JohnB wrote:
JNugent wrote:

JohnB ) wrote:

PeterE wrote:

A standard class return from Manchester to London is £175 now, you
know.

So what.

Exactly.

Soince no-one sensible would even think of paying that much - per
person - for such a journey, so what?

I fully agree.
It was a stupid example to quote, but not unexpected given the source.

Why is it a stupid example? If I need to travel to London on business by
train, and am not in a position to book in advance, that is the price I have
to pay. And plenty of businesses (although relatively few private
individuals) *do* pay that fare.

Similarly ludicrous fares apply from many other cities.

--
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"If laws are to be respected, they must be worthy of respect."

Conor Turton wrote:

In article , says...

Can you get from Manchester to London return same day in a hire car for less
than £20?

You can't get from Manchester to London return same day on the train
for under £20 either.

You can - at least you could a couple of days ago when I checked.

John B

Conor Turton wrote:

In article , says...

That's not bad.
Unfortunately it would cost me and the family £80 return for the fare to
Stansted (4 hour-ish journey) plus the trouble of crossing London.

Should've used a car...

Wrong answer.

John B

On Sun, 12 Oct 2003 16:52:15 +0100, Pete Smith
wrote:

No option? I don't know which inter city trains run from Chester, but the
last time I tried via train to London, the only option appeared to be
Virgin (who as usual, swore blind there were no Advance tickets
available). In the end, we used local trains all the way down for about 50
quid per person, but it was deeply unpleasant.

Sounds like the Saver fare, which would have been valid on VT as well
(off-peak, though) - or did you split tickets?

Which way did you go, OOI? Best way may have been fNW (now W&B) to
Birmingham[1], then walk across to Moor St and Chiltern to London.

[1] Not running through at the moment, I understand, but normally they
would be - and there's always Chester-Brum via Wrexham.

Neil

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is a valid email address, but is sent to /dev/null.
Try my first name at the above domain instead if you want to e-mail me.

JohnB wrote:
Conor Turton wrote:

In article , says...

Can you get from Manchester to London return same day in a hire car
for less than £20?

You can't get from Manchester to London return same day on the train
for under £20 either.

You can - at least you could a couple of days ago when I checked.


Wrong - it's £175 per person, standard class.

Try the National Rail Enquiries website:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/planmyjourney/

--
http://www.speedlimit.org.uk
"If laws are to be respected, they must be worthy of respect."

On Sun, 12 Oct 2003 18:57:25 +0100, "PeterE"
wrote:

Wrong - it's £175 per person, standard class.

Try the National Rail Enquiries website:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/planmyjourney/

Only if...
1) You don't book in advance;
2) You travel in both directions in the peak (if either way is
off-peak, an open single one way and Saver single the other will be
cheaper).

You can do it for a *lot* less if you book in advance or travel in at
least one direction off-peak.

Neil

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Paul Weaver wrote:

No, but say you had an annual travelcard, and then on a whim decided to go
into central london for a weekend. Traveling on your travelcard would be
free.

No, the trip would still not be free. It would just reduce the cost per
journey of all trips. There would still have been a cost related to the
journey.

In the same way, when considering the cost of travelling by car you need to
include all related costs, even if the money was actually spent in the
past.


--
Chris Lambert (http://web.trout-fish.org.uk/)
If oranges smell like chicken, why are tomatoes blue? Think about it!

Chris Lambert wrote:

Paul Weaver wrote:

No, but say you had an annual travelcard, and then on a whim decided to go
into central london for a weekend. Traveling on your travelcard would be
free.

No, the trip would still not be free. It would just reduce the cost per
journey of all trips. There would still have been a cost related to the
journey.

Literally true, but not responsive.

I have a montly Travelcard because I need it to commute to work, and I
save money merely on the 20 to 23 return journeys in a month.
Consequently, any extra trips I happen to take are effectively free.

--
James Farrar |
London, SE13 |

In article ,
says...
On Sun, 12 Oct 2003 16:52:15 +0100, Pete Smith
wrote:

No option? I don't know which inter city trains run from Chester, but the
last time I tried via train to London, the only option appeared to be
Virgin (who as usual, swore blind there were no Advance tickets
available). In the end, we used local trains all the way down for about 50
quid per person, but it was deeply unpleasant.

Sounds like the Saver fare, which would have been valid on VT as well
(off-peak, though) - or did you split tickets?


_All_ local trains. Local from Chester to Birmingham, and then another
local from Birmingham to London.

When I say local, I'm talking Royston Vasey local here! It's not a "big"
train, but one of the smaller ones that does "local" runs.

The tickets were totally separate.

As I keep on saying, we would have _loved_ to get the much trumpeted
Advance tickets, but everyone said they were sold out weeks & weeks in
advance, and _all_ Advance tickets for the next 6 months were showing as
sold/unavailable (I've since found out they don't release the tickets
until 4-6 weeks before the journey, but I still can't find any).

Which way did you go, OOI? Best way may have been fNW (now W&B) to
Birmingham[1], then walk across to Moor St and Chiltern to London.

[1] Not running through at the moment, I understand, but normally they
would be - and there's always Chester-Brum via Wrexham.

IIRC it was Chester to Crewe (change) to somewhere else (ironically enough
on the Virgin train, who wouldn't take our split tickets - not blaming
them!) change there, to Birmingham (New Street IIRC), then a change there
and onto London.

It was crowded, dirty and smelly, and the seats were nowhere near big
enough. I had to do my normal "sidesaddle" pose, and sit with my back to
the wall so that I could occupy only one seat (I'm very wide shouldered!)

Pete.

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In article ,
says...

Only if you're an idiot. My last two cars have cost me £300 each and
lasted me over 18 months a piece.

My brother does that. Buys ****e old cars and when people say "What
about the reliability" he replies if it breaks, I'll buy another one.

And strangely, most of them last a good few years before succumbing.

Very high mileage for age seems to be the answer.

Certainly does. When you can buy a Mondeo Ghia with Aircon, service
History and nearly a full MOT for £600 is there any point spending
£3000 on a 1.1 Fiat Punto?


--
Conor

Hi. This is my friend, Jack ****, and you don't know him.