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0 pointsSymbiote5y ago0 comments

The system is unreasonable, but your figures are exaggerations.

You are comparing the price of a budget airline flight, booked at least several days, if not weeks, in advance, with a first class train ticket bought on the day of departure.

Departing tomorrow afternoon, an EasyJet flight is £115. I don't know if the morning flights are sold out, or are currently not running, but they presumably exist. The train is £77 off peak (which matches the flight arrival time), or £166 peak (assuming there are sold-out morning flights). Even this late the day before, it's still possible to book onto a particular train, which is about £60-70.

Train times and ticket costs for tomorrow: https://traintimes.org.uk/edinburgh/london/06:30/tomorrow

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maccard5y ago

The figures can be skewed both ways in fairness. I had a look for travelling for the weekend of Nov 20th (it's a month from this weekend) on Friday and back Monday, leaving after 8:30am both days. Trainline is quoting me £190 return. Easyjet is £60.

As an aside, the train schedule and prices seem substantially cheaper than this time last year. I don't ever recall there being availability on the super off peak trains if travelling within a week or so.

martinald5y ago

A super off peak single is £78 each way on Edinburgh-London, Anytime £166. This puts a cap on the cost which air travel doesn't have. Often will be significantly cheaper if you

There's no such thing as 'availability' on trains, you can buy a ticket from the ticket machine without booking in advance. You may not get a seat for the whole journey, but it's better IMO than not being able to board at all (like when flights sell out).

The problem with flying is if you want to do it very last minute it can cost an absolute fortune, whereas the train is capped by the walk on ticket prices. Plus with the train you don't need to book it if you don't want, and can literally buy a ticket minutes from departure with a known maximum price, so you don't need to worry about getting a refund or changing the booking if your plans change.

SymbioteOP5y ago

In some countries, high speed trains don't allow standing passengers.

I was caught out with this when I visited Toledo from Madrid. I bought a ticket for the next train to Toledo from a machine, which was fine. When I tried to return, there were no available tickets for several hours. I took a bus instead.

A seat reservation is also compulsory on the TGV in France, but not the ICE in Germany.

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