Avanti 
now have this thing where you can get much cheaper tickets to and from London if you’re willing to be allocated a random time within the categories of morning, afternoon or evening. Obviously a symptom of a broken company and a broken system but will probably come in handy for some
seems odd given it’s the exact opposite of the way every other train booking works, but hopefully will come in handy next time i need to go to London
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Interesting thread and report
If you were thinking of visiting the Epping to Ongar railway, there’s now something else worth seeing at Epping, too
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They seem good eggs there, my sister, dad, niece and nephew went there before Christmas
They missed the last bus back to the tube, went back to Ongar station to find a cab, or get a number for one, when the person who runs it/works there gave them a lift instead.
I’m planning on going myself in the summer when it warms up a bit.
I used to work around Ongar and met the people there a few times, they were a GBOL who really fucking love trains
not sure they’re knackered at all. the engines have almost all been refitted and the doors have been repalced extensively on the Mark 4 coaches. the ScotRail Inter7City ones are class, fucking gorgeous trains. so much nicer that the stupid DMUs that were used on the long disstance routes before.
that being said, if Scotrail are looking to replace them, the bimode Class 8xx models are really interesting.
Might have been refurbished but they’re still a bit outdated now surely. 40+ years old! Get em made into coke cans!
Someone mentioned the Purbeck line upthread. Took 51 years but we got there.
Booooo. Didn’t get a place on it.
7500 applications for 60 places.
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I bought NIMBY Rails, I think I may have sunk a little deeper into becoming a Train Person. FFS
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Just had to book a London - Newcastle ticket for next Wednesday evening to get home. Guess how much?
£166
Luckily work are paying but the whole network is absolutely out of control.
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Gonna go and see some mates in Newcastle in a month’s time and for 2 adults to go up for the weekend there’s just such a huge price difference between tank(s) of fuel and the train and little to no difference in time (in fact car is probably faster door provided the traffic is reasonable). Train is around £250 (which surprised me as I was expecting 300+) but still, completely out of reach.
Honestly who the fuck can afford the trains these days
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Genuinely hate paying these prices for work travel because it doesn’t actually impact me but I’m endorsing this bullshit. But what else can I do?
Nothing at all. Totally agree. My ticket to Gloucester last year was like £200+
I moved flats 3 months ago, the train into town takes 8-10 minutes and cost £3.50 or £1.80 for a single with the cheaper cost being quieter trains. They’ve gone up to £4.70 or £3.90.
The bus is £2 or £1.40 after 7pm but takes X2-X5 times longer. Consequently the train’s dead, really frustrating the greener, more efficient route has become unavailable for loads of people.
Find it almost impossible to know now when the cheapest advance tickets will go on sale. A few years ago it would always be roughly 6 weeks ahead. Now it can be anytime up to a week or days before. Have given up on it for London trips now- the coach is double the time but about 1/3rd of the price. The whole system is ridiculous, you shouldn’t have to be spending hours researching split tickets, various off peak rules that vary by route and what train company you are allowed to use it on.
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The shambles of rail fares is particularly annoying because some routes seem to be decent value. All just seems to depend on which operator sets the prices. Cross Country in particular absolutely take the piss.
If I wanted to go to Bristol for the day, there are two options, ‘not via Birmingham’ (ie via Worcester) or the any permitted route (effectively via Birmingham’).
Both take roughly the same amount of time give or take a few minutes.
‘Not via Birmingham’ is a GWR fare and is £4.
‘Any permitted’ is Cross Country and is £16.
4 times the price ffs!
No doubt if everything was standardised it would all be based on the most expensive option rather than the cheapest or even the middle ground.
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