Rail fare increase

amos hames

amos hames

Dedicated Member
As someone who does not drive an needs to take the train to get around the fare increase of 6.2 percent in January is totally out of line.What are we paying for??

Dirty trains and platforms
Late running trains
Arrogant and abusive staff if you ask them a question(London Bridge staff)
Overpriced buffets.

Virgin trains have just lost their Franchise to run the west coast line.WHY.I,ve been on this service it everything ran fine.First group have got the franchise..?Who
are they.
The bus service is just as bad .Arriva southeast is an appaling service.
Anyway thats my Thursday morning moan over.Anyone got any veiws on this subject.However i must add whenever i get a East coast train to leeds to watch the football every other saturday they are always nice and clean and on time as are the northen rail or the trans pennine express trains.
 
I can count on the fingers of one hand for everytime I've been on a train, but I do use the local buses, we have First Bus doing our rout and its appalling, filthy, smelly, and if you sit too near the stairs you get a buzz from the druggies smoking their thing upstairs. Everyone stands at the front so you have trouble getting on and off. Most of the drivers have a look of either dispear or disdain and they charge you £2.10 for the privilege.
 
I guess I am lucky. We live in a very quite part of Surrey. We don't get too many buses, but they do run, and are mostly full of old folk who are no real bother. I do have a bus pass as well. I have never had a train that didn't come, but I don't use them much.
 
It seems to be the old tale of "Oh dear we are losing money! What can we do to get some back?? Dont cut the fares to make the trains more attractive, Lets charge the people who do use the trains, more for the privilege! " This happens every time ,even on the buses and taxis. >:(
 
amos hames said:
As someone who does not drive an needs to take the train to get around the fare increase of 6.2 percent in January is totally out of line.What are we paying for??

Dirty trains and platforms
Late running trains
Arrogant and abusive staff if you ask them a question(London Bridge staff)
Overpriced buffets.

Virgin trains have just lost their Franchise to run the west coast line.WHY.I,ve been on this service it everything ran fine.First group have got the franchise..?Who
are they.
The bus service is just as bad .Arriva southeast is an appaling service.
Anyway thats my Thursday morning moan over.Anyone got any veiws on this subject.However i must add whenever i get a East coast train to leeds to watch the football every other saturday they are always nice and clean and on time as are the northen rail or the trans pennine express trains.
Click to expand...

Well at the moment First Group run a lot of the UK railways in various areas,so now they have the west coast line and god forbid next year they get the east coast,which they then have the bulk of the UK rail network,which is never good news when there is no competition, it will end up like a nationalised railway run by a private company.
 
I think for some years any service running commuters into London has been expensive and poor, as more and more people attempt to use the service to enter the Capitol the whole network groans,so they hike the price to shove people off the trains,I see that in 2011 a season ticket Woking to London,some 22 miles is £3268 a year, so they will have to pay another £200 next year,but the rail companies know they have the upper hand,as to drive in plus parking cost and congestion charge would be in the region of £8000 a year, that is assuming you can get parked for £20 a day and does not allow for fuel cost
 
Cost of rail travel is a minefield,I have found it best to go direct to the train operator to get the best price,as thetrainline.com sells the same fares with their added mark up,if I use the trains it is normally the east coast line and some good deals can be found by booking a little in advance and using a rail card,though it is always more expensive to head south from Lincolnshire,I normally try and travel 1st class on East Coast as often the fare is not much more than 2nd,and the added free refreshments/meals you get in 1st class can make it less expensive than 2nd class.

I booked a 1st class ticket from Aviemore to York for £26.15p it leaves at 08.30am and takes over 5 hours,on the same day if I booked from Newark to London to travel at the same time the best fare is £40.60p for a 1.30 min journey,so the London trip cost 2p per mile extra, I can get a fare to London much later in the day for £16.15

I am guessing that some of this is the cost to the train operator of using certain station,a bit like air travel,and no doubt London and surrounding area station are far more expensive to access.
I do agree with Amos that the East Coast line is a good clean service
 
First Group run First Great Western trains which is one of the worst IMHO, as well as others.

Not good news - Virgin have been outpriced but a couple of years ago National Express did the same to unseat GNER on the East Coast and had to retreat as they were losing money - Eat Coast is directly run by the government at present.
 
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