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Scooby Blue

Scooby Blue

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I'm going to start with a bit of a rant - Living in deepest darkest Worcestershire, I've always found travelling to the Bridge pretty pricey. Over the years I have seen the price of train travel gradually rise that accompanied with match ticket prices has made the price of a day out reach a cost that I find hard to justify. I have found like many others that the best way round the match ticket price is to settle for Cup games or restricted view seats.

The train situation though is a little different, 18 months ago I found myself paying £36 for a return ticket, that rose to £40 during last season. Well now having decided that my first game this season would be Norwich on the 27th I was shocked to find that whilst checking the train times the fare has risen to £48. A 25% rise compared to 18 months ago. How they can possibly justify this is beyond me.

My next option was to look at railcards that could reduce the fare. I remember enquiring at the back end of last season about a railcard called 'Friends and Family'. In short it allows yourself and up to 3 others to travel with a 1/3 off of the price of the fare. With the card priced at £28 per year that money could be recovered within two trips. I'll get one of those I thought. Oh hang on, the terms and conditions have changed. It now states you must travel with a child aged between 5 and 15. What other cards are available to me I wonder? Oh yes that's right, none whatsoever. I'm either too old or too young.

So my next ploy was to check out different journeys and the possibility of facing a long arduous day stopping here, there and everywhere. To my amazement I found that I could infact buy a return to Oxford priced at £17.30 and then buy two singles in advance/online from Oxford to London and vice versa priced at £4 each, giving me an overall fare of £25.30.

What a great saving, it's just such a shame that you have to actually spend time looking it up and they can't just offer you the fare as it is. I can stay on the train as well, I don't have to change at Oxford. So I'm actually going to be making exactly the same journey as I had originally planned, but with a saving of £22.70.

BEER MONEY :laugh2:

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If you had changed your mind and decided to go the West Brom match instead like I told you, I'm sure things would have been much easier for you :P

 
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Prices are outrageous mate. I was checking on fares from Peterborough to Newcastle for work purposes and was amazed to see them advertising one way at £97.50!! I wouldn't use that much in petrol in my car so where the hell is the incentive to use the train other than to save myself an hour and a half travelling? A colleague of mine travelled from Darlington to Merthyr and back and had to fork out in excess of £200 - you can fly to foreign cities and back for less than that.

 
They dont make any sense either. You can get cheap tickets if you book early they say, yeah but only if you book exactly 28 days before, on a wednesday, with a full moon, in the year of the ox, only using your left hand.

 
For me its:

- £90 (average) for return flights to Belfast

- £50 match ticket

- £35 Airport and inner city train tickets

- £100+ Hotel

- £ Beer / Food Money

That's why I can only go a few times a season at best

 
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ive never understood the reasons they prefer ten people on a train paying 50 quid each , rather than 100 people enticed on paying 30 each

 
Scooby Blue said:
I'm going to start with a bit of a rant - Living in deepest darkest Worcestershire, I've always found travelling to the Bridge pretty pricey. Over the years I have seen the price of train travel gradually rise that accompanied with match ticket prices has made the price of a day out reach a cost that I find hard to justify. I have found like many others that the best way round the match ticket price is to settle for Cup games or restricted view seats.

The train situation though is a little different, 18 months ago I found myself paying £36 for a return ticket, that rose to £40 during last season. Well now having decided that my first game this season would be Norwich on the 27th I was shocked to find that whilst checking the train times the fare has risen to £48. A 25% rise compared to 18 months ago. How they can possibly justify this is beyond me.

My next option was to look at railcards that could reduce the fare. I remember enquiring at the back end of last season about a railcard called 'Friends and Family'. In short it allows yourself and up to 3 others to travel with a 1/3 off of the price of the fare. With the card priced at £28 per year that money could be recovered within two trips. I'll get one of those I thought. Oh hang on, the terms and conditions have changed. It now states you must travel with a child aged between 5 and 15. What other cards are available to me I wonder? Oh yes that's right, none whatsoever. I'm either too old or too young.

