OT - Train Fares

[Clive George]

Yes, that'll be advanced, which come with seat reservations but you have to get the right train.

[Tim Streater]

Turn them into bus-only roads?

That happens IMO to be a particularly OK line (unless the train breaks down and has to be pushed to Kings X - happened to me once). And due to the inability of trains to overtake, it held up loads of other trains too.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The only cost of your car is petrol?

That's going to make your car journey even more pleasant, I'm sure.

Petrol is the same price as 15 years ago?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Don't you normally decide what time you're going to set out on such a journey by car too?

Other thing is trains generally run near enough to time. I've lost count of how many times I get stuck in a bad traffic jam on a journey like this.

Drivers seem to accept being stuck in a jam for ages as the norm - but expect trains to run to the second.

[Huge]

I've lost count

Cars don't publish timetables.

[Jethro]

My biggest gripe about trains, is that to use one, I almost always have to *increase* my total journey time considerably. I can drive door to door, home to office, in 150 minutes. Same journey, by train at least

180 minutes (more if you try to save money). Since I can't park near my mainline station, either a taxi, or bus is needed (oh yes, driving *into* town during rush hour), and a similar journey the other way to be added to that. Realistically I would be doubling my journey time *and* paying more.

The only journey where trains make sense are into London - and then the tube network comes into play to make almost any destination in central London quickly accessible. I can comfortably get to an 11am meeting, leaving home at 8am (and driving to Warwick Parkway, 25 miles away).

12 years ago, first day in a new job, my boss was arranging a trip to a show in London, and got a round robin of peoples addresses so he could pick them up in his (company) car. When I suggested that we should be saving the planet, he asked me to cost a proposal which matched the car- share option for timing. The closest I could get was to order taxis to collect all the people and get them to the mainline station, plus 4 return tickets, allowing for arrival before 9, and departure after 3. Came to over a grand. It would have been cheaper to fly. Come to that, it would probably have been cheaper to hire a helicopter.

[damduck-egg]

On Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:12:11 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Liquorice" wrote: Then you have the expense

If I want to catch a train then I have to get to the station,nearest is over 10 miles away so there is a cost involved in getting there which could be a taxi or parking the car. Parking the car is not always easy as the station car park is full from early morning by people who use the train for work. Might as well drive anyway and pay for parking at the other end where there will more options even if we have to walk a bit. Never worry about fighting through traffic as I don't regard driving on the highway as an adversarial sport so I don't get stressed doing it. On a train there always seems to be some person making a racket with leaky headphones on a music player or an annoying ring tone. That does irritate me. As it was an hour ago I was looking up a journey for two to London and return next week to see if any competive fares were on offer. There are a couple but so late in the day that even staying overnight a two day visit would effectively only be a night in a strange bed and a day to do things. This time it will be the car.

G.Harman

[Clive George]

Not just London. There's plenty of others, though London is the obvious example, and the train network layout means that stuff going via london tends to be better. Big cities are always going to be the best though.

[Owain]

It is *about* 12 weeks. It depends on the release of the Network Rail engineering timetable.

Owain

[hugh]

In message , Wesley writes

I object to Trainline on principle because the thieving bastards charge

50p to give out your ticket.

I normally use Virgin website, but I do cross-check with others and have occasionally found a cheaper ticket elsewhere and vice versa.

[hugh]

Drink, avoid motorway pile-ups, fog, avoid other idiot drivers and talk to fellow passengers

[hugh]

Book on line and you get a seat reservation on long distance trains - certainly do on Virgin.

[djc]

Twenty years ago I was working in Monaco. The helicopter from Nice airport was cheaper than a taxi for one person.

[hugh]

In message , brass monkey writes

There are I think 80 seats to a rail coach and say 8 coaches to a train, so close down the railways and that's another 640 cars sharing the road with you. You should be pleased all these other people are paying sooooo much more money to keep out of your way.

[hugh]

I can get into Liverpool Manchester or Chester for less than a tenner - that would barely pay the car parking for a day ESP in Chester!!

[Tim Streater]

That does rather point to just having main-line lines and closing the rest.

Well, all I know is, during the 90 mins that the driver was:

a) trying to reboot the train (his words) b) waiting for a relief train to get us going again

not a single southbound GNER train went past.

[Tim Streater]

moment then?

[Tim Streater]

Mmmm. That's 80 disease vectors then.

[Clive George]

People did consider that until they realised that although the rest might seem overly expensive, they enable the main lines to work.

[grimly4]

moment.