train travel and why we still use cars

[djbombscare]

Well yesterday I had the envious experience of having to train it up form Bristol to that there London.

And what a load of bollox £117 return. Which is Dia-fucking-bolical IMO.

Crammed into pretty much the most uncomfortable seat I think I have ever been in. I know at least I got a seat. Train was also late

When I was forced to watch the guy in front of me eat his chicken wrap with his mouth open, mayo smeared all over his face. Smacking his lips as he went. I lost it and gave him a full set of verbals.

So no fucking way will I use the train again. SEVERLEY overpriced and a pile of shit.

Its not a valid alternative to get rid of congestion, its bollox daylight robbery

Its no wonder people still use the car.

 

[cyberfairy]

I concur They are often late or cancelled for no apparent reason as well..neither myself nor tangerinedream drive so to see each other we have to use the train-Considering learning to drive when previously had no desire as learning to drive, buying a car and taxing and insuring it and buying fluffy things for it and buying pasties in motorway service stations would still be cheaper than trainfare from Bath-Blackpool. We have workerd out it would be far cheaper and take far less travel time if we met up in malaga every Friday
So much for government caring about environment-the few cheaper tickets were being quietly abolished at the beginning of the year.

 

[rubbershoes]

sorry mate. i hadn't had any breakfast and fancied something gloopy .


trains are shote in this country as are most forns of public transport. tis a shame cos i used to enjoy train trips when i was a kid but i can't see me forking out for two adults and a little 'un to go anywhere by train* when the car is so much cheaper for a family trip.






* subject to bus replacement service

 

[Miscellaneous]

Trains down here (SW) are shit. They hardly run, and you can never get one which gets you into Exeter at a suitable time.

Paying 12quid return for the grottiest train service isnt what I enjoy doing, and i dont drive. but if I have to go to Exeter, I'd rather have my partner drive me down there of a weekend.

 

[beeboo]

For any city-to-city journey within the UK I'd much rather take the train.

Sit back, relaxing with a book, a G&T in hand, maybe have a nap, wander up and down and have leg-stretch - much nicer than being trapped in a traffic jam on the motorway, getting all uncomfortable, nothing to look at but the car in front, drinking red bull so you don't nod off. Yuck, yuck yuck!

The lottery that is buying a reasonably priced train ticket though, that is something they really need to sort out.

 

[LDR]

And what a load of bollox £117 return.

Our car cost less that that.

Trains over here are way over-priced, service isn't great and they are often dirty. I avoid them and take coachs usually which are cheap, tend to be on time and are clean.

 

[djbombscare]

sorry mate. i hadn't had any breakfast and fancied something gloopy .


trains are shote in this country as are most forns of public transport. tis a shame cos i used to enjoy train trips when i was a kid but i can't see me forking out for two adults and a little 'un to go anywhere by train* when the car is so much cheaper for a family trip.






* subject to bus replacement service

I too as a kid used to love the trian and it was well cheap in comparison. It was the only real way to get around.

So yeah car is soo much cheaper. . .especially of you get one as cheap as LDR

 

[Radar]

Prices aren't too bad if you can book in advance, if you have to take standard fares then yes, they are diabolical.

London to Manchester single is 12.50 for the cheapest advance ticket, it would cost me more in petrol running up to Manchester on my bike.

 

[editor]

So no fucking way will I use the train again. SEVERLEY overpriced and a pile of shit.

At that price, I'm not surprised.

But why did you pay that much?

There's loads of much cheaper fares available from sites like thetrainlines.

 

[cyberfairy]

At that price, I'm not surprised.

But why did you pay that much?

There's loads of much cheaper fares available from sites like thetrainlines.

I have found when organised enough to get ticket in advance, thetraintimes often only offers cheap singles ages ahead and not with a cheap return option (particularly if you need to travel over weekend) so the cheap single is made redundant unless you are only travelling one way. Tried tricking it by putting random date in months ahead and still no two fifteen pound singles...
Going to my trainstation several days ahead and asking for cheapest ticket however will result in a forty quid return travelling a funny route which was never mentioned on traintimes..
Internet generally best for getting a deal but I normally pay forty quid to travel whereas tangerinedream pays over seventy as does it over net...

 

[zenie]

At that price, I'm not surprised.

But why did you pay that much?

There's loads of much cheaper fares available from sites like thetrainlines.

I think you have a point ed though I don’t actually think it’s right that train companies operate like this.

Why sell a ticket at a mainline station for 5 times what it costs online – where’s the justification in that?

FWIW I loved GNER when I went to Newcastle, so clean and a really nice trip. Wi-fi, a buffet car, a toilet, cheaper then driving because I booked it so early, and much less tiring.

However £22.00 for a travelcard in London before half 9 and you cant even get a seat to sit down??

I know I live I commuter belt but that takes the fuckin piss!!!

The journey to waterloo only takes half an hour!

