Rip off rail fares

[Intermodal]

It has occured to me that James St - Liverpool Central is an absolute rip off at £1.50 single considered it can be walked in less time than it'd take to get the train.

Any other examples?

 

[Dewedin]

Marsden to Greenfield

 

[Clip]

It has occured to me that James St - Liverpool Central is an absolute rip off at £1.50 single considered it can be walked in less time than it'd take to get the train.

Any other examples?

They have to set a fare though. And who would do it anyway if it was quicker to walk? May aswell set it at a sill rate so no one ever buys one.

 

[Matt Taylor]

Twickenham to St Margarets, £2.30 for 36 chains (around 1 minute 20 seconds by train).

 

[Bedpan]

Leicester Square - Covent Garden, about 10 chains and £4.00 without a travelcard.

 

[Sapphire Blue]

Marsden to Greenfield

I assume you didn't mean to compare everything about the two journeys, but you must be one hell of an athlete to be able walk from Marsden to Greenfield as fast as the train!

 

[atillathehunn]

Hartford and Greenbank are about a mile apart, but in order to get the train between the two would cost about £17.40 and take you 2 hours 22 minutes.

 

[bAzTNM]

In Glasgow, Bridgeton to Dalmarnock costing £1 is a bit of a rip-off for a couple of minutes walk.

 

[dk1]

Leicester Square - Covent Garden, about 10 chains and £4.00 without a travelcard.

Much of the one/two stop travel in London is due to daft people who cannot think outside the tube map :roll:

 

[Bristol Rover]

This thread got me thinking about my local services, and I can't really think of any rip offs in the area.

Bristol Temple Meads - Clifton Down is £1.50 anytime single, which is actually excellent value considering the bus is over £2 and it'd take at least 40 minutes to walk. The railway journey is much more scenic than the bus. And it's actually only 75p for a single with a railcard. Anyone know why you get it half price instead of a third off?

 

[northwichcat]

It has occured to me that James St - Liverpool Central is an absolute rip off at £1.50 single considered it can be walked in less time than it'd take to get the train.

Liverpool should really have two main destination codes:
* One for Liverpool STNS
* One for Liverpool CTLZ - like Manchester CTLZ and allows all day travel between the 4 city centre stations on Merseyrail.

For day Returns to Liverpool Liverpool STNS and Liverpool CTLZ should be the same price. For period returns there should be a £1 additional charge for Liverpool CTLZ.

 

[tbtc]

It has occured to me that James St - Liverpool Central is an absolute rip off at £1.50 single considered it can be walked in less time than it'd take to get the train

So what should the fare be?

Even if it were six-pence, it'd be faster to walk (as you say).

Do you want long distance passengers being cluttered up by people only going a couple of hundred yards?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Marsden to Greenfield

Rail : £5.10 Anytime Single

Bus : £2.60 single (Service 184 ...First Manchester)


Both WY Metro and TfGM areas are not conjoined in this region and this is given as the reason by Northern Rail.

 

[Statto]

So what should the fare be?

Even if it were six-pence, it'd be faster to walk (as you say).

Do you want long distance passengers being cluttered up by people only going a couple of hundred yards?

Good point, & the same could be said for going between any two stations in Liverpool City Centre, the only problem is it's an uphill walk from James Street[all be it for a short distance]. Also you have a similar situation with the Birkenhead stations[Hamilton Square, Conway Park & Central]although there a bit further spread out in terms of distance, i'd still rather about walking it than catch the train, unless the Weather was really bad.

 

[Wolfie]

Leicester Square - Covent Garden, about 10 chains and £4.00 without a travelcard.

This thread has sort of been done before (at least the distance aspect...)

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?p=568715

That thread has the following from 12CSVT:

The answers to the above posts can be found in 'Rapid Transit Miles & Chains' by S.Clarke

On the Docklands Light Railway, West India Quay to Canary Wharf is 10 chains, then another 10 chains to Heron Quays. These are the shortest distances between stations on the DLR.
London Underground Embankment to Charing Cross is 14 chains on the Northern Line and 18 chains on the Bakerloo Line. However the shortest distance between stops on the underground is Leicester Square to Covent Garden (13 chains) on the Piccadilly Line.
As mentioned in previous posts on this thread there are even shorter distances on the Sheffield Supertram (5 chains between Fitzalan Square and Castle Square).


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Incidentally, Leicester Square to Covent Garden is £1.90 with an Oyster and free with a Travelcard.

 

[tbtc]

Good point, & the same could be said for going between any two stations in Liverpool City Centre, the only problem is it's an uphill walk from James Street[all be it for a short distance]. Also you have a similar situation with the Birkenhead stations[Hamilton Square, Conway Park & Central]although there a bit further spread out in terms of distance, i'd still rather about walking it than catch the train, unless the Weather was really bad.

I think the problem here is that there has to be a fare for any possible journey combination, even if nobody is going to wait for a train on such a short journey...

...just like there has to be a notional fare for someone travelling First Class from Falmouth to Kyle of Lochalsh (I think that this was the "thousand pound" ticket story - correct me if I am wrong).

Any *short* journey is going to be disproportionately expensive (I'm guessing that Manchester Oxford Road - Manchester Deansgate/ Manchester Piccadilly would be equally costly), but then the railway doesn't have such spare capacity that it can deal with people travelling such a short way.

There's also the point that a "high" minimum ticket price might be more useful for fare dodgers?
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As mentioned in previous posts on this thread there are even shorter distances on the Sheffield Supertram (5 chains between Fitzalan Square and Castle Square)

True - and the fare for that won't be just a few pence.

Similarly, the minimum fares on many buses (for full paying adults) won't be much under a quid in some places.