Great Western Coffee Shop

I keep reading "us commuters pay much more that you occasional travellers" and, yes, that is true - but I thought I would try and put that into the different context of per journey costings.  I'm particularly looking at threads like the "seat reservation" one that's running at the moment here (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=4508.0)

Some prices:

126.00 - Anytime return
** 106.00 - 2 x Advance single (today's availability for peak travel for 21st May)
83.80 - BritRail point to point ticket (not available to UK residents)
81.50 - Anytime, but using only trains that call at Didcot
* 45.00 - Offpeak return
** 38.00 -  2 x Advance single (today's availability for reasonable times on 21st May)
33.24 - Travel anytime (per return journey, 1 month season ticket)
29.00 - Annual season tickets, using only trains that call at Didcot
24.94 - Britrail England, 15 days in 2 months (not available to UK residents)
** 17.00 - 2 x Advance single (today's availability for way out times on 21st May)

Tickets marked as follows:
* - you are restricted as to which trains you may use
** - you must choose your train when booking, weeks / months ahead

The fares above are standard class, Chippenham to London Paddington. Season ticket calculation is as follows - 731.20 - 30 day (Month) - 22 return journeys = 33.24 per return journey.  You may argue me down to 20 return journeys which puts the per journey cost up to 36.56.  Annual season ticket - 7616 pounds,  which works out as 33 pounds per day (5 day week, 30 non-commuting weekdays) or 34 pounds per day (40 non-commuting weekdays).

The BritRail point to point ticket is priced at $123 (US) and at today's exchange rate of 1.4676.  Although you book and pay in advance and select a train, you are free to vary the day and time you travel without notice ("flexible so you can change your itinerary")

The "only trains that call at Didcot" daily fare is based on Chippenham to Didcot return, plus Didcot to Paddington any time day return 36 + 45.50 ; any ticket office can sell you both tickets, but I don't think a ticket machine can issue tickets from stations other than the one they're located at (exception - collecting prebooked tickets).

Britrail England - 15 days in 2 months at $549 = 374.08 pounds.  So that's unlimited train travel in the UK for 24.94 per day, which could be used by someone who's staying with friends in Chippenham and wants to commute to London for 3 weeks at peak times.   And if he / she happened to use one of the days to travel from Bath to Northallerton and back, that would be just 24.94 too; see here (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=3909.0) for previous discussion on the fare for that journey.

Annual season - Chippenham to Didcot 2732 + Didcot - Paddington 3996.  Used for 230 round trips. You must always use trains that call at Didcot, and consider if you can accept that limitation before you buy!

One comment that I would make on the Britrail fare is that although it is valid on any train, I bet that most users of it are tourists who most of the time will not be getting up as early as commuters so although the ticket is valid peak time it will often be used off-peak.  Pricing it somewhere between peak and off-peak fares therefore seems sensible.  For every American who uses it as a discounted peak-time ticket there will be another who is paying over the odds for travel off-peak.

Whilst of course it is true that commuters pay more in absolute terms than other passengers, in fact monthly and annual seasons give substantial discounts "per mile" or "per journey" compared to most walk-up tickets, and are also valid without restriction.

This is part of the commuting problem that the railways have always faced: season ticket holders pay much less per mile than many other passengers, but travel in the peak and therefore require a large amount of extra stock that spends much of the rest of the day either parked up or running virtually empty but still costing money! Barry Doe in RAIL has written several interesting articles on exactly that issue.

It is another strange fact that season ticket holders generally believe they get worse value from the railway than walk-up ticket holders, despite benefiting from huge per-journey discounts compared to the latter.