3 ms·

More to the point, the standard train service between Edinburgh and London is less than 4:30, and around £50 each way booking a few weeks in advance. I do this

More to the point, the standard train service between Edinburgh and London is less than 4:30, and around £50 each way booking a few weeks in advance. I do this fairly frequently, and generally it takes the same amount of time as flying, while being a fair bit more convenient. Rail is pretty good :)

toyg 9y ago
> around £50 each way booking a few weeks in advance Man, how many of those £50 tickets are actually available? A train from Manchester to London, which is less than half the distance, costs twice as much on a lucky day (and 3x on the same day, if not more).
- ColinWright 9y ago
  I just ran this search for MAN -> EUS on 2017/08/23 leaving after 10:00. http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/MAN/London/230817/1000/dep http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/MAN/Lond... I got this result: Dep 11:15 Manchester Piccadilly [MAN] Platform 7 Arr 13:20 London Euston [EUS] Platform 3 Duration: 2h 05m Changes : 0 cheapest fare Single Fare £27.00 Services at 10:15, 10:35, and 10:55 are £38.00. Yes, tickets for travel on Monday are over £80, but the poster was talking about buying advance tickets. What service are you using? How far in advance are you looking? Buying on the day can and will be stupidly expensive. Oh, and FWIW, split tickets can frequently do better. I've reduced my annual train fares bills from over 11k to under 6k, despite travelling 20% more. Edit: Just ran a split-ticket search for Monday 14th and got this: £33.80 MAN CRE 10:04 11:01 £4.80 Advance CRE EUS 11:02 13:50 £29.00 Off-Peak
  - MagnumOpus 9y ago
    > I've reduced my annual train fares bills from over 11k to under 6k That is nice for you, but neither of these numbers is something that National Rail can pride itself on. In Germany for instance, a "Bahncard 100" that lets you travel everywhere anytime without pre-booking costs about £3.5k - and in addition, you save the dozens or hundreds of hours spent "hacking" the fares to get screwed ever so slightly less...
    - ColinWright 9y ago
      I'm not defending the UK fare system - it's appalling - and I'm not saying the fares are reasonable - they're not. I'm just replying to the person who sounded astonished about the existence of a £50 fare each way to EDB, claiming that MAN-EUS was significantly more. It's not (or doesn't have to be) and I provided evidence. So you're replying to the wrong indignation.
  - toyg 9y ago
    Neither of those options are realistic for anybody who actually, y'know, works. The overhwelming majority of passengers will get much, much higher fares. E.g. 7am MAN-EUS on 23/08: £112 And having to mess around with split fares like I had to reach Singapore, is appalling (is that even the same train? Do I really have to change train to get from the 2nd largest city to the capital? Is this Peru...?).
    - ColinWright 9y ago
      It sounds to me like you simply want to be outraged about the fares. And that's fine, the fares are, quite honestly, appalling. All I'm doing is pointing out that if you really are so angry then perhaps it's worth spending a little time, taking slightly less convenient journey, and cutting your expenditure in half. Or better: MAN CRE 06:00 06:37 £13.60 Anytime CRE EUS 06:52 09:37 £22.00 Advance Total: £35.60 For reference, I do, you know, work, and I've worked out how to work on the train and take advantage of fare combinations like this. If you choose not to, and choose to just take the existing fares and services and pay the premium then that's your choice. By all means, feel free to do so and to be angry about the system. And being angry about the system (or systems, to include things like the trains in Singapore) is quite reasonable. But it doesn't achieve much. Personally, I turn to the machine and create tools to shift the cost/convenience balance to be more in my favour.

toyg 9y ago

> around £50 each way booking a few weeks in advance Man, how many of those £50 tickets are actually available? A train from Manchester to London, which is less than half the distance, costs twice as much on a lucky day (and 3x on the same day, if not more).

ColinWright 9y ago
I just ran this search for MAN -> EUS on 2017/08/23 leaving after 10:00. http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/MAN/London/230817/1000/dep http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/MAN/Lond... I got this result: Dep 11:15 Manchester Piccadilly [MAN] Platform 7 Arr 13:20 London Euston [EUS] Platform 3 Duration: 2h 05m Changes : 0 cheapest fare Single Fare £27.00 Services at 10:15, 10:35, and 10:55 are £38.00. Yes, tickets for travel on Monday are over £80, but the poster was talking about buying advance tickets. What service are you using? How far in advance are you looking? Buying on the day can and will be stupidly expensive. Oh, and FWIW, split tickets can frequently do better. I've reduced my annual train fares bills from over 11k to under 6k, despite travelling 20% more. Edit: Just ran a split-ticket search for Monday 14th and got this: £33.80 MAN CRE 10:04 11:01 £4.80 Advance CRE EUS 11:02 13:50 £29.00 Off-Peak
- MagnumOpus 9y ago
  > I've reduced my annual train fares bills from over 11k to under 6k That is nice for you, but neither of these numbers is something that National Rail can pride itself on. In Germany for instance, a "Bahncard 100" that lets you travel everywhere anytime without pre-booking costs about £3.5k - and in addition, you save the dozens or hundreds of hours spent "hacking" the fares to get screwed ever so slightly less...
  - ColinWright 9y ago
    I'm not defending the UK fare system - it's appalling - and I'm not saying the fares are reasonable - they're not. I'm just replying to the person who sounded astonished about the existence of a £50 fare each way to EDB, claiming that MAN-EUS was significantly more. It's not (or doesn't have to be) and I provided evidence. So you're replying to the wrong indignation.
- toyg 9y ago
  Neither of those options are realistic for anybody who actually, y'know, works. The overhwelming majority of passengers will get much, much higher fares. E.g. 7am MAN-EUS on 23/08: £112 And having to mess around with split fares like I had to reach Singapore, is appalling (is that even the same train? Do I really have to change train to get from the 2nd largest city to the capital? Is this Peru...?).
  - ColinWright 9y ago
    It sounds to me like you simply want to be outraged about the fares. And that's fine, the fares are, quite honestly, appalling. All I'm doing is pointing out that if you really are so angry then perhaps it's worth spending a little time, taking slightly less convenient journey, and cutting your expenditure in half. Or better: MAN CRE 06:00 06:37 £13.60 Anytime CRE EUS 06:52 09:37 £22.00 Advance Total: £35.60 For reference, I do, you know, work, and I've worked out how to work on the train and take advantage of fare combinations like this. If you choose not to, and choose to just take the existing fares and services and pay the premium then that's your choice. By all means, feel free to do so and to be angry about the system. And being angry about the system (or systems, to include things like the trains in Singapore) is quite reasonable. But it doesn't achieve much. Personally, I turn to the machine and create tools to shift the cost/convenience balance to be more in my favour.