"Prices are crazy as a rule, they should be cheap enough to provide an attractive alternative. As a demonstration of pricing idiocy, including the local, (Hartford to Crewe) leg of one person's return trip to London I was once quoted an extra £150.00! Buy that ticket at the station on the day, it's about eight quid. I think that when you buy tickets that include more than one operator that's often when the expenses rise to stupid levels. "
Yup, I use the trains a lot, I'd sooner get a train to London than fly or drive or take the motorbike but the pricing structures wind me right up. One time I remember shopping for tickets, they were £60 that night, the next day I did it again and they were £30, 2 weeks later they were about £80. And then I discovered that the train ran from Glasgow via Edinburgh to London but it was cheaper to book from Glasgow to London via Edinburgh than Edinburgh to London! Genuine wtf. Privatisation's been a disaster for public transport in the UK tbh.
Nobody's claiming trains are perfect, anyone who does hasn't ever used them, but they can be very good. Glasgow to Edinburgh is a great example.