Great Western Coffee Shop

Millions of passengers will be out of pocket as train fares soar fourfold this Christmas. Families travelling to meet loved ones will be hit by rip-off charges as only one in 20 tickets is available at a cheap advance rate.

National Express East Coast, which launched its festive fares on Friday, admitted its limited number of cheap advance bookings had already sold out. And yesterday a travel watchdog called on train companies to give cashstrapped passengers a fair deal at the busiest time of the year.

A Mirror investigation found a National Express East Coast journey from London to Edinburgh was advertised as from ^12 each way for Christmas travel. But we found no cheap advance fares were available for traditional travel dates of December 23 and 24. Instead, passengers face fares between ^24.05 and ^42.70, rising to ^48.05 - four times the advertised ^12 price - for a single back to London on December 27 or 28.

Travelling on the same days of the week a fortnight earlier, London-Edinburgh is just ^16.50 on nine trains on December 9 and 10 - and the same on virtually every train coming back on December 12.

It's a similar picture with London to Newcastle tickets. National Express East Coast spokesperson John Gelson said: "The vast majority of our Christmas and New Year fares went on sale on Friday. Customers took advantage of tickets the moment they went on sale. They sell out very quickly."

Train company First Great Western puts its Christmas tickets on sale today with others expected to follow this week.

Anthony Smith, of independent rail watchdog Passenger Focus said: "We strongly believe there should be affordable turn-up-and-go tickets, which is how railway users like to travel."

Rail passengers are being lured by cut-price Christmas deals ^ only to find the cheaper tickets cover a fraction of festive services.

We can reveal families face sky-high charges on eight out of 10 journeys with First Great Western.

The south-west route giant, which operates between London, Cornwall and Wales, put its cut-price festive fares on sale last week. But our investigation found the cheap ^15 advance tickets were only available on a handful of trains over the holiday.

On December 23 the ^15 advance single was offered on just two out of 10 trains between London and Penzance. And passengers would have to set off at 7.30am or arrive after midnight.

Tickets for other trains on the same day cost ^38.90 for a single ^ two and a half times dearer.

But for families travelling back after visiting loved ones, low-cost deals were even harder to come by with just one in 10 available at the ^15 rate on December 27.

Otherwise journeys cost between ^31.65 and ^46.10. London-Plymouth fares were also dear with just three out of 16 trains  at the lowest ^13 price on December 23, with other services costing between ^27.20 and ^33.90.

Returning on December 27, only three out of 17 trains cost ^13 ^ with the others priced between ^21.10 and ^40.

The Transport Salaried Staffs^ Association union, which represents 30,000 train workers, slammed the unfair prices.

General secretary Gerry Doherty said: ^Train travel this Christmas is a rip-off. Passengers are held to ransom, as the nearer you get to Christmas, the dearer it is to travel.

^Companies exploit the market as the percentage of advance tickets can go as low as 5%, while it is normally thought to be around 10%. We want every company compelled to say how many cheap seats are available and when.^

First Great Western spokeswoman Cath Millman said: ^A lot of fares are on sale. If it^s a popular train, the best fares will have been sold.^

Oh my lord, ^38 London - Penzance, beat that by car!!!

Devils advocate.....

Fill the car, say 2 adults and 2 children and you easily beat the quoted fares.

Devils advocate.....
Fill the car, say 2 adults and 2 children and you easily beat the quoted fares.

one small comfort is that all OP restrictions are lifted over Xmas.

one small comfort is that all OP restrictions are lifted over Xmas.

The lifting of Christmas restrictions has never applied to the former SR area, TTBOMK.  I think it has only ever been an 'intercity' thing, going back to pre-privatisation...

Paul

Fair comment, bignosemac: I'm already moving recent posts here to 'the lighter side' - where I think they belong?

I certainly wouldn't remove them from the forum altogether - I think it's been a rather entertaining (and even educational) off-shoot from the original topic?

Chris.  ;)

Maybe it was an 'intercity' thing. Last Christmas FGW obviously saw themselves as an intercity operator, as they lifted ALL restrictions on Crimbo eve on their long distance trains. This year, Plymouth to Paddington, for example, is obviously seen as a commuter service.

I think you'll find that FGW's thinking last year and this year is different simply because last year was a leap year - so December 24 was on a Tuesday. A lot of people - sadly not including myself - appeared to pack up for a week and a half's break on Friday, December 20, so far fewer people were travelling on the 23rd and 24th than will be doing so this year, when most employers will probably be expecting people to turn up for work until at least the Wednesday.

Quite right, bignosemac!  ;)

It's somewhat surprising that some people apparently packed up on "Friday 20 December", when they should have been packing up a day earlier - just to save those TOCs all that anguish?

Journalistic licence, perhaps?

C.  ::)

My apologies, but still doesn't get away from the fact that lots of people did pack up the Friday of the previous week, whatever the date, rather than bother with turning out for a day or two at the start of the Christmas week, which I don't think will be the case this year.

...particularly when picking apart Btline's posts.

Well, that does get a bit tiring at times....

Yes, I bet searching up to TWO YEARS back for an inconsistent post does get a little tiring. ::)