alexist

We may be going to Reading for the evening in a couple of weeks. So I head over to thetrainline to see how long it will take. Great, fast service during peak hours, only 25mins from Paddington. Out of curiosity, I click on the fares. First, there are 5 or 6 types of return fares. Second, the cheap ones can't be used on the fast service; instead, I have to fork out £22 for a "standard day return". A single for the outbound service, btw, will cost £19. FFS, 22 quid to go to fucking READING! The Long Island Rail Road was slow and shitty but at least its fare structures were simple and transparent (it used a zone system with specified peak hours, one ticket price only for each time period, so a return was the same as 2 singles and you could buy a peak ticket in and an offpeak out if necessary.)

FWIW, I was also just checking the price of tickets to Devon for next week. if we'd booked 3 weeks ahead we could've had an APEX ticket for £28 each. It's pathetic when it costs the same to go 220 miles as 25. (Of course, now they want £60 each so Neil will probably drive... and the government wonders why rail traffic hasn't risen as quickly as they expected!)