 

[Crispy]

Train pricing annoys me too.

Super Apex
Apex
Auper Advance
Advance
Standard
Peak
Off-Peak
Single
Return
Open Return

WHY??!!

The train is going to run no matter what, so just set a single fare and let me get on with it!

And I wouldn't drive from Bristol to London if you payed me (especially once you actually get into the city)

 

[Biddlybee]

What really annoys and confuses me is that buying 2 singles is cheaper than a return...
e.g. London to Liverpool rtn is around £55; buy 2 singles and they're £12 each!

 

[djbombscare]

At that price, I'm not surprised.

But why did you pay that much?

There's loads of much cheaper fares available from sites like thetrainlines.

I cant book them online as I dont have a credit card.

However I did have a look online for prices and I had to be in Swiss Cottage for work at 8.30 am.

I had no fixed finish time either so as I give a specific return travel time the prices were pretty much the same

TBH if it was personal travel and not for work I would have told em to stick it when they said 117.

 

[cyberfairy]

I cant book them online as I dont have a credit card.

However I did have a look online for prices and I had to be in Swiss Cottage for work at 8.30 am.

I had no fixed finish time either so as I give a specific return travel time the prices were pretty much the same

TBH if it was personal travel and not for work I would have told em to stick it when they said 117.

Even if you booked it online, if it was on the same day or just before travel, would not have been a lot of difference in it. The train companies rely on business people having their company pick up the fare-how many families etc do you see on a long journey?

 

[Roadkill]

I started a thread a while back commenting on a report that you can pay 45 different prices to travel from London to Glasgow. It's just nonsensical.

Problem is, the train companies use the availability of a very super-cheap fares (most with stringent conditions about buying miles in advance, specifying exact journey times etc) to claim that fares aren't really going up. The reality is that on average fares are rocketing.

The whole thing's a fucking shambles. No wonder people don't want to use the trains.

 

[discplayer]

There's loads of much cheaper fares available from sites like thetrainlines.

The websites are good, espcially as you can see the range of prices and times that help you make decisions like 'leave half an hour later and I can get an apex/super advance'.

Or my favourite when cheap advance standard tickets have already gone - cheap advance first class tickets as cheap as a walk up standard class fare.

But, a ticket window at the station should (in theory) still offer you the cheapest ticket available for the time you want to travel. Although this means you need to know your plans and can make a trip to the ticket queue at a few weeks before you need to travel.

If they don't write to them and the local paper - mine enjoys running letters and articles about the train company.

 

[spanglechick]

my decisions are mostly cost-based.

if it's cheaper by train/coach - that's what i'll do.

the other pros and cons balance each other out (5 hours drive is exhausting vs public transport has other people on it...<intolerant shudder>)

 

[christonabike]

I went to Boston for a funeral - £98 return

A ticket to go to Leeds tomorrow is £71.60 return

It's a fucking rip off

The websites are good, espcially as you can see the range of prices and times that help you make decisions like 'leave half an hour later and I can get an apex/super advance'.

And I don't know where you get that from, those prices were the cheapest I could find, I also scooted around all the other sites and found EXACTLY the same prices, where's the competition in that?

If you want to book three months in advance it's fine, otherwise it's shit, so by my reckoning it's 80% shit as I rarely know when or where I'm travelling to

 

[rich!]

I went to Boston for a funeral - £98 return

A ticket to go to Leeds tomorrow is £71.60 return

It's a fucking rip off

You need to use thetrainline about 14 days in advance - I can get to Derbyshire from London for £16, two £8 singles, like that.

Also, sometimes if you use thetrainline, and you click "show later" then "show earlier", you get a slightly different selection...

 

[Nlogax]

You need to use thetrainline about 14 days in advance - I can get to Derbyshire from London for £16, two £8 singles, like that.

Bit difficult to plan ahead like that for a funeral

The problem is down to companies making it expensive to travel with little or no notice. That's what the car has over the train; you can just go somewhere any time you want and not be financially penalised for it.

Well, I say that - but running a car costs a fortune. Trains haven't priced me onto the roads just yet.

 

[christonabike]

As I said, 80% of the time I don't know until the day or day before that I am going to travel

So, for me, the service is a shit rip-off

rich! how much would it cost if you decided to go to London on the spur of the moment?

 

[discplayer]

And I don't know where you get that from, those prices were the cheapest I could find, I also scooted around all the other sites and found EXACTLY the same prices, where's the competition in that?

If you want to book three months in advance it's fine, otherwise it's shit, so by my reckoning it's 80% shit as I rarely know when or where I'm travelling to

ok, I should have included "sometimes" in there!

My point was there's no competition between sites and between the ticket window. In the current system there's not supposed to be. Whether they should be is a different matter!

Yes, if you can book a while ahead and if you lucky enough to be doing a route with good availability/are jammy when you look you can get a good price. The other week I went from Norwich to Barnstaple, booked ten days ahead got a £42 apex return. The week later I went to Harrogate, was looking at prices for weeks and there nothing ever cheaper than a walk up.

