Why is travelling by train so expensive?

Question

I was looking at a website where train tickets can be bought and I looked up the price between my home city and Glasgow. I was STUNNED by the price. Nearly £230.00 was the cheapest, the most expensive being nearly £600.00

I regularly fly to Glasgow, it costs about £150.00 and takes just over an hour.

Answer 1

Those expensive tickets are what are called "walk-up" tickets - i.e. you can just walk up to the station, buy your ticket, and then hop on any train that arrives. For long journeys these tickets are always very expensive, and to a certain extent they always have been. Especially so for journeys made at peak times.

It's the same for flying of course - what do you think it would cost if you just turned up at the airport with your bags and then asked for a ticket to Glasgow? I bet it would be a h**l of a lot more than £230.00.

On train journeys, you can usually save a lot of money by buying advance tickets. These are restricted to specific trains (i.e. you have to catch the exact train that's marked on the ticket) and you have to buy them well in advance of your journey, normally at least 3 days in advance but often a few weeks in advance.

Advance tickets are not always available on long journeys that involve multiple train companies. You can sometimes solve this by buying two separate sets of tickets - e.g. if you're travelling from Bristol to Glasgow, you could buy a ticket from Bristol to Birmingham and then another one from Birmingham to Glasgow.

Another thing to watch out for is that advance tickets are normally only sold as single fares, not returns, so make sure you check single ticket prices as well as return tickets.

You don't say where you live but for the example I used, Bristol, the cheapest return journey to Glasgow using advance tickets is £50.00 whereas for a "walk-up" ticket it's £131.00. Big difference.

Answer 2

It might be that not many people take the train so it is more expensive,or they need more funding.

Answer 3

Tickets where you book in advance are usually cheaper. Most train operating companies have to cut the subsidy they receive from the government and eventually pay money back to the government from their profits. If they don't promise to do this when bidding for the franchise, it will be awarded to someone who does. So all they can do is cram people into fewer trains and put the fares up..

It's called the privatised railway.

Answer 4

It's crazy, isn't it?  Then factor into that the parking at the station, the dirty and overcrowded trains, the yobs and slobs - altogether it just isn't a very nice experience in this country!

Edit: in Europe i use the train all the time, the fares are fair, the train is clean, on time and has enough room for you to sitin the seat you paid for and if anyone even thinks about causing any trouble they're off, nothing like in this country, which is a shame.

Answer 5

I think the site you looked at has mislead you, A typical return ticket for the longest journey you can make in the UK is around £150 and much cheaper if you book in advance.

I don't know why people keep coming out with all this nonsense about our trains being the worst in Europe. If the rest of the EU is so good at running trains why don't you all go and live there.

Answer 6

I dont know where you was looking but I guess you was not looking at advance fares, the £230 sounds like a Saver ticket the £600 would have been for a first class open ticket

Try looking at the advance purchase tickets which are availiable about 6 weeks in advance and you will see that they go down drastically in price, the trouble is you need to know how to use the system (and unless you work in the rail industry and have been ticket trained then it is difficult to know what all the restrictions, times, etc, etc are)

An airflight is all well and good, but you have to remember you then have to get to the Airport and from Glasgow Airport to your destination, this adds to the costs involved.

Answer 7

Because they are completely inefficient at running a business. So bad the the government keep having to help them.

The Government says Fuel tax is supposed to help finance public transport. Lol

Answer 8

Yeahhh but train drivers are soooo much sexier than pilots. you pay for what you get ;=)

It all comes down to the government, all public transportation needs to be publicly funded to some level, they are not profitable.

Airlines only pay a fraction of the cost of building and maintaining airports and all the attendant infrastructure, you and I pay the rest through our taxes.

So, your elected representatives have chosen to subsidize airlines more than trains, that's because almost all politicians prefer to fly rather than mingle with working class folk.

Answer 9

it isnt

Answer 10

Because this is rip off Britain, they keep putting the prices up until they just fill the train.

Answer 11

It's the same here in the States and I just don't get it - it's cheaper to FLY?  For real?  Why the heck is that?  At least if the train quits working, you don't plummet out of the sky.

You'd think with their enormous fuel efficiency advantage and inherent safer operation, the train would be the money-smart way for everyone.  It doesn't compute.

Answer 12

In order to answer this question fairly you have to take like for like.

In my case I wanted to travel to Newport S.Wales a round trip of 72 miles. My car does about 35 to the gallon so that would be just a tad over 2 gallons which equals to £5.54 a gallon taking into account in my case £5.30 bridge toll equals £16.38 (not counting parking, a percentage of cost including insurance, servicing, wear and tear, appreciation, etc of which you could add several pounds more !)

The Train fare I paid was £7.60  I think that says it all.

You have to be serious and go for cheap options like travelling off peak, but if you like me plan your journey you can save pounds on the train, do your homework first.

Of course if you go for peak times, express trains,main commuter routes, first class travel, like probably the high costs you mention possibly represent, I am not at all surprised.

My city and Glasgow is a round trip of 800 miles so I would use about £130 of fuel take about 20 hours to drive (the train gets there and back in 12 hours  saving 8 hours in time !)  not counting actual stress involved which should be worth something.  

The Train Fare would be £91.50

I have done some research into this and being an accountant I think I save money by going by train, at least if  plan the journey and allow the unexpected like you get sometimes.

I can only speak fo myself and I think you could plan better ask for special offers next time, you can save alot by paying in advance too.