[Closed] Train Prices - Edinburgh to Glasgow - You're Joking right!!!

A couple of weeks of travelling on the M8 and you will be glad to pay the fare 😉

Indeed, such is the joy of privatising the railways in the hope competition will drive the prices down. BTW, someone will no doubt be along in a minute to tell you that your car is killing the planet and that that diesel-powered relic chugging along half empty is a much greener means of transport.

Take the mega bus for something like £1 each way!

I recently went to Manchester for a meeting at 1000.
Cost to go by train? Over £300.
Cost to fly? About £80 return. Nice breakfast in the BA lounge at Gatwick before the flight. Friendly service on board.

So, why would I take the train?

Duggie Style - its only going to be for a couple of days. I have an alternate route sorted out for next week which is much much cheaper, even though it is a lnger train journey. Unfortunately I cant do that this week.

Aye the off-peak fares twixt Edinburgh and Glasgow are horrendous. When I did the C2C from Workington to Sunderland, two train tickets cost £15 - just depends on the service and when you're travelling...

*wonders how much tickets will be on the new fangled reinstated Borders branch if it ever gets built - Glentress by train?*

Goan - did you look into the Carstairs option?

Yup - it costs me 8 quid a day from fife. 15 miles.
It takes me just 10 mins longer to ride home than to get the train.
Cramped, overcrowded, overheated. and cost rising every 1/2 year.

Scotrail at it's finest !

I'd ride both ways but there's no showers @ work.

Dunno where you guys get your train fare prices from - I have done the above journeys for less than you say.

Goan - 90 miles driving will be nearly that in petrol anyway. Add in the other costs of a car - 40p a mile or so the RAC state - thats over £30 to drive.

Train is cheaper and quicke than a car Edinburgh/ Glasgow - and you can have a coffee and read the paper.

Still - any excuse to drive eh?

Druidh - Lanark is the best option and is the one i'll be taking from next week. It will work out quicker and around 1/3 of the price.

Which line was this ? Queen street or central ?

Lanark? It never occurred to me that it had a railway station. Just had a look at the map and I see there's a wee spur line...

90 miles driving will be nearly that in petrol anyway. Add in the other costs of a car - 40p a mile or so the RAC state - thats over £30 to drive.

Yip Lanark, it has something like a every 30 minute service with a 50 minute journey time.

Offroading - that was for either line.

Jesus man.

Thanks for letting me know, will take the car next!

Goan is this to go to your university if it is a believe you may be able to get a young persons/student rail card for reduced fair? Or if you buy a season ticket cheaper also. Still i agree that is very steep and is the reason people drive, british rail travel especially east to west has got to be some of the worst in any first world country.

Tails, it is indeed to go to uni. I only need to go via edinburgh this week as we are down to one car and I need to drop the wife off at work.

We are however taking delivery of a nice new audi next week, so i can take the more direct and cheaper route via lanark.

I think I am too old for a young persons railcard.

90 miles driving will be nearly that in petrol anyway. Add in the other costs of a car - 40p a mile or so the RAC state - thats over £30 to drive.

£18.80 for fuel, what on earth do you think he's driving?

anyway, all you need is a paying passenger & you're quids in

Most of the time train prices come out at around double the driving cost for the sort of journeys I do [NE England - London/Manchester/Birmingham]

50 minutes between Scotland's capital and its biggest city.

I suggest you move to Kirriemuir and see how you like the public transport there.

I think I am too old for a young persons railcard.

But i think it is for either young people under 26 or anyone in education regardless of age, don't quote me though.

still as matey above says take a passenger and your laughing must be able to find someone easy enough, take a weapon for first week or so for security.

It will be more than £9 in petrol to drive 90 miles - motorway and town. What MPG are you claiming? 40 mpg would be good for that run and so thats 2 1/4 gallons - thats more than £9 is it not?

Then you have to find somewhere to park and pay for the parking. It will take longer than the train and you can have coffee and read the paper on the train.

