification of the GWML. Electrification of the MML. Electrification of the The Valley Lines. The Northern Hub. The Electric Spine. The Thameslink Programme. Crossrail. HS2. Quote:
Sundays can be a nightmare to attempt rail travel on with all the engineering works that take place.
Expect to have a bus replacing the train for at least part of your journey if you're a Sunday rail traveller. |
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#46 |
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Join Date: Jan 2002
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My thoughts exactly. It's what I would do.
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It is quicker and cheaper to fly sometimes, but IMO not always, if you're travelling between UK destinations, provided you book your rail tickets in advance. Apart from the railway network covering a far larger
catchment area than airports. |
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#47 |
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 6,337
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I believe both Ireland and Northern Ireland still have nationalised railways.
I know certainly when I've been to Ireland fares on Iarnrod Eireann seem to be a lot cheaper, although you can't really compare the network to the UK's as it is a lot smaller. Likewise with NI Railways, the network is a lot smaller and there aren't the same frequencies of service that we have in the rest of the UK. That said, rail travel in the UK is very expensive, and that's even with massive subsidies given to train operators by the government. If you can book travel in advance on specific services you can get some absolute bargain fares in the UK, but if you have to travel at peak time like most commuters do then you do pay through the nose. Some of that is to try and keep people off the busiest services, but when you have to travel you have to travel. I think renationalisation should be considered as it would then give us a railway whose soul purpose isn't generating profits for shareholders, but it won't solve everything unfortunately. |
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#48 |
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 4,112
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Quote:
www.redspottedhanky.com for example has a lowest fare finder.
If people need it made even easier there are websites like the one you mentioned too. Just as an example we regularly get tickets on the WCML to travel to football matches. There are 2 of us and I usually buy the tickets required for each month around 2 months in advance. A standard return bought on the day was £28.20 per person. Buying in advance, buying 2 singles each instead of return tickets and using a 2Together railcard and it then costs £5.90 return each. It's so cheap that even if we took advantage of the weekend upgrade to 1st class which is £10 per person each way our tickets would still be £2.30 each cheaper than someone buying on the day travelling standard class. |
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#49 |
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Nailsworth, Gloucestershire
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Quote:
Most of the UK rail network is run at capacity, there is no incentive to grow. Just squeeze the pips.
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#50 |
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Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 9,306
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Quote:
It is quicker and cheaper to fly.
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