The train I’m on right now* costs 3.50 for 7 minutes, giving me a 50p per mile figure! Does anyone pay this much?

There’s no railcards accepted, no student tickets and no off peak discounts. Is there any excuse for this? No ones going to use public transport unless its cheaper than private transport, are they nuts?

Cost per minute dodgy measure on UK trains, as the crapper the service the cheaper it gets.

Cost per mile far more useful, reckon it’s about £1/mile for journeys of an hour or less.

Heathrow Express, £20 for 15 minutes, and around 15 miles.

My commute to work is 6 miles on the bike. If I take the train it’s a one and a half miles walking to and from the stations at each end, plus the train ride.

Bike ride takes 40 minutes.

Train and walking takes 40 minutes

Train costs £4 return. Bike doesn’t.

Train ticket pricing seems mad to me.

At the start of July I looked to book 2 journeys. Return Edinburgh to Peterborough £91 (4 hours), return Edinburgh to Kyle of Lochalsh £31 (6 hours). One of them is a thoroughly wonderful journey – miles you’d think were worth more maybe.

*usually ride, but persistent achilles trouble 🙁

Didn’t get to finish that ‘cos we got to the station 🙂 The journey is about 5 or 6 miles, so cost is 58.333p/m.

I think it’s kinda remarkable, and not in a good way. Seems to me there’s worse though. Heathrow Express seems the ultimate weewee-take, so far.

My only regular train journey costs £5.50, up from £4 last year.
66 miles for £5.50 works out at 8p a mile. I was still grouchy about the 37.5% rise.

The trick is to be going in the opposite direction to everybody else.

I commute ~ 25 miles each way on the train. Return ticket costs £16.70 which means £0.33 per mile.

Edit:

The trick is to be going in the opposite direction to everybody else.

My commute is London Euston to Kings Langley in the morning and back in the evening (ie opposite direction to everyone else). I still have to pay a full fare anytime day return.

£15.90 single from Chelmsford to Liverpool Street. A bargain at 45p/min.

If the stars align and by some miracle you get a seat, a lady will ‘feel faint’ and you will have to give it up anyway.
Also there are only 5 bike spaces, trying to track one of these down is like trying to single out a fart in a jacuzzi.

ernie’s post
All services bar Uk are State-owned. I can’t speak for the rest, but Trenitalia and SNCF are absolutely excellent, not only cheap but clean trains and reliable services with the option of high speed on main routes.

I acidentally bought a 1st class ticket from Manchester to Stockport once.

£5.40 for 7 miles 😆

what makes me laugh is the same price for differing journey lengths

Harrogate to Stocksmoor. £12 single
Pannal to Huddersfield. (one less train, and 10 miles/20 mins less acutual travelling) £12. This is me doing the same journey, just getting on at the most convenient point for me in said journey

wordnumb, where are you going from/to?

Used to get the train down to That London every couple of weeks but always got the East coast bargain bucket off peak deals – usually about a tenner from Leeds so 180 miles = 18 miles per pound or 1.5 pence per minute…. 😆

My wife had to get train for business the other day, luckily the company was paying.

I still couldnt fathom the cost of a 1st class return ticket from Dundee to Sheffield (off peak)….

£544!!!! FFS!!

what makes me laugh is the same price for differing journey lengths

Want a laugh?
Dundee – Glasgow train stops at Perth.
Dundee – Glasgow = £28 return

Dundee – Perth = £5 return
Perth – Glasgow = £14 return, and no, you don’t have to get off and back on at Perth.

EDIT – this was last time I took the train to Glasgow, not sure what it is today.

I commute into London from Surrey, with car parking it’s about £550 a month

Want a laugh?
Dundee – Glasgow train stops at Perth.
Dundee – Glasgow = £28 return
Dundee – Perth = £5 return
Perth – Glasgow = £14 return, and no, you don’t have to get off and back on at Perth.

EDIT – this was last time I took the train to Glasgow, not sure what it is today.

Also, if going to Dalwhinnie, Kingussie or Newtonmore buy a ticket to Aviemore a few stops down the line as it works out cheaper.

fwiw, for regular non-high-speed (tgv) services outside the RER network (equivalent would be partway between tube and network southeast) france and italy definitely calculate fare on peak/off peak and per km travelled regardless of which line you happen to be on, how busy or popular it is, and how much it costs the railway to maintain that piece of the network or run that train on it. In fact somewhere I have a couple of ‘ferrovie dello stato’ tickets from the 90’s which are simple card tickets with 20, 40, 80kms and a code from the station you boarded the train with. You could buy a stack of them in advance and travel almost anywhere as long as you remembered your peak/offpeak boarding times, and remembered to punch/stamp it before you got on.

Let’s not learn any lessons from how well european still-state-owned railways do compared to ours though hey? (I avoid the use of ‘subsidised as the UK stll very much subsidises railways and consequentially the profits of train operators.) In five years time there will be a similar thread on here and a similar diagram courtesy of Ernie about differing prices of GP appointments. 🙁

Also, if going to Dalwhinnie, Kingussie or Newtonmore buy a ticket to Aviemore a few stops down the line as it works out cheaper.

Technically that means you dont have a valid ticket if you get off at those stations, so if they stop you then you might have to buy another ticket.

Heathrow Express, £20 for 15 minutes, and around 15 miles.

Surely that dosnt count in this scenario, as the alternatives are just as expensive. i.e. Parking, or taxi, or return journeys for a partner/friend to pick-up/drop-off.

Mrs Kona TC,

Got a bargin this morning as the train was delayed by 45 mins 😯

So pleased it’s privatised; that’s a taxpayers £1 subsidy for running the trains and a taxpayers £1 subsidy for greedy TOCs…

People complain about packed trains and sky high prices. Its precisely the fact the trains are packed, thus demonstrating high demand, that the train operating companies can charge such high prices. Supply and demand, init? Another example of the glorious capitalist society in which we find ourselves!

Cheers,
Jamie

STATO – Member

Also, if going to Dalwhinnie, Kingussie or Newtonmore buy a ticket to Aviemore a few stops down the line as it works out cheaper.

Technically that means you dont have a valid ticket if you get off at those stations, so if they stop you then you might have to buy another ticket.
If they stop you getting off at the station you were getting off at and tell you you need another ticket for a shorter journey which you’re allowed to make anyway, you might get thrown off the train at the station you were getting off at when they decided to interfere with your perfectly legal disembarkation? really? I’ve never heard the like.

BTW train lunacy isn’t all bad.
To cycle the Forth and Clyde/Union towpaths, I took the train to Glasgow, then returned from Edinburgh. Dundee-Glasgow, and Edinburgh-Dundee can be done under Dundee-Glasgow return, but couldn’t get the Dundee-Perth discount.

I reckon my journey is good value for money

Pershore > London Paddington, 120miles in 2:05 minutes, for £47.50 return.

19p/minute £11.40/hr
19p/mile

Technically that means you dont have a valid ticket if you get off at those stations, so if they stop you then you might have to buy another ticket.

With Scotrail you can split your journey at any station you want to. You could get off at every stop if you wanted to.