The 40 p a mile is total cost - additional cost per mile after fixed costs is lower but still more than the petrol - servicing is per mile and so is tyre wear.

total additional cost including parking will be only a few quid less than the train. if not more depending on tyre servicing cost

Its a no brainer - train is best every time - but you can always find a reason to drive if you want

Tails - I lived in some of the roughest parts of Glasgow for a number of years and spent 10yrs in the city in total. Number of fights, attacks, muggings or any tpye of trouble whatsoever - Zero.

TJ - I'm currently getting 70mpg on a combined cycle.

The 40 p a mile is total cost - additional cost per mile after fixed costs is lower but still more than the petrol - servicing is per mile and so is tyre wear.

I don't pay for any of that - I have a company car 🙂

BTW - the wife's little Peugeot would return around 55mpg for that journey

Number of fights, attacks, muggings or any tpye of trouble whatsoever - Zero.

yeah but thats because your not just hard but double hard. 😉

Or perhaps I simply dont go looking for trouble so dont find any. Being triple hard also helps though.

The 40 p a mile is total cost - additional cost per mile after fixed costs is lower but still more than the petrol - servicing is per mile and so is tyre wear.

15 p a mile additional cost. I think it will really be more than that but even taking that - the 90 mile round trip costs £13.50 plus the car parking. Not really saving over the train is it? a couple of quid for half an hour to an hour more travelling? My time is worth more than that and so is the chance to read the paper rather than drive the M8

Your money, your time, your choice but don't try to pretend its got any logic to it.

You are still underestimating costs. Look at the RAC site for an idea of real costs. You will be using more fuel than that and there are other costs as well that you forget to include.

Time wise, at least the car will take you from your house to fairly close to your destination. Unless you live near / want to go to a station, you need to factor in additional travel time plus the possibility of other bus fares at either or both ends.

The only journey I've ever found trains cost-effective for were ones like Liverpool to Glasgow off-peak. On peak they dont even come close to car value, dont get you close to your destination and you have to sit in discomfort and with half a carriage full of sick/ill/unhealthy people. No trains for me. I happily drive glasgow to ed to glas and park in the city centre for most of the day, all in, for the cost of that train ticket. The fixed costs of my car are written off anyway as I have to have the car for other reasons and I'd pay those fixed costs purely for those other reasons, commuting with it is just a convenience - its not as though I'd do without a car if I didnt commute by it.

Incidentally Goan, depending on which uni you're going to, parking is as cheap as chips - If I cant get in a work space I park on the road and it costs me ~2.40 all day.

You are still underestimating costs. Look at the RAC site for an idea of real costs. You will be using more fuel than that and there are other costs as well that you forget to include.

p.s. don't really care about the relative cost and ease of the train - tend to agree with you about that - just pointing out that you've no idea how cheap it can be to run a car.

[i]Glentress by train?[/i]
nope. that's not the line they're planning on re-opening. closest stations will be c. 20 miles away. get pedaling! 🙂

coffeeking - Member

................ you have to sit in discomfort and with half a carriage full of sick/ill/unhealthy people. No trains for me............

At least you are honest that its snobbery not economics

My experience is that trainsa are quicker, cheaper and less stressful than a car - and I use trains a fair amount Edinburgh to Glasgow and other routes.

Aracer

Exactly what additional costs do you think I'm not including? Here's a list of those I am:
Fuel
Tyres
Servicing (includes all other consumables)
MOT
VED
Insurance
Breakdown cover
Depreciation

Many of those you did not say you were including and I think if you actually add up the costs it would be moer than you think.

No repairs needed at MOT time? No other repairs in the year?

If it's cheaper to take the car than the train, then it's obviously time that the government increases road tax and tax on fuel, 😈

I'm quite happy to pay half the price for fuel here in Aus though 😆

well if you want to go from devizes to melksham bus return (around 16 miles)it costs £6.70.public transport is great. 👿

Not wanting to sit next to ill/sick/unhealthy people is hardly snobbery Teej. For once climb off the outrage bus and realise its not always about snobbery/elitism.

TJ is still ignoring the point raised by druidh

namely that you'd also need to factor in getting to & from the train station either end

Petersfield to London is about a 50 mile trip, takes about an hour and in peak time costs £42, seems crazy to me.

well off peak from edimburgh to aviemore was over 40£ TJ. And If you want I can send you a picture of the train ticket.

