WTF? British Rail.

So, I've got to make a trip to a meeting in Central London next week,
and it's much more practical to take the train, so, I went onto our
corporate trainline webpage. How much do you think a Standard Return
Fare including parking might cost, given the journey is 130 miles.

£50... No.

£100... No.

£150. Well, I'll be!

Yes, that's right, One hundred and fifty fecking quid, for a journey
that can easily be done on about 1/2 a tank of diesel in my car. This
public transport stuff is supposed to be the way forward, yes? hahaha

 

You think that fuel is the only incremental cost of using the car?

 

If you're going to go by train, you must know about your meeting at
least three months in advance.

 

No, but considering the journey would cost me under £30 in fuel, and
less than £20 in parking, vehicle wear and tear and any miscelaneous
costs, should it really be three times more expensive on public
transport?

 

I didn't even know I'd be doing this job 3 months ago.

 

How ever do you achieve corporate objectives with bad planning like
that?

 

I'm not remotely surprised. Last time I used the train to London from
Swindon it was £96, & that's only 80 miles by road (1 hour on the
train). That was at least a couple of years ago too so I expect it's
over the ton now.

Quite.

 

I had to go to York a few times last year. One trip was planned a bit
late and when i looked up the cost of a return ticket it was 175 quid.
In standard class!

So I drove, obviously. Creamed the profit from the mileage expense claim
and my employer broke even on the deal.

 

Or maybe you're not thinking outside the box:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/oct/02/computer-expert-forged-rail-tickets

 

There is London tax on all train fares to the capital. If you take a
similar distance journey to anywhere else the cost per mile is
significantly lower.

Even so, train fares are ridiculously expensive. It's pretty much
always cheaper to drive. The last time I visited my parents, which is
£50 return on the train, it cost the same to hire and fuel a car for
the trip. The round trip took at least three hours less, I used the
car for short local trips around their town, I had a door-to-door
service and didn't have to share space or air with smelly fat
strangers. The only disadvantage was that I couldn't read my book
during the journey, but if I had an audio book that would not have
been a problem.

When I last caught the train to my parents and took my bicycle, the
train left Peterborough station with my bike still locked in the
guard's van as nobody came to unlock it for me. I was not happy about
that. I did get it back within a couple of hours though. And I got
refunded £100 by the train company. In rail vouchers

 

By not taking 3 months to do things, obviously.

 

Don't forget the fine for forgetting the congestion charge.

 

120 quid return from New Street on Virgin when I was regularly
travelling to London earlier in the year, 131 from Nottingham (on a much
slower train with no wifi - boo). I'm not surprised it's more from Derby
and I bet if I went to the ECML at Newark or Grantham it would be more.

If you're doing it regularly the 7 day season tickets are much cheaper
(pegged to inflation I think), it allowed me to buy a 1st class 7 day
ticket from Birmingham International for the cost of 2 and a bit
standard open returns.

The only decent deal I ever got was when I travelled off peak from
Solihull on Chiltern and it was 26 quid return to Marylebone (80 at peak
now I think).

I expect somebody might take exception to you calling it BR

 

I'd have expected it to be the same to be fair. It's a quick
mainline service, with no changes.

 

Well, lets think - the revenue allows something like 40p a mile, no?
So for a 200 mile trip, that's 80 quid. Then maybe 20 quid parking
for the day, plus £8 congestion charge. So now it doesn't look like
it's quite such a different ballpark.

Frankly, when work is asking me to go somewhere, I'll always take the
route that is most convenient to me, and **** how much it costs the
company. I wouldn't dream of taking a car to London during the week;
the train is much, *much* more comfortable.

 

For a private car, for a company car it's 11p/mile or thereabouts.

You'll note I didn't say I wasn't booking it. But I did find the
numbers more that I'd expected, and more than a lot of people would
want to pay for private travel.

Were I going in the car I'd probably blast down most of the the M1, to
somewhere on the outskirts like Enfield, park the car all day for £10
same as locally, and take the train in for maybe another £10. So
essentially the cost to go 120 miles is the other £130.

 

This is, of course, assuming there's only you travelling. If there was,
say, three of you going to a meeting, a pink stretch Hummer would be in
budget.

 

FFS, I'm not going there in darsy's jeep.

 

Troo. For commuting, though, it can be horrendous. As our firm is moving
from Tunbridge Wells to London, as you know, they've been publicising
the season ticket costs.

Three grand a year. Add something like £600 if you want tube travel. Out
of taxed income.

I wouldn't dream of doing that commute in a car either: and with the CC
it's not really a option. I wouldn't do it from my gaff, let alone TW.

Hence the XS250. 60mpg, and a 30-mile round trip, equals (neatly) a
gallon of fuel, or a fiver, a day. £25 a week, as near as. OK, plus
cheap tyres, chains etc.

My current commute to TW is 40 miles each way: roughly a gallon of fuel
each way. Call it £9 a day, so £45 a week. Plus the additional costs of
running decent-sized bikes, because you really can't use a tiddler on my
commute (I've tried).

 

It gave me a perfect excuse to just move back into London.

When I was in Maidenhead it was 280 quid a month for a travelcard which
is, what, 3360 quid a year. A zone 1-3 travelcard is about 90 quid a
month. Rent went up, council tax went down, all in all it ended up
pretty much cost neutral

Pay-as-you-go for a simple round trip commute works out about the same
as a travelcard. It works out about the same cost (if I ignore
depreciation) to ride the bike or take the tube, but the bike does the
journey in half the time, does it door-to-door and is a fuckload more
fun than sitting on the District line.

Wouldn't want to do it on overground trains though.