Train Fare bonkersness

[vernon]

The logic of the fare structure(s) have totally evaded me.

I can get to York more cheaply if I buy a ticket to Northallerton which is twice the distance from Leeds than York is.

 

[Arch]

Have you considered kidnapping one, it's extreme but if it saves on rail fares what the hey!

Slightly OT, but one time I was on the train and a woman got on at Leeds. She had three dogs on leads, a rucksack and a 'bag for life' type carrierbag, in which was a cage with something like a hamster in it.

At one point, I glanced at the rucksack on the floor, and something was moving inside it. I think it was a cat!

 

[Yellow Fang]

You lucky you do not live in Swindon, the Swindon to London Paddington ticket is apparently one of the most expensive train tickets in Europe, on a pound per mile basis. What is even more confusing is that if you catch the same train from the next station along, Reading, it is alot cheaper.

It's astonishingly expensive travelling Reading to Swindon, at any time of day.

 

[Sara_H]

Um.

<thinks>

No.

I don't know a whole lot of under-16's, and not many of them I want to take to Manchester every weekend!

!

Do you want to hire one? I have two available. As a bonus they're incredibly good company. The 10 year old likes cycling, the 13 year old not so much.

 

[accountantpete]

Here's a local anomaly

Crewe to Blackpool £32 return.

Crewe to Wigan and Wigan to Blackpool £14 and £12 same train.

 

[Arch]

[QUOTE 2356284, member: 259"]Here's an example using the TicketySplit site and a test journey to Nottingham tomorrow morning in 2nd class - a journey I sometimes do.
Just by splitting your fare and buying two tickets instead of one you can very often save a lot of money, but the savings are often much bigger than in this example. It's daft, but it's worth doing.
[/quote]

I've looked before on a different site, and just checked again on that one, and they can't find a reduction on my journey, either way.

 

[Arch]

[QUOTE 2356313, member: 259"]I think it depends on the route, Arch, and it's only set up to do today and tomorrow journeys at the moment, so it's not going to be as cheap as advance booking, but it's an example of what you can do. I often have to do next day travel and I usually save a few quid doing this.[/quote]

Yeh, it's just one of those things. I was looking at advance tickets today, and even that way, I can only save a fiver or so. But that ties me to a certain train, and I do like to be flexible at least on the journey out - I leave work as soon as we're finished on a Friday, so I can't be sure what time I'll get away. If I booked an advance ticket, I'd have to book it for a later train (5pm ish), in case we were busy, but then find I could have got an earlier train at 4 or even 3pm. Call me soppy, but I'd hate to be sitting in York waiting when I could be already in Manchester with NT....

 

[Brains]

In March last year we were quoted such silly figures to do London/Cornwall/London that after actually confirming with two other calls that the price given was correct, we elected to go by car, we actually looked at taking a black London taxi for the 500 miles round trip, it may have been cheaper but the guy did not want to stay in Cornwall for the weekend. So eventually we drove down.

My sister having been given the same crazy price turned up at Waterloo station and spent an hour at the ticket office and got 6 different tickets each way (12 tickets in all) for the same trip, the total cost was under £50 return.

Unbelievable!

 

[Brains]

And on a similar vein, a few years back a party of us going to the Alps by train, the cost we were quoted more for go the 70 miles London/Dover/London was more than the 700 miles Calais/Grenoble/Calais on an overnight sleeper !

We hired a minibus to drive to Dover

 

[Canrider]

One of the ticket counter bods at my nearest staffed station is some kind of single-fare otaku, and will insist on trying to find you a cheap option using a combination of singles..

 

[dellzeqq]

[QUOTE 2356284, member: 259"]Here's an example using the TicketySplit site and a test journey to Nottingham tomorrow morning in 2nd class - a journey I sometimes do.
Just by splitting your fare and buying two tickets instead of one you can very often save a lot of money, but the savings are often much bigger than in this example. It's daft, but it's worth doing.

Home
Info
Standard rate: £78.50

This is based on the specific journey:
Departs: 09:30 London St Pancras (Domestic)
Arrives: 11:25 Nottingham

Currently only for walk-on faresBooking in advance is usually cheaper...more​

You can split your journey and pay £54.10, saving £24.40
Split 1
From Start
London St Pancras (Domestic) 09:30
To Price
Bedford £20.90
Ticket type: OFF-PEAK DAY S
Split 2
From Start
Bedford 10:07
To Price
Nottingham £33.20
Ticket type: OFF-PEAK DAY S[/quote]
I can't help but note that accountantpete was right in there with the 'like' button.

 

[accountantpete]

I can't help but note that accountantpete was right in there with the 'like' button.

TBH I spent 10 mins researching my post and then found that the pesky Mort had beaten me to it - so I had to "like" his post so as to avoid making my post look like a repetitive piece of drivel

 

[EltonFrog]

What are these "trains" and "tickets" of which you speak? Am I correct in thinking, that it is some mode of transport, where you have to travel to, at some inconvenience, to board some device that carries you to another place where you dont want be, from whence you have to travel further, at some inconvenience, to get to your final destination?

 

[400bhp]

You lucky you do not live in Swindon

Yes, I am.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

TBH I spent 10 mins researching my post and then found that the pesky Mort had beaten me to it - so I had to "like" his post so as to avoid making my post look like a repetitive piece of drivel

Why break the habit of a lifetime...