Taking the train in uk is a nightmare. Price changes everyday at every hours depending on what company you travel with. Plus I sadly agree with the antique comment how come one the dawn of the 22nd century train can still work on diesel.

Its a no brainer - train is best every time

If you used your brain, you wouldn't have posted that!

Travel between Rachub (my small village 6 miles from Bangor in Snowdonia) and my girlfriend's village of Belmont (small village in the West Pennine Moors - North of Bolton) involves:

1.5-3 hour (depending on bank holiday-induced motorway pile ups) 100 mile car journey, which even in my silly GTI golf costs about £25-30

OR:

1) Bus to Bangor station £2, 20 mins
2) Train from Bangor to Bolton (last time I tried, £30ish), 3.5 hours, also including a change
3) Bus from Bolton to Belmont £2.50, 30 mins. This is hourly, so you can gues that as the train pulls in, the bus is just leaving, leaving me with an hour to hang around.

To me, that's a no brainer + I can take a weekend's worth of luggage, and my bike with no extra faff.

Factor in the cost of my time if I were to have to leave work early and come in late on monday due to trains, and the cost rises astonishingly versus driving.

As you say, TJ - a no brainer....

Plus I sadly agree with the antique comment how come one the dawn of the 22nd century train can still work on diesel.

But you don't see the pollution caused when it's powered by electricity do you? What generates the electricity? Coal, gas, oil, or nukes?

I'm currently getting 70mpg on a combined cycle.

Really! what car are you driving? I thought i was doing well when I get 55->60mpg on a motorway run. As soon as I hit a city the mpg drops right off obviously.

zokes, 90% of the electricity is nuclear 😉
At least down over here...

40mpg **** TJ are you only driving supercars?

40 mpg for a Petrol car, driving in cities sounds pretty good to me. People may think they get more, but they rarely do.

At least you are honest that its snobbery not economics

It has nothing whatsoever to do with snobbery; the problem as I see it is that having spent the last decade travelling by mixtures of car and train, sometimes car only for a year, sometimes train only for a year etc, I had more sick days when travelling by train (hardly surprising when shoved in close proximity to 50 other people with a virus) and ended up exacerbating my knee problems due to the fact that I had to stand rigid for 45 minutes twice a day.

As for the economics, based on the costs of running my car (and believe me I did the sums because I was a student trying to make best use of my cash that I had saved from summer work) I was even able to break even when driving a 19mpg car the 17 miles in rush hour traffic. Even if it cost me a little more I'd still use the car because public transport is damn near useless. I lost count of the number of meetings I missed because the train was late/cancelled and then the next was too overcrowded to get into. In order to beat that I'd have to go for a train an hour earlier than I needed, spend 45 mins to an hour travelling then walk 2 mmiles either end. It just made no sense, I was losing more time travelling by train, wrecking my evenings, ill more often and had to put up with people vomiting around me, hurling abuse etc etc. My other half did almost the same journey (using the same line) and twice was abused and nearly set upon by idiots on the train.

They lose on economy, time travelled and comfort. Why the hell would I bother? And to finish it off, here's a picture of me on the MOST SPACIOUS train in the fleet there, with my back jammed against the backrest and fortunately at that time no-one in the seat next to me:

[img] [/img]

I ended up riding or car-ing.

Fix the public transport [b]before[/b] forcing people off the road, it's the only way.

Richc - my other half gets ~40 around town week in week out in her 1.6 petrol. I get 48 in my D, stuck in traffic.

I am not attempting to defend the indefensible and peculiar pricing structure on UK trains. I merely put the other side of the equation that many folk who prefer to drive cars forget.

1) cars are more expensive than you often think

2) trains are easier and more convenient and cheaper than you often think

The comparison is more favourable towards trains than it appears on first glance.

Druidhs point about travel to and from the train stations is perfectly valid and can make a huge difference to how the equation balances out.

Well, for a 45-50 mile commute I wouldn't be using train or car. Mid sized motorcycle or big scooter kicks both into touch......
🙂

Well I have been commuting for almost one year now. And I have enough finger on my hand to count the days where the train as been on time on both ends of the journey.
Plus I agree with the sick/drunk/stinky/noisy people comment. I term of time there is no much difference between my journey in car or bike + train (car a little faster).

