Train costs

doublewhammiesallround

I am wondering if anyone can help me

I am travelling from Wigan North Western to Higham (this is the nearest railway station I can find nearest to Shorne in kent.

Travelling out on Monday 2nd June and returning day after cheapest train fare I can find £43.00 going out and. £16 coming back but the train coming back is 19.10pm which means I am waiting hours after my meeting has finished.

Can anyone help me find a way back earlier which is not over expensive

Thanks .

dzug1

The 1840 is a little cheaper than the 1910


Try travelling via Manchester on the way back


Or the £89 off peak return is flexible and gives a wider choice of trains

yorkie2

Thyere are some dirt cheap tickets to Higham, but you may need to use a combination of tickets (aka "splitting") to get the best possible fares.

You have a PM.

Dodgy-TYT

Is it me or our train journeys now hugely expensive compared to just a few years ago?

I guess it's the price of progress and reliability - to be fair, the services are now very efficient and clean.

dzug1

I wouldn't say hugely more expensive overall - a bit more expensive yes and a bigger difference between the lowest fare available and the highest. And (despite "simplification" ) more complex.


Does depend on the particular journey though

giraffe69

Our rail fares are expensive for those who simply turn up but if you are a reasonably regular traveller, have some sort of rail card and are prepared to take on the labyrinthine ticketing system they are not so bad. Any system where pays to make imaginary splits is more than a bit insane! The complexity of ticketing is one of the downsides of the operation being privately run.

wealdroam

sirine05 wrote: »

What about bus, which bus company will you suggest because the train is too expensive.

If you want to know about bus fares, then probably best to start a new thread.

Anyway, the answer to your question depends greatly on your proposed journey.

yorkie2

Did you get my PM?

I looked at splitting at a couple of places, one of them was Sheffield, and surprisingly splitting at Sheffield made it incredibly cheap, but I hoped you booked it, as I've looked again and the fare from Sheffield has since shot up in price!

yorkie2

Dodgy-TYT wrote: »

Is it me or our train journeys now hugely expensive compared to just a few years ago?.

In some cases, train travel is amazingly cheap.

Someone told me the other day they booked Worcester to London for £4.60 (I'm not officially - by MSE rules - meant to post links to BRfares, but here is a link to the ticket: http://www.brfares.com/#faredetail?orig=WOF&dest=EUS&grpo=0447&grpd=1072&rlc=YNG&rte=480&tkt=C7S) and I can use Reward points to get free first class travel on East Coast on occasions.

You can do any Southern trains in a day for £7.50 each (if there's a group of 4 of you, off peak) for any number of journeys in a day, even something like Southampton to Milton Keynes!

So there are some bargains. But most fares are a rip-off these days.

bap98189

Dodgy-TYT wrote: »

Is it me or our train journeys now hugely expensive compared to just a few years ago?

I guess it's the price of progress and reliability - to be fair, the services are now very efficient and clean.

It's also because the government is reducing the subsidy rail companies receive. 2 years ago every fare was effectively 50% subsidised as the train companies received roughly the same amount of money per year from the government as they did from fares. As the government is reducing the subsidy the fares are increasing.