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

Originally Posted by AnD3rew

It's usually cheaper to fly to Nice from London than to catch the train to Bristol.

When my wife want to go from Bristol to Vienna on her last trip, the airfare was 500 pounds. The fare from London was 55 quid. So she went to York instead of Bristol (and Bath) for her tour.

Hi Ron, also bear in mind the time it takes to cross London, if your training it you'll arrive at Paddington station, and then have to either tube or taxi to London Bridge, across the heart one of the busiest cities in the world, not an easy or quick trip, Victoria Bus Station isn't much better, its just slightly south of Paddington.


I'd forgo the hotel in Bristol and travel to London cheaper in the afternoon, get yourself a "cheap" hotel on wotif .com.co around London Bridge, and be less stressed about the making the appointment on time.


Hope that helps, I grew up in London, I miss her sometimes, but not the cost of travel

Originally Posted by p38arover

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. .

National Express is pretty cheap! They do quote different travel times for differing times of the day. The best time, and price for leaving early morning, was leaving Bristol at 5.45 and arriving Victoria Coach Station at 8.35. Still for a tenner each.

And the shortest time they quote is 2hr 20mins......

If you choose to drive, don't park in Slough! I used to park at Hillingdon tube station and catch the tube. Much better.

Originally Posted by Mr.Bear

Hi Ron, also bear in mind the time it takes to cross London, if your training it you'll arrive at Paddington station, and then have to either tube or taxi to London Bridge, across the heart one of the busiest cities in the world, not an easy or quick trip, Victoria Bus Station isn't much better, its just slightly south of Paddington.


I'd forgo the hotel in Bristol and travel to London cheaper in the afternoon, get yourself a "cheap" hotel on wotif .com.co around London Bridge, and be less stressed about the making the appointment on time.


Hope that helps, I grew up in London, I miss her sometimes, but not the cost of travel

Its not a bad walk, when i was doing temp work i would generally walk as much as possible between jobs.

Have you looked into a Seniors railcard for the UK. Of course only useful if you have racked up enough years to qualify.

Can visitors to Britain buy a Railcard online? - Senior Railcard

Can visitors to Britain buy a Railcard online?
You can only buy online is you are able to give a UK-delivery address. We cannot send Railcards to non-UK addresses. Alternatively, you can buy a Railcard at a staffed rail station ticket office in England, Scotland, or Wales or a National Rail-licensed Travel Agent on arrival. You can also buy a Railcard at Gatwick Airport, Stansted Airport rail stations, Luton Airport Parkway and Manchester Airport – but NOT at London Heathrow Airport.

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You can use your Senior Railcard for long and short trips at almost any time during the week and at weekends. The only restriction is for travel during the morning peak period, Monday to Friday (not including Public Holidays) when journeys are made wholly within the London and South East Network Railcard area.

The times of morning off-peak services do vary by route, so it’s best to check with ticket office staff before buying your tickets. For more details see time restrictions.

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Train fairs on the day, or even a week before can be very expensive, booking weeks or months in advance is very cheap, not helpful to your situation, but if it was me I would drive into say reading, or woking and just get the commuter train in from there.

We've booked on National Express (thanks Dave/aka sheerluck ) - 38 quid return for both of us. We might go by train (for different scenery) when we return to London to catch the EuroStar train to Paris.