Train is indeed mucho cheaper, but ti's such a pain when you want to have a life outside work. If I had to go to a meeting or an interview, i would not take the train in any cases. You have to put up with delays, crowd, useless and rithless staff, strikes (even though they are most of the time justified).
Even I have barely space for my legs.

or big scoote

Nowt wrong with a scooter Juan - you know you want one - go nicely with your pink gloves

*everyone* hates scooters TJ, it's the law!

TJ I don't use mtb bike on the motorcycle no point really. PLus there is already something going well with them, it's the 696... I black or liliac :D.

I agree with the OP and a few others, I'd never use the train unless my company paid for it. 250 quid to get to London and back? I could hire a car for the day for 30 quid and stick another 30 quid of diesel in it. I'm astounded people who aren't getting the tickets provided are using the train at all.

How close do you live to London Samuri?

Could do Glasgow - London cheaper by car too, but it would take a LOT longer than the 4 1/2 hours it does on the train.

Sod the train too though - I'd fly as it'd be much cheaper at peak time fares.

I have just checked the trainline for ticket prices. Glasgow / London tomorrow returning wed. Both departure 7.30ish. £90 return.

That would be 800 miles driving - thats similar to the petrol cost ( thus well under the total cost of driving),quicker, and less stressful. Infact if you have a laptop you could get most of a days work done in the 9 hrs on the train compared to 12+ hrs spent driving which is wasted time.

Jeezo there is some bollox talked on here ( I should know! )

Or you could just fly for way less time and money. Plus you have to factor the cost of a laptop as well.

Flying city centre to city centre is not much quicker if any. Flight time an hour+, 40 mins + check in, travel from the city centre to the airport and hour +. total centre to centre time is not much less.

Cost - travel from the city to the airport needs to be added to the airfares as well

40 mins + check in,

Cost us half the price of the train and half the time.

Teej - Once again you are being very selective with your sources in order to find a solution that best suits your argument.

BTW, out of interest why do you consider being in your own car to be 'equivalent' to only standard class of travel?

In my car I get to listen to whatever music I want rather than the tinny garbage spewing forth from someone else's headphones, I can stop wherever I like to get a drink rather than buy one from the over-priced buffet car and I don't often find myself crammed into my car alongside some diseased reprobate spreading whatever nasties they have in my direction.

Yes it might take a while longer on long distance journeys but it gets me from door to door rather than 'possibly closed due to engineering works, bus replacement service provided' station to 'possibly closed due to industrial action, please wait for announcements' station.

Ooo look, I've picked out bad parts of train travel to suit my view. Could we more alike than I first thought Teej?

When I did the C2C from Workington to Sunderland, two train tickets cost £15 - just depends on the service and when you're travelling...

Is it just me, or aren't you supposed to [i]ride[/i] the C2C?

;o)

Just checked my options for a trip to see a customer in Glasgow later this week. To use the train I need to get a bus into town, but fortunately I live close to the bus-stop plus the customer is relatively close to the train station (5-10 minutes walk) at the other end.

Cost wise, including the bus and train fare, it's cheaper to use the train - a single ticket is £11.50 (Haymarket to Queens Street, 07:48 train) which is about the same as the total cost of taking my car - 45 miles at £0.25 per mile (which is what I've calculated the my 2nd hand, 4 year old Jazz costs to run - including the high insurance costs from having my daughter on the policy and even costing all my RAC cover to it even though it covers all our vehicles). With public transport I'm £1 or so for the bus, but parking would be about £4 where I'm going - so in overall terms public transport is cheaper.

Two problems with this however:
1) My company pays me £0.40 per mile driven - so I'll actually make a profit it I take my car.
2) Even being conservative and saying it'll take me an hour to drive (it varies between 45 minutes and an hour) that's still a whole hour cheaper each way compared to taking public transport. So 2-hours less traveling every day - that's enough time for me to fit a decent mountain bike ride each day.

If I re-do the calculations for a private trip it's even more in favour of taking the car as I'd be going with the family so that'd be 4 of us in the car.

