Train Prices

[Littgull]

Ticket barriers are far from everywhere. So provided it is a small station in the country you are starting your ride from it should not be a problem.

Yes, that's true. But the majority of travellers will be boarding or alighting at bigger town or city stations.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Yes, that's true. But the majority of travellers will be boarding or alighting at bigger town or city stations.

What the majority do is not of importance as this thread is in relation to a bike ride back home. Starting from a quiet station in the countryside would surely be the preference.

 

[classic33]

What the majority do is not of importance as this thread is in relation to a bike ride back home. Starting from a quiet station in the countryside would surely be the preference.

Only if the train actually stops there, otherwise you stay on until the end.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Only if the train actually stops there, otherwise you stay on until the end.

No kidding!

 

[mjr]

Yes, that's true. But the majority of travellers will be boarding or alighting at bigger town or city stations.

Bizarrely, barriers are being removed from larger East Coast Mainline stations, but you take your chances of the exit being staffed by ticket inspectors.

 

[mjr]

Bothered, or just wondering how this situation arose? I think it's curious, even though I sometimes buy singles nevertheless.

 

[robjh]

Could someone tell me why a single train ticket of 25 miles costs all but 10p shy of a day return ticket? I guess there's logic in it.

There was a time when it was worse. In the early post-privatisation years in the 1990s, before on-line booking was common, Virgin Trains used to sell their best-value advance tickets by telephone booking. They offered no cheap advance singles, only returns, with the result that a single ticket could cost twice the price of a return. Obviously people realised this so they would book a return and travel one way only. This then led to a lot of empty seats on trains from unused returns, so Virgin instructed their phone sales people to quiz people carefully about their return plans, and refuse to sell them a return ticket if they doubted the passenger would use it. Result : many unhappy customers and unhappy telesales people.
I believe it took the regulator to step in and insist that for every return ticket there be a cheaper single, and a 10p difference was about the minimum they could get away with. So now, across much (but not all) of the network, off-peak singles are priced at off-peak return minus 10p.

 

[theclaud]

If you only want a single why are you bothered by how much a return costs?

I often end my rides out in the sticks and get a train home. I ask the price of the ticket that I want. I don't ask about tickets that I don't want, as their price is of no interest. I pay the required cost, and I don't try to defraud the train company. I'm not bothered by where there are or are not barriers because I have the right ticket and am not attempting to evade the fare.

The ticket I want is often about £256, so I have to forget it and opt for a ticket I can make do with. Tickets I want and can actually afford are becoming rarer every season thanks to The Confusopoly™, so I often make plans around ticket/reservation restrictions rather than the other way round.

 

[Gravity Aided]

American trains are much the same in pricing. I think it is to discourage random travel, so the railroad knows how many are going, and can reasonably extrapolate how many are coming back, on a given day. This allows them to have enough rolling stock on hand to handle demand. Although British trains do often confuse me, by what I see on YouTube. There is a Great Western Railroad, and a First Great Western as well. LMS trains seem to make a warbling noise. And there seem to be a lot of diesels, even where there is catenary. And Crewe seems to have many a train. Lovely rail system, though.

 

[classic33]

American trains are much the same in pricing. I think it is to discourage random travel, so the railroad knows how many are going, and can reasonably extrapolate how many are coming back, on a given day. This allows them to have enough rolling stock on hand to handle demand. Although British trains do often confuse me, by what I see on YouTube. There is a Great Western Railroad, and a First Great Western as well. LMS trains seem to make a warbling noise. And there seem to be a lot of diesels, even where there is catenary. And Crewe seems to have many a train. Lovely rail system, though.

GWR, LNER, LMS & SR were the big Four. First GW is a more modern slant on the GWR.

 

[Julia9054]

American trains are much the same in pricing. I think it is to discourage random travel, so the railroad knows how many are going, and can reasonably extrapolate how many are coming back, on a given day. This allows them to have enough rolling stock on hand to handle demand. Although British trains do often confuse me, by what I see on YouTube. There is a Great Western Railroad, and a First Great Western as well. LMS trains seem to make a warbling noise. And there seem to be a lot of diesels, even where there is catenary. And Crewe seems to have many a train. Lovely rail system, though.

I wish British train companies thought about having enough rolling stock to handle demand. Took my new Brompton on its first train trip to Manchester on Friday afternoon. I stood all the way in the doorway crammed in with all the other mouth breathers up in my face. Really unpleasant. I haven't been on my bike since Sunday because I now have a stinking cold.

 

[classic33]

I wish British train companies thought about having enough rolling stock to handle demand. Took my new Brompton on its first train trip to Manchester on Friday afternoon. I stood all the way in the doorway crammed in with all the other mouth breathers up in my face. Really unpleasant. I haven't been on my bike since Sunday because I now have a stinking cold.

Did you go via Leeds? on a 156?

 

[Gravity Aided]

GWR, LNER, LMS & SR were the big Four. First GW is a more modern slant on the GWR.

Over here, when truly old people refer to the Big Four, they mean the C.C.C and StL,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland,_Cincinnati,_Chicago_and_St._Louis_Railway
a forerunner of the western districts of the New York Central System. This folded into Penn Central, folded into ConRail, divided by Norfolk/Southern and CSX, the two major freight railways east of the Mississippi River.
I find railroad history fascinating, full of coincidences and interrelationships. Although most of what I know of British Railways comes from C. Hamilton Ellis' books on the subject.

 

[Julia9054]

Did you go via Leeds? on a 156?

Yes. Don't know.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Did you go via Leeds? on a 156?

Is that like one of those multiple unit railcars? Anorak fully deployed, now.