So my next ploy was to check out different journeys and the possibility of facing a long arduous day stopping here, there and everywhere. To my amazement I found that I could infact buy a return to Oxford priced at £17.30 and then buy two singles in advance/online from Oxford to London and vice versa priced at £4 each, giving me an overall fare of £25.30.

What a great saving, it's just such a shame that you have to actually spend time looking it up and they can't just offer you the fare as it is. I can stay on the train as well, I don't have to change at Oxford. So I'm actually going to be making exactly the same journey as I had originally planned, but with a saving of £22.70.
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'Split ticketing' or something, I believe it's called. A huge saving and always worth looking into. It would be good if you could do the same at Chelsea, too, like buy a first-half and a second-half ticket for half the price of the full match ticket, with maybe the inconvenience of having to change seats at half-time.

 
Valerie said:
If you had changed your mind and decided to go the West Brom match instead like I told you, I'm sure things would have been much easier for you :P
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Good try Val :D.

I did look into going to the West Brom game to honest. Unfortunately the late kick off and planned engineering works on the district line made it difficult as far as being certain of getting home was concerned.

You should come to the Norwich game, It'll be a better game I promise ::MooNeY::

 
geezer said:
Prices are outrageous mate. I was checking on fares from Peterborough to Newcastle for work purposes and was amazed to see them advertising one way at £97.50!! I wouldn't use that much in petrol in my car so where the hell is the incentive to use the train other than to save myself an hour and a half travelling? A colleague of mine travelled from Darlington to Merthyr and back and had to fork out in excess of £200 - you can fly to foreign cities and back for less than that.
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Over £200 to go to a dump like Merthyr. I'd be embarrassed if I worked in a ticket office and I had to ask the customer for that amount of money.

 
dkw said:
They dont make any sense either. You can get cheap tickets if you book early they say, yeah but only if you book exactly 28 days before, on a wednesday, with a full moon, in the year of the ox, only using your left hand.
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You missed the fact that you also have to show them photographic evidence that you own a 'kiss me quick' hat, and also you have be facing North West and be standing on stilts that are over 4ft whilst your combined height totals no more than 3ft.

 
I should try National Express - they are very cheap and you are guaranteed a seat!

 
Ive just found a nice little way of getting decent tickets actually, told by a mate. If you search for "trainline" on google under the link where you get a list of quick clicks is one that says "Best Fare finder" and it is a hell of a lot cheaper. It is only from main line stations though, but is actually quite good and certainly cheaper than most tickets you get.

 
dkw said:
Ive just found a nice little way of getting decent tickets actually, told by a mate. If you search for "trainline" on google under the link where you get a list of quick clicks is one that says "Best Fare finder" and it is a hell of a lot cheaper. It is only from main line stations though, but is actually quite good and certainly cheaper than most tickets you get.
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Nice one mate, Sounds like it's worth a look. Quite pleased with the deal I found by getting the cheap tickets from Oxford onwards, but if I can save anymore then even better.

 
moi said:
I should try National Express - they are very cheap and you are guaranteed a seat!
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Cheers moi, just checked them out. Unfortunately the times are a bit of a pain as far as getting back to my part of the world is concerned. No problem getting to London, but the latest return coach is at 4.30pm.

Pretty pleased with the 'split/part ticket' train journey as backbiter mentioned that I've managed to get.

 
A thread dedicated to train fares - how British!!

I use Southeastern which I believe is the most expensive line in London - bar stewards!!

 
Scooby Blue said:
Nice one mate, Sounds like it's worth a look. Quite pleased with the deal I found by getting the cheap tickets from Oxford onwards, but if I can save anymore then even better.
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Another tip he told me was to buy single tickets or each part of the journey, it sometimes can work out quite a bit cheaper. He`s a train driver by the way... Living the dream.

 
dkw said:
Another tip he told me was to buy single tickets or each part of the journey, it sometimes can work out quite a bit cheaper. He`s a train driver by the way... Living the dream.
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Yeah that's what the Oxford to London and vice versa part of my journey is. Two £4 singles. I have a mate who's a train driver, the bar steward never told me about that.

 
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