Javalin services start - a journey comparison the the FGW main line

[whole diary]

[grahame]

"Britains's fastest commuter train" ... first runs today:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23713092-details/article.do

... and the price to use it is substantially above what Ashford commuterd had previously paid.  How does that compare?

Ashford to London - 55 miles, 36 minutes, 26.60 single.
Bath to London - 116 miles, 91 minutes, 74.00 single.

If the people from Ashford had to pay the same rate per mile (63.79p) as the Bath crew and travelled at the same average speed as Bath to London (76.48 m.p.h) they would be being asked to pay 35.08 single, and would have a journey time of 42 minutes.

Put that another way ... when First Great Western upgrade to Javalin services, to provide a uniform product they should reduce the Bath to London fare from 74.00 to 56.10 (48.36p per mile) and the journey time from 91 minutes down to 76 minutes (91.66 m.p.h. average)

And put it another way - from Ashford you get 1.35 minutes of travel per pound, but from Bath FGW^▸ (First Great Western) give you 1.23 minutes

[grahame]

And a comparison to the Cotswold line.

The 07:35 from Worcester takes 132 minutes, any time single fare is 31.00 and the AA tells me that the journey is 137 miles.

That's an average speed of 62.27 m.p.h, a less-than-half-the-price bargain fare of 22.6 pence per mile, and a bargain 4.26 minutes per pound from leaving Shrub Hill to arriving in Paddington.

[Electric train]

But the scenery along the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) is much nicer than that of HS1^▸ (High Speed line 1 - St Pancras to Channel Tunnel)  

[devon_metro]

WOS^» (Worcester Shrub Hill - next trains) to PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) is 122 miles.

[grahame]

WOS^» (Worcester Shrub Hill - next trains) to PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) is 122 miles.

The train is more direct than the recommended road route ... I took road distances to London ...

so
Speed, 55.2 m.p.h.
Cost per mile - 25.41p

[FarWestJohn]

Par to Newquay @ ^3.70 for over an hour is about 16.2 minutes/ ^ -- an absolute bargain at nearly 18 MPH.

[Not from Brighton]

Paris to Lyon is 27 pence per mile at an average speed of 136mph.

I wonder is there an actual operational reason for faster trains being cheaper per mile?  I mean the same rolling stock and crew can shift more fare-paying passengers more miles in a day.  How does this compare to all the extra costs of high-speed rail?

[Btline]

How about Advance fares? Kidderminster to London Euston via Birmingham starts from ^5.50 or ^3.70 with a railcard.