Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Rail fare madness

Just booked a same day return to Cardiff for Saturday. £22. 50 miles each way on the main line across S Wales. E-ticket booked on Transport for Wales site. Compared to using the car it compares roughly to fuel/parking cost.
I used to commute there by car and it was a no-brainer. Some car sharing reduced costs a lot. More pertinent though was train times plus getting to and from stations meant stupidly extended working day. Early start was easy but return journey hit traffic in Port Talbot with it’s M4 raised section speed limit, cameras and stupid access junctions ( short ramps and too many of them). Usually on stop there which was defeating the purpose on a motorway put in to take traffic away from the older through town roads. A colleague used to work in head office close to Cardiff station and he used the train until they closed the office and moved it to our factory location. His hours of work were easier to work trains round until the move.

This is why I (don't) love the trains.

Thursday - work to do in Canary Wharf.
Train up in the morning (WCH-WAT-Jubliee to CAN) no problem, quick and painless.

Home at 5.00 - I get the Basingrad train out of WAT and as we depart they tell us that there has been an outage on the line past Woking and we will all be chucked off there. There is a replacement bus service and everything is calm in the world. Only thing less likely in my experience is a politician saying that will improve.

Woking - nothing. No busses, no staff to be found >5000 people standing out in the rain in the station car park fighting over the taxi queue. Gannets have raided the adjacent M&S food store so catch of the day is carrot stick.....nah.

Walked to the end of the shopping centre and used Uber - 15 min delay but way shorter than the queue, got the Uber to Basingrad and picked up there. £112 on top of the useless ticket.

This morning going up to Canary Wharf at 7.14 to do the cut over onto the new toys. 20 min walk to station to find a message on the electronic sign. 7.14 & 8.14 cancelled as more trains are broken than normal. Seriously? You have more than a normal amount of trains broken? I would love to know if that is actually an honest answer. Got in the Mog and just drove there, given it is early Saturday morning it was also faster and a lot more fun.


Is it just SWT? I mean they have had time to repaint all the trains so they look shiny and new. Are they just worried about getting pesky flies all over them?

Of course it costs more. There is the cost of running the train and the bus and the cost of drivers. If you add in a notional wage for the driver of your car plus servicing depreciation etc you will find that your car is more expensive.

Thanks for that. I assumed they ran on pixie dust and jaffa cakes.

Surely there should be economies of scale? There's only one of me in the car, and potentially a whole bunch more on the buses, and a considerable number on the train, which should reduce the overall cost..

With regard to my car, over the last 4.5 years she's depreciated about £200, tax and insurance is £350 a year, and since I've had her, I've spent about £800 on parts and consumable (tyres, exhaust, CV Joint, fan belt, steering rack, oils and filters etc). Works out at about £570 a year. My driver and mechanic don't charge, as they carry out all the work and driving in their spare time. Without this, they'd be sitting around on their backsides doing nothing, lazy buggers. Based on me using the car about 300 days a year, it works out an extra £1.90 a day - so call it £9 with petrol.

Are you suggesting Howard that public transport is costed up to run with a single passenger taking each service?

I think Howard was doing his usual. A bit bored so trying to antagonise. 😁😁

Are you factoring in the subsidies?