Rail Fares.............!

It seems to be quite a detour indeed:

You're looking at it wrong.

With the 6:22 you get three times the rail experience.

For 9 times the price!

I read a piece last week where someone was doing a journey  A - C was  £90 return via B. But  A-B rtn and B-C rtn was £45 or so. Weird ?

It's the Naim escalater at work

Pewsey to Bradford on Avon direct is the inexpensive, picturesque route.

The indirect, expensive, time-consuming route is via Reading (argh)..............and............Swindon (Arghhhhhhhh !)

Try..........a typical Wiltshire/London commute......

Westbury to Paddington Return £157.00

Depart Westbury 06:03 Arrive London 07:47

Depart London 18:05 Arrive Westbury 19:53

Same train, same times, but buy tickets at Westbury for

Westbury to Pewsey Return £8.70

Pewsey to London Return £106.00

Total £114.70

No need to get off/back-on at Pewsey but the saving is over £40

I think even Portillo would be hard pushed to glamourise that particular rail journey

So anyway Don, which of the two trains did you decide to take?

Ah! Mrs D decided the walk was a bit too far to do it in one go.

She dropped me off at Pewsey and drove on to Bath where she spent the day sightseeing and shopping.

I walked to Bradford then took a local train to Bath where we met up before driving back home.

Next time, we'll split the walk into two sections. We have friends who live in Honeystreet which is about half way, where we can spend the night, providing they're not on holiday again.

So, when we have to choose between the trains, £90 via Swindon, Mick's home town, or £10 via the short, pretty route.............hmmmm?

Last summer Worcester Stations to Cromer was £104 return, but split as Worcester to Birmingham, then Birmingham to Peterborough, and finally Peterborough to Cromer  [with change at Norwich],  return, was £78

That seems mad but it is always worth asking nicely at the ticket office. I find the people who man the ticket desks are usually extremely helpful, as are almost all the staff.

An internet order will not find you the least expensive deal as the computer will not think to split the journey. You do not have to get off the the train if its is going [as in my journey] from Birmingham to Norwich.

A word of advice to anyone taking a normal sized [non-folding] cycle. Be sure to book you cycle as well, or else you can end up with the rule being enforced and then being asked to leave the train. 

If you book your bike you get a ticket for the bike as well. 

Unfortunately I did get asked to leave a train though the cycle space was free, and no other cycle had apparently been booked for the train.

I asked the station staff, and they told me that the rule is there for all trains, but only certain and very few conductors apply it when there is space. Said with a raised eyebrow! You have been warned.

ATB from George

Thanks for the heads on splitting the cost into singles. Travelling from Hartford to Birmingham International was going to cost £120 for 2 adults next February. Splitting the tickets at New St has just saved me £52. The through ticket was so ridiculous I had even contemplated braving the M6 and M42 on a Monday morning.....which is not an enticing prospect.

MoneySavingExpert has a tool called ticketysplit:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.c...n=solus_TicketySplit

The hostility towards bikes on trains is indeed depressing. The UK is the worst I've seen with a complex and illogical set of arbitrary rules that vary by location, time and carrier.

As someone who lives in London, and uses trains regularly, I can tell you just how disruptive bikes can be, particularly at rush hour and other busy periods, when trains are rammed. Add in thoughtless or awareness-lacking bike owners, and the hostility is often very understandable.

I suspect that victim-card-carrying cycling fanatics will not like this, but cyclists can be as thoughtless as motorists, and as much of a pain in the arse too; generally, however, they are not as dangerous. And no, I don't drive and I don't cycle, and I have no particular axe to grind.

Back on topic, the farcical fare structure on our railways is one of the most egregious results of the botched privatisation of the network back in the 1990s.One never had these problems in the bad/good old days of British Rail.

Only last week the BBC ran a report on how your fare could vary depending on which ticket machine one uses - at the same station! [Kings Cross, in case anyone's interested].

If Ed Moribund is interested in getting a few more votes, he could do a lot worse than offering to re-nationalise the railways, which would be hugely popular; as would re-nationalising water, electricity and gas.