The Most Expensive Railway in Europe?

[whole diary]

[devon_metro]

Advance Purchase A - C (restricted trains)
Cheap Day (after 0900) (local)
Standard Day (any train) (local)
Super Saver (after 0900) (long distance)
Saver (any time) (long distance)
Open (any train any time)

Simple...

[vacman]

Advance Purchase A - C (restricted trains)
Cheap Day (after 0900) (local)
Standard Day (any train) (local)
Super Saver (after 0900) (long distance)
Saver (any time) (long distance)
Open (any train any time)

Simple...

Do away with saver and make open returns cheaper!

[devon_metro]

Or make CDRs^▸ (Off Peak Day Return [ticket type] (formerly 'Cheap Day'))/SDRs have a longer distance

I believe you can get an Exeter St D - London Waterloo CDR!

Although the 30 day return is very useful...

[vacman]

there's no real distance limit on CDR^▸ (Off Peak Day Return [ticket type] (formerly 'Cheap Day'))'s, it all depends on demand, you can get a CDR trom Tiverton to Penzance (3 1/2 hours) but not Tiverton to Paddington (2 hours max). Also, you can get a CDR from Mallaig to Glasgow (4 hours!!) but not Bristol to Pad!!

[FarWestJohn]

Cornwall is recognised as one of the poorest areas in Europe. This is why it has been getting Objective One money.  This is now called the Convergence fund and I believe money from this fund will pay towards the proposed passing loop at Penryn on the Falmouth line.

I believe money from the Objective One helped with the restoring of double track between St.Austell and Truro recently.

[Lee]

Cornwall is recognised as one of the poorest areas in Europe. This is why it has been getting Objective One money.  This is now called the Convergence fund and I believe money from this fund will pay towards the proposed passing loop at Penryn on the Falmouth line.

I believe money from the Objective One helped with the restoring of double track between St.Austell and Truro recently.

EU^» (European Union - about) money will partly fund the Falmouth package.

[smokey]

There was a time you could get a DR for any journey, subject to the rule that it was Time Table possible,
ie leaving after 22.00 the day before and arriving back on a train that commenced it's journey before Midnight and was a though Service back to the Departure station.

That of course was when it was a Simple fare structre, to work out long DR fares was done by adding the fares of parts of the Journey, so a Exeter-Edinburgh Day Return was the Total of Exeter-Birmingham, Birmingham- Edinburgh Day Returns.

I had a Leicester-London Day Return ticket once.

Yes you can get them today!

But this one was via Cambridge!!!

[Chris from Nailsea]

I agree with vacman: scrap it and start again - the present fare system is far too complicated!

It's also very silly - for example, it's cheaper for me to buy a return from Nailsea and Backwell to Bristol Temple Meads and a return from Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington (two transactions/tickets) than it is for me to buy a return from Nailsea and Backwell to London Paddington (one transaction/ticket)!

[Mookiemoo]

I agree with vacman: scrap it and start again - the present fare system is far too complicated!

It's also very silly - for example, it's cheaper for me to buy a return from Nailsea and Backwell to Bristol Temple Meads and a return from Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington (two transactions/tickets) than it is for me to buy a return from Nailsea and Backwell to London Paddington (one transaction/ticket)!

Same here - cheaper for me to do WOS^» (Worcester Shrub Hill - next trains)-OXF^» (Oxford - next trains) and OXF-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) than WOS-PAD

But only if you are first class - standard get charged more for the split than the through

[devon_metro]

Splitting tickets can often be very useful thought.

Trains before 0900 are more expensive and gettting a ticket after 0900 at another station is often a money saver.

[vacman]

Quite often it's only peak tickets that are cheaper to split, Penzance-Exeter before 0915 would be a business saver return at about ^36,
you can split that by buying a Penzance-Plymouth SDR and Plymouth-Exeter SDR, however, if your travelling after 0915 then the cheapest option is a CDR^▸ (Off Peak Day Return [ticket type] (formerly 'Cheap Day')) at ^15.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks for your comments!

Just to make my puzzlement over all this a bit clearer, let me put some figures on the particular journey involved.

Occasionally I travel from Nailsea and Backwell to London Paddington, at, say, two or three weeks' notice. I check the website and find that, for example, the cheapest ticket for the journey from Nailsea at 0646 and returning from Paddington at 1700 is ^118.

However, if I buy a ticket from the website for a journey from Bristol Temple Meads to Paddington and back, it's only ^106. On the day of travel, I then buy my usual standard day return from Nailsea to Temple Meads at ^3.80. Total cost, by splitting the tickets, ^109.80 - a saving of over ^8!

Now, the bizarre thing to me is that this is for exactly the same train - an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) that goes right through, leaving from Nailsea at 0646, and Temple Meads at 0700 - both well before 0900, when cheaper off-peak tickets could come into play.

While I'm obviously quite happy to save myself ^8 in this way, my only concern is whether I should hop off the train at Temple Meads and then straight back on again, just to 'split' my journey in the same way!  Vacman, any guidance on this point?   

[smokey]

Cornwall is recognised as one of the poorest areas in Europe. This is why it has been getting Objective One money.  This is now called the Convergence fund and I believe money from this fund will pay towards the proposed passing loop at Penryn on the Falmouth line.

I believe money from the Objective One helped with the restoring of double track between St.Austell and Truro recently.

When Cornwall was awarded Objective One Funding, it was the Poorest area in Britain and I'm almost certain only about 2 areas in the whole EU^» (European Union - about) were poorer.

[devon_metro]

Thanks for your comments!

Just to make my puzzlement over all this a bit clearer, let me put some figures on the particular journey involved.

Occasionally I travel from Nailsea and Backwell to London Paddington, at, say, two or three weeks' notice. I check the website and find that, for example, the cheapest ticket for the journey from Nailsea at 0646 and returning from Paddington at 1700 is ^118.

However, if I buy a ticket from the website for a journey from Bristol Temple Meads to Paddington and back, it's only ^106. On the day of travel, I then buy my usual standard day return from Nailsea to Temple Meads at ^3.80. Total cost, by splitting the tickets, ^109.80 - a saving of over ^8!

Now, the bizarre thing to me is that this is for exactly the same train - an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) that goes right through, leaving from Nailsea at 0646, and Temple Meads at 0700 - both well before 0900, when cheaper off-peak tickets could come into play.

While I'm obviously quite happy to save myself ^8 in this way, my only concern is whether I should hop off the train at Temple Meads and then straight back on again, just to 'split' my journey in the same way!  Vacman, any guidance on this point?   

As long as the train stops at the station you are fine. If for some reason it was cheaper to split at, Bristol TM^‡(resolve), Bath, Chippenham, etc then it would be fine. The guard may not be overly happy with it though

Also of note, you quoted a First Class fare.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks, but I hasten to point out I was NOT quoting First Class Fares!  I was quoting advance tickets, booked about two-three weeks ahead!