£5.20 for a 8 min off-peak journey here(...not that I've ever taken it. Only takes 20 mins to ride)

45 minutes from Haymarket to Queens Street by car, along the M8, during the rush hour? Really?

45 minutes from Haymarket to Queens Street by car, along the M8, during the rush hour? Really?

I don't live at Haymarket (I'm on the western outskirts of Edinburgh) and the customer isn't at Queen's Street (it's close to the motorway). At rush hour the shortest time it's taken me by car, door to door, is 45 minutes and the longerst just under an hour.

If I take the motorbike it takes less time and it doesn't really matter what the traffic is like.

Fair enough then steve.

cars are more expensive than you often think

Many of those you did not say you were including and I think if you actually add up the costs it would be moer than you think.

No repairs needed at MOT time? No other repairs in the year?

My fixed costs on my car are:
Tax - 115
MOT - 40
Insurance - 220
Consumables (filters, oil, odd bits of wear and tear etc). - 50, plus say maybe 75 for tyres per year.

That's around 500 quid. I pay that annually regardless, as I need the car to get to places that have no public transport links and while carrying large items distances of 4-700 miles regularly for personal reasons. I kitesurf at remote beaches, I mountainbike miles from any public transport. So no matter what I need to have that expense.

Once that expense is done and assumed, any other use of the car is on a per-use basis. If I visit my folks once a month and did nothing else with it it'd cost me approximately £30 in fuel per month, plus a share of the above (1/12 of 500 or 42 quid approx) so my trips cost me about 70 quid. Thats not bad for an estate-full of gear and either usually 2 people being transported. Even if that were my only use, that would still be better than trains can do price or convenience. I can only imagine the hell it would be transporting 2 bikes, 2 people, 4 bags and some kitesurfing kit via a train. I did it once in france with just bikes and bags, on clean huge trains and that was painful enough!

So I buy a car with good mpg and park in cheap places. When I do this I can easily out-price the train AND get nearer to my destination, saving time and allowing me to sit in comfort with my own music on and my choice of air freshener.

Cars cost less than you think if you dont feel the need to buy on finance and if you have a few tools to do the minor jobs yourself.

Commute Glasgow to Edinburgh everyday. 92 miles return and car share with 2 others. For me to take the train would cost £20 a day return (£83 for weekly) For me to take my turn to drive usually 2 days a week. Cost for car 58mpg - 1.58 gallons a day = 7.9 litres. Current 106p a litre for fuel. That only equals 8.37 a day - 2 days a week £16.74. Thats a saving of £66.26 a week which is £3445.52 a year.Take that over the 3 of us that car share thats £10,336.56. Its cheaper to by and run a car between 3 of us!! My car doesn't cost me that to run!!! Seem a no brainer to me. And the Government wonder why people don't use public transport.

I did this trip the other day and it was £10.30 single and £10.40 retun I think (off peak). The fully loaded cost of driving it in my car is around £0.27 including wear and tear, tyres depriciation, so thats £27. If I'm traveling alone then train is far better value even at the £18.80 peak rate

Does your car not depreciate if you take the train?

Left Calder Road In Edinburgh at 8:20 this morning and was in Caledonian Uni at 9:05. Couple of minor hold ups, but nothing major. I might be tempted to drive all the time at that rate...

2) trains are easier and more convenient and cheaper than you often think

My car is even easier and more convenient

It leaves when I want
It goes at the speed I want it to
It doesnt sit stationary for 15 minutes just outside the destination I'm trying to get to
It doesn't charge me more to drive it at certain times of the day
It's cleaner
It doesn't smell
It's not full of knuckle dragging 'tards

I once booked a train ticket from North Wales to Surrey for two in time for a 10.30 meeting on a monday. As I was travelling on a rail warrent I thought I'd go first class and why not.

Ticket cost £420 each, I kid you not! Standard class £260 each.

Solution, hire a car £60, fuel £50.

Does your car not depreciate if you take the train?

I, unlike a lot of people, buy cars that are at or very near the end of their depreciation. It'd be nice if they didnt depreciate with lack of use though I have to admit!

