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mark occomore
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 9955
Location: UK
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 Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 11:43 am Post subject: Train Fares Rise Again. |
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Train fares will rise over 6% in the new year. With stories regarding overcrowding, and trains running late they really need to stop rising fares.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11818904
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I did purchase a ticket online for a member of my family for £9 single from Newcastle to London the other week. There are still cheap fares around. |
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ruddlescat
Joined: 16 Sep 2010
Posts: 18010
Location: Near Chester
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| Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 12:25 pm Post subject: |
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I've found that if you look online at the sites offering discounted travel tickets and then go to the train booking office with evidence of the deals available they will often match the online deal of better it
Sometimes you've just got to haggle and shop around but it all takes time
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ColinB
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| Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 12:44 pm Post subject: |
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There's no discounts to be had on the already-overcrowded commuter route from CMK into London Euston.
A return ticket cost me £39 last week. Good job I can charge it to the client! |
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Rachel
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| Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 2:32 pm Post subject: |
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| ColinB wrote: | There's no discounts to be had on the already-overcrowded commuter route from CMK into London Euston.
A return ticket cost me £39 last week. Good job I can charge it to the client! |
£39 is a good price, Colin. What would be the cost of car-travel for the same journey be- not just petrol but the whole AA cost per mile for whatever your car is... it's roughly 50-70p per mile depending on the car, then there's parking on top and maybe the conjestion charge as well.
When I go up to town, I buy two advance first class singles ( one for each way) which are £22 each. So £44 return. A day return second class is £56! Yet first class is always empty. Plan ahead.  |
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ColinB
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| Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 2:44 pm Post subject: |
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| Rachel wrote: | | ColinB wrote: | There's no discounts to be had on the already-overcrowded commuter route from CMK into London Euston.
A return ticket cost me £39 last week. Good job I can charge it to the client! |
£39 is a good price, Colin. |
I don't agree! |
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Rachel
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| Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 2:53 pm Post subject: |
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| ColinB wrote: | | Rachel wrote: | | ColinB wrote: | There's no discounts to be had on the already-overcrowded commuter route from CMK into London Euston.
A return ticket cost me £39 last week. Good job I can charge it to the client! |
£39 is a good price, Colin. |
I don't agree! |
What price would be a good price? You set the fare. If the train company make a loss the Tax-payer will chip in - that would be fair?
Sometimes I do drive to London- well not London- I park at ChorleyWood cos it’s free in the car-park at the top of the hill, then get a one day travel card, zones 1 to 4 I think- ( about £7) tube to Baker Street on the Metropolitan Line – then London is your Lobster. Maybe you could do that? |
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ColinB
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| Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 3:25 pm Post subject: |
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| Rachel wrote: | | Sometimes I do drive to London- well not London- I park at ChorleyWood cos it’s free in the car-park at the top of the hill, then get a one day travel card, zones 1 to 4 I think- ( about £7) tube to Baker Street on the Metropolitan Line – then London is your Lobster. Maybe you could do that? |
After 9.15am, yes (it's £16.50) but not at 7.30am. Last week I was running a training course at The British Library which started at 9.00am. And parking at MK stations costs another £7.00 on top.
I guess that has to pay for Network Rail's shiny new corporate HQ currently being built here in MK! |
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Rachel
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| Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 3:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Really you should marvel at the travel facilities that allow you live where you do but work in London when you need or want to. It’s quite a thing; especially if you’re not an everyday user, just to be able to step out of your car, onto a train going where you want to go, then out at the other end. We take quite a lot for granted these days. Most services are much better than we think they are. That’s because we compare train services to the fallacy of total freedom in car travel that makes those services seem less than they ought to be but really they are pretty good and good value too. |
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ColinB
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| Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 3:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Rachel wrote: | | Really you should marvel at the travel facilities that allow you live where you do but work in London when you need or want to. It’s quite a thing; especially if you’re not an everyday user, just to be able to step out of your car, onto a train going where you want to go, then out at the other end. We take quite a lot for granted these days. Most services are much better than we think they are. That’s because we compare train services to the fallacy of total freedom in car travel that makes those services seem less than they ought to be but really they are pretty good and good value too. |
I guess you're right. That old horse & cart used to take days to get into London back in the olden days. It was almost impossible to make a 9.00am meeting, in fact!!! |
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RockitRon
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 7646
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| Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 4:05 pm Post subject: |
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For leisure it's pretty good (if slow - the journey time from here to London is no quicker than it was sixty years ago). By booking on the right website and a fortnight in advance, and avoiding the morning and evening peaks I can get a first class single going for £41 and coming home for £28, and have more or less a full day there (well, ten hours). You would be hard-pressed to match that by car, even a super-economical diesel.
Commuters are not so lucky - it's the age-old supply-demand thing, nothing new. Solving the overcrowding problem, exacerbated by increased patronage won't be easy, or cheap. More trains won't necessarily help, because I don't think many lines into London actually have the capacity to take them.
London traffic was a nightmare in the 1960s - my dad only once drove there even when we lived just eleven miles from the centre. He was no shrinking violet, but swore he'd never do it again, for the jams, and the stress/bad temper, and the parking (and expense of parking). And that was before parking meters and congestion charges!
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mark occomore
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 9955
Location: UK
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| Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 8:48 pm Post subject: |
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| The trainline website have been doing some good deals which have been on there for the last few months. They used to only release them 12 weeks before travel. As I said - " I got one of my family a single ticket from Newcastle - London Kings X for £9 single, which is good going. Some fares could go up to more than 10% I read. It's a disgrace and will push people onto the roads. Although I did read fuel prices could rise even more soon. |
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ColinB
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| Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 10:02 pm Post subject: |
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| mark occomore wrote: | | The trainline website have been doing some good deals which have been on there for the last few months. They used to only release them 12 weeks before travel. As I said - " I got one of my family a single ticket from Newcastle - London Kings X for £9 single, which is good going. Some fares could go up to more than 10% I read. It's a disgrace and will push people onto the roads. Although I did read fuel prices could rise even more soon. |
The idea that you can get cheap deals by booking way in advance is a joke for those who need to travel at very short notice. The whole system is a nonsense, that's what it is.
And as for ever-increasing fuel prices, don't forget that this bunch of amateurs in power are bestowing a VAT rate increase to 20% in January. Nice. |
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