Scotrail

[GNU_Linux]

The line below had me stunned. Folk actually pay that?! And what chance does greener transport have when this is the cost?
The announcement means price of a season ticket between Glasgow and Edinburgh will go up by £162 to £4,430

It wouldn't surprise me if commuting from Glasgow to Edinburgh works out cheaper than living in Edinburgh due to the latter having higher housing costs for both buying & renting.

[DA Baracus]

36 minutes ago, GNU_Linux said:

1 hour ago, DA Baracus said:

The line below had me stunned. Folk actually pay that?! And what chance does greener transport have when this is the cost?
The announcement means price of a season ticket between Glasgow and Edinburgh will go up by £162 to £4,430

It wouldn't surprise me if commuting from Glasgow to Edinburgh works out cheaper than living in Edinburgh due to the latter having higher housing costs for both buying & renting.

Aye Edinburgh seems so expensive to live in. Absolutely crazy prices. Renting there is fucked beyond belief. As bad as the house prices are, renting is much more expensive. One of my pals now has a mortgage on a two bed house (semi detached, two floors) and his mortgage is almost half of the rent he and his partner paid for a two bed, single story flat. Their house isn't in the city centre but is less than 20 minutes away by bus.

Edited December 18, 2021 by DA Baracus

[UsedToGoToCentralPark]

It wouldn't surprise me if commuting from Glasgow to Edinburgh works out cheaper than living in Edinburgh due to the latter having higher housing costs for both buying & renting.

Probably one of the reasons Livingston is such a successful town due to locality with both Glasgow and Edinburgh and ease of getting to Edinburgh Airport.

[DA Baracus]

3 minutes ago, UsedToGoToCentralPark said:

39 minutes ago, GNU_Linux said:

It wouldn't surprise me if commuting from Glasgow to Edinburgh works out cheaper than living in Edinburgh due to the latter having higher housing costs for both buying & renting.

Probably one of the reasons Livingston is such a successful town due to locality with both Glasgow and Edinburgh and ease of getting to Edinburgh Airport.

Dunfermline for Edinburgh as well. The train through is still pricey as f**k but the bus is far cheaper and driving can be cheaper too.

[Hedgecutter]

My other half and I found that commuting from Moray to Aberdeen was notably cheaper than getting the train.  Monthly season ticket would have been £400pm each, in comparison to ~£250pm to fuel up the car for the same trip.  Car would have been cheaper for just one of us, never mind two.  Wouldn't even consider using the train now tbh (away days with a beer in hand aside), and the bus is an absolute no-go unless you want to add an extra two hours on to one's trip.

Public transport will never reach target levels as long as it's more expensive than private door-to-door means.

Eta:  FWIW, my aunt who lives Down South tells me that it's cheaper for her to drive into London and pay for both the congestion charge and parking than it is to get the train in from where she lives. 

Edited December 19, 2021 by Hedgecutter

[welshbairn]

1 hour ago, Hedgecutter said:

Monthly season ticket would have been £400pm each, in comparison to ~£250pm to fuel up the car for the same trip.  Car would have been cheaper for just one of us, never mind two. 

Not really arguing with this, but a fair comparison would include the initial cost, depreciation, parking and maintenance of the car. But the freedom and convenience of a car outweighs all that. Even worse is how much cheaper flying is than getting the train. 

[craigkillie]

Not really arguing with this, but a fair comparison would include the initial cost, depreciation, parking and maintenance of the car. But the freedom and convenience of a car outweighs all that. Even worse is how much cheaper flying is than getting the train. 

Most people would own the car regardless of whether they used it for commuting or not anyway, so those costs don't really come into play.

[101]

12 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

You know how train tickets are already massively overpriced? Well guess what is happening next year!

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-59703531

Terrifible for getting folk put of cars.

I saw some economist on twitter saying that since the Tories took office rail fares are up 46%, I'm waiting for wages to rise as significantly tbh.

[invergowrie arab]

2 hours ago, craigkillie said:

Most people would own the car regardless of whether they used it for commuting or not anyway, so those costs don't really come into play.

I'm not sure that's always true.

We have stopped using the car as a means of getting to work and have consequently been able to drop to one car. 

[Ekhibee88]

12 hours ago, Hedgecutter said:

My other half and I found that commuting from Moray to Aberdeen was notably cheaper than getting the train.  Monthly season ticket would have been £400pm each, in comparison to ~£250pm to fuel up the car for the same trip.  Car would have been cheaper for just one of us, never mind two.  Wouldn't even consider using the train now tbh (away days with a beer in hand aside), and the bus is an absolute no-go unless you want to add an extra two hours on to one's trip.