I just checked the cost of a return to London from Chippenham in October for the Bike show. The best I got was £21.50, and I'd need to use the Tube when I get there, although I do have an Oyster card, so add another £3. I usually go via coach, which is £19 return, and I get dropped close to the venue, and pick up outside. I'd use the car, if it wasn't for the car parking. TJ can call me a liar if he wants, but the last time I did a motorway run, which was 244 miles to get a set of wheels to replace damaged ones, I cruised up the M4 and around the M25, and my car's computer told me I was getting 63.8/gallon, which meant I used less than half a tank of diesel, around £19. 42ltr tank on an Octy 1.9TDi. It's the additional £15 carpark for the day that stops me driving. If I go with a mate for a gig, then costs are shared, so no issue there. It's the damned inconvenience of public transport that gets me most of all. TJ can spout on all he likes about not using cars, but I bet he lives in a city with everything close at hand. I don't. Bath is twelve miles away, and Bristol, where I go for most of the concerts I want to see, is twenty-five miles. Now, getting there isn't too much of an issue, but most concerts tend to finish 10.30-11.00pm. The last train back from Bristol? 10.00pm
TJ may be only too happy to leave half-way through the headline set, but I'll be ****ed if I am. I'm happy that TJ can exist happily without a car, but his constant hectoring of those who chose to use a car is wearing a little thin.

Xipe -

Hectoring? Not at all on this thread thos I will admit guilt on that in the past.

Its the rubbish people on here spout about public transport that annoys me and the pure snobbery that some use as an excuse not to use it.

AS above - for sure you can pay £300 for glasgow / london return but as I showed you can also much much less without travelling at stupid times of the day.

To say that the only cost of driving is the petrol is also rubbish - as you state car parking adds to the cost sand so does wear and tear on the car.

I do live in a city yes. I also use trains a fair amount. I find them cheap, quick, reliable and comfortable. And of course you can get on a train after a few beers

Totec - driving into London 😯

I hate driving anywhere south of Kendal - too busy and too many ignorant selfish twunts on the road. I let the train take the strain on business.

[img] [/img]

Is it just me, or aren't you supposed to ride the C2C?

;o)

d'oh!

A quick mental calculation of costs incurred in the 3 years I owned my car, and it cost me (very roughly) about £7 per day (£5 or which was depreciation), not including fuel. So to drive Edinburgh to Glasgow and back would be £7 plus about £10 in diesel plus parking costs. So yes, probably cheaper to get the train, and arguably less stressful (M8 is a f*cking abomination!). However, if I'd bought a cheaper car then less depreciation and therefore probably cheaper than the train. However, the train only costs when you use it - a car is always costing you...

[i]AS above - for sure you can pay £300 for glasgow / london return but as I showed you can also much much less without travelling at stupid times of the day.[/i]

But as in my example (which would be from Wigan), I'm not expected to arrive at half one, if I have to travel to the smoke I'm expected to be there for 9am and I'm expected to work right through to 5pm. And that's another thing. I'll have reservations for seats on the appropriate trains and because they're in rush hour they'll be packed so I'll get to my reserved seat and someone (invariably a meaty scotch bloke drinking out of a can of lager) will be sat in it. I will ask him to move and he'll refuse, what can you do? I'll then end up sitting in another seat that's been reserved because it's the only one available. Along comes the reservee for that seat. But I'm not moving see, my seat's been taken, I don't care how many months pregnant you are.

What a pile of rubbish on this here thread. People don't look at the total cost making a car journey, it's the marginal cost of the journey i.e. fuel and parking. If they have sunk the "investment" into having a car it's a valid way of looking at it.

Tandemjeremy - if you're deciding between getting a pizza from the shops and cooking it yourself and getting a takeaway pizza do you add something to the price of the shop pizza to cover the costs of having a kitchen in your house (extra room is maybe £25k on the purchase price for example), an allowance for wear and tear on the oven and kitchen units and baking tray in making the comparison, or do you think "**** it, I've made the decision to have a kitchen, I might as well use that to heat up a pizza"?

People generally underestimate the costs of having a supermarket pizza.

SCIENCE FACT

ps Scotrail trains do smell of piss - if you think they don't then you must also smell of piss. And there is rarely a drunk person in my car wanting to talk about the 'fitba or engage me in sectarian banter. Can't say the same about the train.