Rail: Nice idea, shame about the reality (in the UK)
My grandparents are visiting soon. They live in Exeter (Devon, England) so we tried to book rail tickets for the 550 mile journey. This is what happened.
We are booking ahead of time so hopefully a reasonable fare will be avialable, also the date isnt important a few days either side of this date would be fine.
They also have rail cards so its cheap, right?
In fact the best price we could get around then was 229 pounds for there tickets one way! (thats about 450 dollars). In fact there where opitons without the two changes, but these got in to late...
So where did we look next? Flybe...plane tickets booked then offset with My Climate.
Notice the lower price for flying, the lack of two changes (which is difficult for people in there 80's with lugage and the shorter travel time. At the moment in the UK it seems that having the most expensive rail in europe is putting well intentioned if not sadistic people off rail travel. Perhaps something that our new Prime Minister, Gordon Browne can have a look at.
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We are booking ahead of time so hopefully a reasonable fare will be avialable, also the date isnt important a few days either side of this date would be fine.
They also have rail cards so its cheap, right?
In fact the best price we could get around then was 229 pounds for there tickets one way! (thats about 450 dollars). In fact there where opitons without the two changes, but these got in to late...
So where did we look next? Flybe...plane tickets booked then offset with My Climate.
Notice the lower price for flying, the lack of two changes (which is difficult for people in there 80's with lugage and the shorter travel time. At the moment in the UK it seems that having the most expensive rail in europe is putting well intentioned if not sadistic people off rail travel. Perhaps something that our new Prime Minister, Gordon Browne can have a look at.
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posted by Calvin Jones @ 9:19 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Bloody hell! How on earth am I meant to encourage people to take the train when stuff like this happens. No one has ever managed to explain/convince to me why the train is so expensive these days. The government has to step in here or in 25 years time only the airports will be left unflooded and we'll have no choice but to fly.
i just searched the same journey via thetrainline.com and came up with a single at £91.40 and a saver return at £113.05 ... this half the price you found
you're right though ... making rail cheaper and easier to find the best price too would be v welcome
hello, second anonymous, we only need a single. And, although i this may be vissible only in the image not the text i need two tickets. 2*91.4=182.80 so, if that is a single from aberdeen to exeter then you would have save me about 25 pounds a person not quite the saving you thought.
But yes, we both agree on the need for cost effective rail.
The thing that bugs me is that rail takes longer than flying (usually), often involves changes (fine for me not for the elderly), and dosent have facilities on the same level as air transport terminals...and yet it is STILL more expensive.
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