That’s surely an anytime ticket, rather than an off-peak ticket?
Still bonkers either way.
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Couldn’t pay me to go to Blackburn let alone charge me nearly £400 for the “privilege”
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Yeah obviously the £379 is at peak hours, but if you’re a journalist with a hot lead I imagine you can’t be waiting a few weeks to book the ticket in advance at 2pm on a Wednesday or whatever.
You’ve just gotta go and see where the story takes you. They’ll have expensed it to Sky, but still absolutely crazy.
Imagine the poor bastards who have to travel by train at peak times and can’t expense it.
At some point this year the Scottish Government are scraping peak fares for 6 months as trial. Such a great move
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I wonder what’s the algorithm that determines that figure increase. I assume its just fewer spaces so the value of the remaining seats increases
Peak time open return ticket booked at short notice has always been expensive compared to booking an advanced off peak, isn’t this universal?
Wait til you can’t get on the train or spend 4 hours standing from Glasgow to London cos every fucker booked an anytime ticket.
No problem with time related pricing just a problem with the fucking pricing.
Scotrail don’t do Scotland to England travel that’s some other company
W. Wallace Rail?
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Makes you long for the days when you went to the station, bought your ticket (no fluctuating prices, reserved seats, etc.), got on the train, sat wherever you wanted to, and went. Pre-privatisation, of course.
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I went to Cambridge last week for a hospital appointment, and that’s exactly what I did. Went to the station, bought a ticket, got on the next train and sat where I wanted.
The only time I’ve not been able to sit where I wanted, is if I get one of those god awful commuter trains to London in the morning.
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Of course it is, the point was that its three hundred and eighty fucking quid to go to Blackburn. Peak, off peak, whenever the fuck it’s booked, it should never cost that much. That’s a truly abhorrent price lol.
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That’s all well and good but how much should it cost then? How much should anyone ever have to pay for peak anytime returns tickets from a London terminal booked on short notice?
I’m curious about the algorithm that determines the actual figure and what is accounted for in the ticket price that is causing the surcharge. Fact that the destination is shitty Blackburn doesn’t matter at all really
What can anyone possibly say to your question other than ‘less’?
Germany managed to subsidise travel to the point where it was €9 for a month. So yea, less.
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Like Shamrock says, I don’t know exactly, but vastly less?!
I wouldn’t want to put words in your mouth, but do you not agree that 380 quid is way too much for a domestic train journey?!
No, it doesn’t, it could be any destination and I’d say that’s much too much. You could fly half way round the world for that much lol.
I pay £30 to travel 2 hours in the Netherlands, so maybe £45 would be fair for 3 hours?
It’s about £65 to travel 4 hours in Denmark if you don’t get an off peak.
I doubt you pay more than £100 for a train ticket anywhere in Europe unless it’s a first class ticket.
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You can give a max lesser figure you’d think is acceptable.
The Germany point isn’t really relevant, heavily subsidised train travel for 90 days at a cost of €2bn+ isn’t reflective of any kind of practical reality in respect of train ticket costs. That’s not even considering the huge difference between the UK and German rail network/infrastructure
@JakeyBoy On the face sure especially for a standard ticket but when you consider the variables of their booking not really. Vast majority of users will book advance tickets well ahead of time at a significantly cheaper cost, last min open return tickets you will get shafted departing from a major terminal like London at peak times, not saying it’s right but I’d love to know what’s the biggest driver of cost for such a ticket
Flying and train travel = Apples to oranges
I just tried booking a train ticket to Blackburn on 3rd April and 16th March but got the same error saying tickets weren’t available yet. I could get tickets from the 3rd March though, at exactly the same price of £369 and £104.
Maybe that’s just a trainline issue, but I don’t think train tickets booked in advance have been significantly cheaper for a long time.
The only time I think train prices have ever been even close to fair were when I had my 18-30 railcard or whatever, so about 1/3 off the normal price.
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It kind of seemed like you were saying its right, or acceptable, when you said “not really” to my question about whether it’s way too much.
It is ok for you to say with your chest out that you think the 380 is reasonable lol. It seems like a wild position to me, but we aren’t often in agreement, so I wouldn’t be too taken aback 
Interesting that @Cristo seems to have at least produced one example of advance booking seeming to make very little difference for the same journey we’realready discussing. Given a fair bit of your argument seems to be based around the idea of booking in advance, do you still feel this is a reasonable fee for the journey?
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As I’ve repeated said, I’m much more interested in the breakdown of the ticket cost and seeing where the surcharge is coming from to make a proper judgement on reasonableness. The figure itself doesn’t mean anything if the basis of the cost hasn’t been explained especially when obvious variables are impacting the total cost.
I’m pretty sure we’re all in agreement high ticket prices = bad for those who use the service. To me it just seems silly to make a broad point by referencing a anytime return which is one of the most expensive type of ticket that permits a return within 30 days at any times and the second most expensive type of ticket you can get short notice, You’re gunna pay a premium for that. Sure it’s a high figure and a regular dude who needs to get to Blackburn short notice would be fucked. The % of people in that category is tiny though.
@Cristo UK rail network, particularly London terminals are very different to anywhere in Europe. Certainly no routes in the Netherlands or Denmark compare to UK in terms of overall rail usage and amount of users at peak times. I never really likes cross country examples because UK rail is distinct and we pass the cost to the user directly.
Departing from London is probably similar to using the Amtrak from New York to DC which is roughly 4 hours. Booking short notice for a return ticket covering peak time you’re paying over $200 for a coach seat and that’s advanced tickets.
I know this isn’t true generally speaking, I’ve just checked you can get an advanced same day return at peak times to Blackburn for 77 quid no discounts which is fine for a one off journey for an individual.
If you’re a frequent rail user it’s easier to learn the trends and book ahead accordingly for savings, even now alot of providers will allow to make changes at no cost
I don’t understand. You can still walk into a train station, buy an off-peak ticket, and then jump on the next train. Whenever I travel by rail, this is how I always do it.
It’s these anytime tickets where there seems to be a huge cost difference.