Public transport will never reach target levels as long as it's more expensive than private door-to-door means.

Eta:  FWIW, my aunt who lives Down South tells me that it's cheaper for her to drive into London and pay for both the congestion charge and parking than it is to get the train in from where she lives. 

Yeah I live 80 miles from London and its dear to go to London on a Whim. At least £40 return on train. Trains are every half hour. You can get advance tickets for £6 each way but you need to catch a specific service which is not ideal on a day trip. I dont think Glasgow to Dundee fares are much cheaper TBF, which is similar distance.

[DiegoDiego]

since the Tories took office rail fares are up 46%, I'm waiting for wages to rise as significantly tbh.

They've raised the minimum wage by 60% in that time.

[Billy Jean King]

They've raised the minimum wage by 60% in that time.

60% of f**k all is still f**k all though.

[Archie McSquackle]

Yeah I live 80 miles from London and its dear to go to London on a Whim. At least £40 return on train. Trains are every half hour. You can get advance tickets for £6 each way but you need to catch a specific service which is not ideal on a day trip. I dont think Glasgow to Dundee fares are much cheaper TBF, which is similar distance.

I was buying a ticket from the self-service machine for my local journey and my daughter commented on the price of a Glasgow to Dundee ticket on the home screen. It was something like £44 for a return ticket.

[Ekhibee88]

On 20/12/2021 at 23:28, Archie McSquackle said:

On 19/12/2021 at 12:21, Ekhibee88 said:

Yeah I live 80 miles from London and its dear to go to London on a Whim. At least £40 return on train. Trains are every half hour. You can get advance tickets for £6 each way but you need to catch a specific service which is not ideal on a day trip. I dont think Glasgow to Dundee fares are much cheaper TBF, which is similar distance.

I was buying a ticket from the self-service machine for my local journey and my daughter commented on the price of a Glasgow to Dundee ticket on the home screen. It was something like £44 for a return ticket.

Split a Perth makes it cheaper. A Scotrail ticket guy did that without asking !

[cdhafc1874]

Yep, it something like about £16 for GQS-PER for an off-peak return & about £9 for the same PER-DUN

Just a slight difference in price by splitting the ticket! [emoji23]

[Hillonearth]

9 minutes ago, cdhafc1874 said:

Yep, it something like about £16 for GQS-PER for an off-peak return & about £9 for the same PER-DUN

Just a slight difference in price by splitting the ticket!

Last time I did it you could get it for a good bit less than half the top line price if you triple-split it at Stirling AND Perth. Again, it was the guy at the local station that tipped me off

[cdhafc1874]

Last time I did it you could get it for a good bit less than half the top line price if you triple-split it at Stirling AND Perth. Again, it was the guy at the local station that tipped me off [emoji4]

Forgot about the split at Stirling option!

Just had a quick look for today & cheapest return fares for GQS-STIR, STIR-PER & PER-DUN clock in at a grand total of £21.40 so less than half price of direct GQS-DUN

[vikingTON]

The only reason why it's half the price is because no cheap day return operates between Glasgow and Dundee - partly because (other than for football fans) it's really not a common day trip either way. If you want to travel at peak times, then there wouldn't be much if any saving. 

The true scandal is Scotrail disappearing their Friends' Fare ticket between the Central Belt and teuchterdom because of the pandemic. 

[RiG]

For some reason Scotrail have closed their reservation service for all trains which appears to mean that the only tickets you can purchase are ones that you buy on the day. In the case of Edinburgh to Inverness services there are no advance singles and the cheapest single ticket is £50

Unless it is COVID related (and I can't think why it would be) this seems like a final chance for them to gouge the public before they give up the franchise.

Edited January 13, 2022 by RiG
Can't spell COVID or gouge.

[welshbairn]

1 hour ago, RiG said:

For some reason Scotrail have closed their reservation service for all trains which appears to mean that the only tickets you can purchase are ones that you buy on the day. In the case of Edinburgh to Inverness services there are no advance singles and the cheapest single ticket is £50

Unless it is CVODI related (and I can't think why it would be) this seems like a final chance for them to gauge the public before they give up the franchise.

What day you want to travel? I've found tickets as low as £5 in February.

P.S. Scrap that, tickets are advertised but they won't let you buy them. Could be a temporary glitch or something to do with the shortage of drivers due to Covid.

Edited December 30, 2021 by welshbairn