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WTF! National Rail prices

electrogirl said:
Yeah I dunno, I'm just bitter because I'm skint and I wish public transport was more attractive to people just turning up and booking tickets.
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they should have deals if you just turn up, like standby flights - do they still do them?
 
electrogirl said:
Really? I know I can get good bargains if I book in advance, but I really they should make public transport more appealing by letting people make journeys on a whim without spening megabucks.
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Encouraging people to book well in advance helps to spread out demand and avoid having some popular trains packed out and others half-empty. In effect, the railways are moving towards an airline-style system for booking. I think that's silly since a lot of people need to travel at short notice for all sorts of reasons. In that respect trains are closer to buses than airlines and the fares system should reflect that. There've always been discounts for advance booking and off-peak travel and that's only reasonable, but it's got to the point where walk-up passengers are being priced off the railway altogether, and IMO that's not a good thing at all.
 
First Great Western have an offer where season ticket holders can travel anywhere on their network on a weekend day return for a tenner.

Which ain't bad - until you consider the almost three grand I pay to FGW for my annual yearly ticket :(
 
marty21 said:
they should have deals if you just turn up, like standby flights - do they still do them?
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No, it's full price or nothing if you just turn up on the day, generally. I've got a Young Persons which helps massively but it's not really the point. I understand the need to book trains up but it's still a fucker if I just want to pop to London to see my friends, or make an impromptu visit to Rye. It's soooo expensive.
 
Roadkill said:
Encouraging people to book well in advance helps to spread out demand and avoid having some popular trains packed out and others half-empty. In effect, the railways are moving towards an airline-style system for booking. I think that's silly since a lot of people need to travel at short notice for all sorts of reasons. In that respect trains are closer to buses than airlines and the fares system should reflect that. There've always been discounts for advance booking and off-peak travel and that's only reasonable, but it's got to the point where walk-up passengers are being priced off the railway altogether, and IMO that's not a good thing at all.
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Definitely, does seem to take a huge amount of hassle and expense to do the simplest of journeys and the fees make little sense at times. Bournemouth to Watford one way is gonna cost me £45 or so offpeak, even with a young persons its coming out at £30. With the same railcard its £58 for a return from Watford to Truro, a full £2 more than a single for the same journey, which is nice if you actually need the return which I actually dont, ended up deciding to get an open return anyway and make use of the 43% reduction May bank holidays appear to offer and get a single back from there for £20 :hmm: Yet a month ago an open return to Cardiff from Truro which involved two and a half hours on a bus was £32 for a single or £71 without the railcard, again offpeak. All advance booked, couldnt have remotely afforded any of these journeys at all if Id bought at the station on the day. Was even looking at flying back from London for the single portion of the trip as it was roughly half the price of a single on the train without the discount and railcard, even prebooked.
 
electrogirl said:
No, it's full price or nothing if you just turn up on the day, generally. I've got a Young Persons which helps massively but it's not really the point. I understand the need to book trains up but it's still a fucker if I just want to pop to London to see my friends, or make an impromptu visit to Rye. It's soooo expensive.
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yep, I drove to Rye, no idea what the train fare from London is, it didn't take that long and cost me about £30 worth of petrol

one way system is a bit confusing though :(
 
the walk-up=ripoff price is another example of (perhaps inadvertent) 'discrimination' against freelancers/self employed.

Season tickets are useless for me...but why can't I buy a book of tickets in advance for regular (but infrequent) journeys?

to a certain extent I think the advance bargains are just political ass-covering for sky high prices for real people
 
electrogirl said:
Really? I know I can get good bargains if I book in advance, but I really they should make public transport more appealing by letting people make journeys on a whim without spening megabucks.

If I want to pop home for the weekend and I haven't bought a ticket it costs me 60 quid to get to kent. 60 quid!!
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How does it cost that much?

Newcastle to Staveley was only 31 quid return, and that seems much further than London to Kent.
 
When I was in UK last summer two of us going from Grimsby to Edinburgh then to London it was cheaper to rent a car than it was to take the trains. It is not going to encourage people to get out of their cars when the fares are so high, nor is it likely to get them away from the cheap airlines when they are cheaper than the trains.
 
You can't link to pages that are unique to your user session, but I believe you anyway
 
I used to get cheap train tickets to Cornwall easily, especially when the Megatrain to Plymouth was only £1.

Now I can't find any, even looking 3 months in advance.

Just paid £115 for two tickets to Falmouth. That was with £5 discount.
 
marty21 said:
they should have deals if you just turn up, like standby flights - do they still do them?
Click to expand...

Generally, no, not really.

One the European leg I use the most I usually pay about a hundred quid return booking say six weeks in advance. I've seen people turn up at the ticket dsk at the airpot and saying I want to fly that route NOW and having to drop a cool 500-700 quid.

I flew retun to Singapor last year for only about 300 quid and I only booked it a week in advance,. but that's as I was just going through the sites looking for a special deal to go anywhere..

Trains tickets are too dear for turn up and go business. No doubt about it.
But they are out to make money and at peak times the demand is bouyant thank you very much. Whether that fits into a well planned transport policy is another story.



Edit: For the distance Geri, that is about "right-ish".
People get used to the idea that a one pound train fare or even a plane fare is somehow a standard.
No, it's a headline loss leader.
 
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