Hi,
I’m sorry to bother you with my tourist question…but how can a one way ticket to Cambridge be 80 bucks (Canadian dollar) but a one way ticker to Bristol…400$ ?
If you don’t believe me : https://imgur.com/a/f4GyerU
Both ride are about the same time…planned two days appart. I tried Google to see if there is an event in Bristol making the train ticket really expensive, but found nothing.
Is this a glitch or Bristol is some upper-class utopia you have to sell a kidney to travel to ?
On a more serious note, is there an event in Bristol/Bath that makes fare particularly expensive at the end of june ?
Edit: thanks for all the tips and info. Also, I’m really sorry for your train system.
20 comments
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We don’t use Canadian dollars in the UK.
Doesn’t the $ sign cone before the amount in Canada?
Anyway, yes train prices are fucked up in the UK.
An Anytime Return (allowing peak trains) is £238 return.
That’s the correct price for standard class.
UK trains are incredibly expensive.
2 main reasons:
– The government doesn’t subsidise rail travel like in other countries so it’s based on a profitable business
– You’re travelling in a peak period (between 6am and 10am). If you changed it to 11am, prices would be a bit cheaper.
You can get it cheaper by using split ticketing (buying smaller journeys e.g. London to Reading and then Reading to Bristol. Something like [this](https://www.splitticketing.com/) or Google “split ticket”. You can also buy reduced ticket passes like under 21 cards which can save upto 33%.
Trains are shite here if its not a short trip, I flew to Heathrow from Manchester cos it was cheaper.
Once ya in the centres it’s easier but city to city is horrible. I’d love to know how much money a tourist waste’s just from travel mistakes.
Welcome to the UK, my friend. A place where its cheaper to fly London – Milan – Manchester than it is to get a train from London to Manchester
Haven’t had to get a train anywhere in a few years, are they really that expensive now? What the actual fuck? May as well get a bloody plane.
Also, the only tickets available for the 29th of June are the standard priced tickets.
Network Rail releases their planned maintenance schedule 12 weeks in advance, and train operating companies plan their schedule alterations around that. 29/6 is just outside of that window. Train operators are only permitted to sell tickets up to 90 days in advance – a window that 29/6 is _just_ outside of – as that’s when they know which trains should be running.
Some scummy websites bank on there being no alterations and sell tickets anyway, but they can only sell full price ones as train companies haven’t (_can’t_) yet released the cheaper advanced tickets, which are tied to a specific route and departure time.
Welcome to the UK train service(s)
I went to Bristol (from London) by bus, it takes like 2 hours and 45 mins (which is nothing to be honest, never understood why people think that is some sort of insane idea) and cost like £16 round trip.
Fuck train fares, it’s absolute insanity.
There are a miriad of historical reasons for our ticket pricing structure, some of which can be quite easily traced back to decisions made in 1923 (and probably before), it needs rationalising but at present there are capacity constrictions on key parts of the network (Birmingham being a massive one) which result in prices on some routes being artificially raised to dissuade use.
You’ll be able to get advanced tickets for that date in a few days (they’re released 90 days beforehand) and if you book trains outside the peak (which naturally varies based on where you are travelling) you’ll also get a cheaper deal. Given that you’re foreign, you should probably look at the BritRail pass which allows unlimited travel for either a number of continuous days, or a discontinuous number of days within a fixed period – if you’re also travelling round Europe you may wish to consider an EuRail / Interrail pass which would cover your train travel in the UK and the mainland, plus give you €30 tickets on the Eurostar to get between the two.
If you’re doing multi-day travel, you can also look up various Ranger tickets, valid across multiple operators on multiple day combinations…
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/rangers_and_rovers.aspx
It’s fucked. It’s cheaper to go up the night before and get a hotel… welcome to the UK
On the Trainline website, if you select those two trains and then scroll down or click brought to the ticket selection, you can get a Split Save Return for £113.40. Which is about $186 Canadian.
As previous posters have stated, your morning train is at absolutely the wrong tim. Go an hour later if you can (or go late the night before and get a £29 Travelodge or Premier Inn).
If you depart London on the 9.32am, the total price almost halves to £61.20.
It’s partly because its peak morning time compared to evening. Most people on that expensive train will be going to work and need to go on that train.
DONT BUY IT! If you buy two separate trains from London to reading or somewhere just outside London **THEN** buy a train to Bristol it’s way cheaper.
Also straight up buy a railcard they give you 30% off and only cost £30 for a year so if the train is STILL over £100 you’re making profit immediately from the railcard and you get 30% off all trains for a year. Download the app on iPhone or Android and make an account it’s easy.
Don’t know why no one in the comments is capable of giving actual advice.
The best you can do is rent a car if you plan to travel a few places in the UK. Is cheaper, quicker and more reliable.
Interestingly, this is the country where steam engine was invented and train transportation first developed.
Something somehow screwed it all up.
The trick is to wait about 6 weeks before travelling and they release advance tickets. These are a lot cheaper but you are tied to that train. Email alerts are available for this too
Take a megabus, the coaches are far cheaper even if they take a bit longer