But when you can't or you aren't lucky enough walk up fares are a rip off which they hide by going on about their advance fares.

 

[Idaho]

It is a rip off and the service is poor.

I go up and down to London a lot and usually get the standard open return which from Exeter costs £145. Work pay for it - and from the look of 70% of the people on the train - they also put it on expenses. The other 30% are people going on day trips clutching super advanced apex tickets booked weeks in advance.

Essentially if you are not one of these two groups then train travel is prohibitive.

As for tolerating other people on the trains - it doesn't bother me. I get the laptop out and watch a DVD. Uses up most of the journey very nicely.

 

[oneflewover]

Don't blame the trains, blame the public. What do they want to do? "all travel at the same time everyday" "all want a cheap tickets" "all want to be quiet except for when they want to use the phone, mp3 player or eat crisps"

On by far the majority of trains you can book, why don't you? Want room for you bag, buy it a ticket.

That feels better /rant - smiles amiably

 

[rich!]

As I said, 80% of the time I don't know until the day or day before that I am going to travel

So, for me, the service is a shit rip-off

rich! how much would it cost if you decided to go to London on the spur of the moment?

Fair point. From here to London - £0

But if I'm going out of London, I normally know about it a fair way in advance, 'cos its so unusual...

 

[_angel_]

Don't blame the trains, blame the public. What do they want to do? "all travel at the same time everyday" "all want a cheap tickets" "all want to be quiet except for when they want to use the phone, mp3 player or eat crisps"

On by far the majority of trains you can book, why don't you? Want room for you bag, buy it a ticket.*

That feels better /rant - smiles amiably

x10000

Because as people are pointing out you can not always get the lower priced tickets no matter how far in advance you book, and sometimes you don't have the luxury of planning every single journey you make flippin weeks in advance.




I will say southerners/ Londoners tend to get the thin end of the wedge here. I live in Leeds, when my friend who lives in London comes up to visit she can never get the low price tickets no matter how in advance she travels (and being penalised for travelling at 'peak' time). When I went to visit her, the jammy cow I am I got a dirt cheap ticket pre booked only two days or so before I wanted to travel.


To get people out of cars and on to trains I suspect they'd have to actually make the service free and put an absolutely massive subsidy into public transport, which will not happen.


I feel the same about bus travel, instead of charging people the most money for the shortest journeys they should be free, as all studies show that the vast majority of car journeys are used for trips of less than a mile.

Also they need to look at making train travel more appealing to families with small children ie: some help on and off trains with prams. Places to store the prams and help for disabled people who are effectively excluded from public transport.


Getting rid of those station steps might be a start. The number of times I've been stranded at some two bit god forsaken station with a bridge and only steps over to it plus a pushchair aint funny.








* Oh and this is the particularly bonkers bit of your insane post. Hello people are already paying 100's of quid just for themselves, you really expect someone to pay another exorbitant ticket price for a fecking bag?


They haven't helped themselves by cutting down on the level of baggage holders on the new shiny virgin trains : so richard branson can cream in yet more money by adding lots more seats. Ever been on one of them trains when it's full..... I mean it's a cross country voyager of course people are going to have lots of baggage!


Fire hazard are the words that spring to mind, how it can be legal to have no upward number of passengers on board a train, no/ hardly any luggage racks I dunno. If we were cattle we'd have had rights.


Also (sorry on one now) how can that overcrowding and bags blocking exits everywhere be acceptable when it is against 'fire regulations' for me to bring my toddlers pushchair into an empty and spacious doctors waiting room??

 

[_angel_]

Oh! To anyone who reckons our traions aren't a rip off, I have a French friend who comes from a small town near the Swiss border. She was exclaiming that it cost her (significantly) less to get from bescancon, to London via French rail and eurostar than it subsequently did to get a ticket from London-Edinbourgh.

 

[trashpony]

Our trains are overpriced, inefficient, filthy and uncomfortable. Privatisation of our railways has utterly destroyed the infrastructure of the system and it will cost a fortune to ever repair the woeful lack of investment in both the rolling stock and the track.

It's a fucking disgrace and I think it will be the one legacy of Thatcher that will scar this country for generations.

 

[Poi E]

Our trains are overpriced, inefficient, filthy and uncomfortable. Privatisation of our railways has utterly destroyed the infrastructure of the system and it will cost a fortune to ever repair the woeful lack of investment in both the rolling stock and the track.

It's a fucking disgrace and I think it will be the one legacy of Thatcher that will scar this country for generations.

Yup. Interesting about-face by the Tories from 2000 http://newswww.bbc.net.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/981131.stm

New Zealand's rail system, built up with hard, hard labour, was wrecked by privatisation, leaving the tax payer carrying the can when the venture capitalists walked out.