Thread: Shocked at the cost of rail travel in the UK

My wife has managed to get an appointment with a specialist (for her medical condition) at London Bridge Hospital but we will be in Bristol the day before and the says after. We have only one opportunity to get to see this bloke as he only does a clinic one day a week.

So we plan to catch a train from Bristol to London and back. My goodness the train fares are exxy in the UK even for seniors. Prices vary by time of day. To go one way on the morning of the appointment will be the equivalent of $220 for both of us.

If we go the night before, leaving Bristol at about 15:30, the cost is $68 for the two.

We've already paid for the hotel in Bristol and it's not refundable so we might as well use it.

A couple of days later we return to London for the next leg of our trip to Paris.

Originally Posted by sheerluck

Just checked National Express, and it's 2.5 hours each way, and £10 each, each way.

I hadn't heard of National Express. The rail tickets for two of us, return, work out at $550.

You must have found a different timetable. The one I looked at shows 3-3.5 hours in the morning to Victoria St Coach Station or 4.5 hours to London Blackfriars.

We do have time constraints, my wife's appointment is for 11am. I just had a look at the time table and the trip is considerably longer than by train assuming no delays. But the price is right. We have emailed the hotel in Bristol to see if we can leave our car there. The Mercure hotel is 1 mile from the coach station.

We will have a car but I'm not driving to London. I had considered driving to Slough but am not keen to leave a hire car with our luggage in it at Slough - although Bristol doesn't look that good either - hence wanting to leave the car at the hotel. .

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Priced train travel in Oz at the full fares paid by us folk who don't get cheap travel virtue of service in the Railways? Air travel is cheaper.

I don't get any discounts as I only worked for the railways for 8 years. I pay the same as any other pensioner.