Great Western Coffee Shop

Out of interest does anyone know why the Taunton - Tiverton off-peak single fare is ^8.00 for a 14 mile journey? I was playing around with cheap ticket splitting between Bristol and Exeter on Good Friday and I found this odd fare.

In comparison the same fare from Taunton to Castle Cary (28 miles) is ^7.20 and to Bridgwater (12 miles) is ^4.20. The Exeter fare is also ^9.40 for double the distance and to Bristol (44 miles) is only ^10. (I may be a few pence out here and there).

It doesn't really matter but it just seems like a bizarrely high fare for a journey that can't be massively popular compared to other destinations from those stations.

I came across that fare recently when I split tickets at Tiverton on the way from St Ives to Taunton for a day out (it rained)....off peak return from St Ives to Plymouth is ^9-50 for a 2 hour journey !!

well you do cross the county border dont know if any council funding affects this

If it's just the single you want and price is your main concern then can I suggest the XC only fare - an Anytime Day Single at ^7.20.

Probably due to the fact that it is on an "Intercity" route. Few "local" trains stop there.

There isn't a "Cheap Day" fare available, only a period return, hence the larger price. (as far as I know)

Its similar to the jump in price from Didcot - London and Swindon - London. (One Intercity, the other Network South West)

BR lingers on...  ;)

CDS - ^8.00
CDR - ^8.10
SDS - ^8.40
SDR - ^8.80

Where's 'at to then, my babs...?

This was previously discussed at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=4595.msg42765#msg42765

This policy also stops people with a Devon & Cornwall railcard from gaining by splitting a journey to Taunton at Tiverton Parkway.

Same with York to Durham. A 45 minute journey that costs about ^15 with a railcard. (when a similar length journey from Kidderminster to B'ham costs a third of that)

These fares need sorting out!

That will just result in more expensive fares for all of us though, they won't reduce the higher fares and that would be less profit for them so the only option would be to increase the lower fares.

Er, well York to Durham is 66 miles and Kidderminster to Birm is 19 miles, so maybe not surprising that it costs 3 times as much to do the former journey as the latter. I think you're confusing the length of journey with its duration.   

 

I won't be so positive, Zoe.  I can buy fares on the local line that range from 8p / mile to 1.20 per mile; at 8p per mile, even with every seat taken the train would be making a hefty loss.  And the only people who pay the 1.20 (to my knowledge) are people who know no better - selling such a fare is great way to really upset people new to the area, and if and when they find out about the cheaper alternatives they get really upset.

Three cheers to FGW for reducing the cost of single fares to half that of a return ... the halo slipped when they put them back up again substantially, but they remain (at least at the moment) much better value than they used to be, and in my view the halo is skewed but hasn't totally slipped off.

That is a fair point which I completely missed! ;D