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First £1,000 rail fare in history of British train travel
Jonathan Prynn, Consumer Business Editor06.11.09
The first £1,000 fare in the history of Britain's railways has sparked fresh outrage over the “ludicrously” high cost of train travel.
The latest round of price rises means a first-class “walk-on” return from Newquay in Cornwall to Kyle of Lochalsh in Scotland is £1,002. Rail experts say it is the first time since services began in 1825 that passengers have been asked to pay “a grand” for a trip entirely in the UK.
Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Norman Baker said: “It is a very unwelcome landmark and will do nothing to encourage people to travel by train.”
The record-breaking fare emerged in a survey by rail expert Barry Doe. It shows that since privatisation in the mid-Nineties fares for long-distance trips have soared by up to three times inflation.
A first-class “walk-on” return from London to Manchester was £134 in 1995, the last year British Rail set all fares, but has trebled to £387.
Where else you can get to for £1,000
Even inter-city fares “capped” by legislation put in place at privatisation have risen far more than inflation. In 1995 the cheapest “walk-on” return from London to Plymouth was £39, but is now £72. This is a rise of 85 per cent compared with inflation of 45 per cent over the same period.
But the most spectacular rise has been in the cost of the near-1,700 mile round trip from Newquay, on the Cornish north coast, to the remote fishing village of Kyle of Lochalsh, opposite the Isle of Skye.
As recently as September last year it was £486. But in May it breached the £1,000 mark. The total cost will be even higher as, except for the hardiest travellers, it will involve booking a £43 sleeper berth each way on the overnight section from Crewe to Inverness.
The train operator responsible for the ticket is CrossCountry. Three companies share the route: First Great Western, CrossCountry and Scotrail.
Mr Doe said that despite the high price passengers got little in the way of frills during the 20hr 30min trek. Trains on the first leg (Newquay to Par) and last section (Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh) do not even have first-class carriages, he said: “For the price I would expect to be given a meal as soon as I got on board.
What do you get with CrossCountry? For the first 183 miles to Bristol you might get a trolley service offering a cup of tea.
"From Bristol you might get some paltry snacks. You ought to be getting linen tablecloths and wall-to-wall service.”
Stephen Joseph, executive director of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: “We've been concerned about regulated fares rising by more than inflation, and by what's happening to unregulated fares. We would like to see the Government do a complete rethink of fare regulation so that they are simpler and lower.
"You don't get £1,000 fares in other European countries of Britain's size.”
Rail enthusiast Michael Palin, whose first TV travelogue was a train trip to Kyle of Lochalsh, said: “The fare is staggering. Fares do seem to be rising and complicated. If you're good on the internet you can spend a couple of hours and get
good deals.
"If you're not so good you can end up paying £1,000. This is what happens in a free-market economy where railways have been privatised. I don't think this is a journey I'll be doing.”
A CrossCountry spokesman said: “We've never sold one of these fares but there has to be a fare for every route regardless of whether anyone's bought one or not. The price of a first-class saver return (book in advance) is £561. That's
what people will pay if they want to do that route.”
Paying for the confused legacy of privatisation
Analysis
The long, tortuous journey by rail from the Cornish Riviera to the Isle of Skye is probably best left to the anoraks. If they could afford it.
A grand buys you a whole lot of Marmite sandwiches. But the price is symbolic of some of the jawdropping fares that can be found on the railways.
The research published today shows that if you want to just turn up and go, fares for long distance rail travel have soared since the last
days of British Rail. The private operators, as you would expect, highlight their cheapest fares which are bookable in advance and some of these are remarkably good value.
But privatisation left a confused legacy of a two-tier pricing system: regulated fares that can
only go up by one per cent more than Retail Price Index inflation; and unregulated fares where the industry sets the price.
Rail firms, under pressure from falling revenue in the recession, have pushed through huge
increases in the unregulated fares to make up for the shortfall.
Cynically, the biggest rises have been on routes such as London to Manchester where they have
pretty much killed off the competition from airlines.
Twelve years into the New Labour era, transport remains one of its biggest failures. There
may not be many takers for Newquay to Kyle of Lochalsh but the extraordinary fare is a grim epitaph for a Government that promised “a clear, coherent and strategic programme for the development of the railways so that passenger expectations are met” in its 1997 manifesto.
Those expectations did surely not include having to fork out £1,000 to travel from one end of
our relatively small island to the other.
Reader views (46)
Whilst the manner in which privatisation occurred is stupid, it is worth noting that rail use has consistently and steeply increased ever since privatisation, and investment in new rolling stock etc has also jumped sharply. Nationalised British Rail chronically underinvested, and the whole country subsidised the cost of anyone who used rail - a number which decreased pretty consistently for decades. Since then the subsidies have been cut back, fares have increased, and usage has nearly doubled leaving us with the busiest railway since the end of WW2. It's easy to knock, but you have to stomach a hell of a taxpayer subsidy to get something like the SNCF, and this country proved consistently it wouldn't.
I'll repeat that I think the whole system is flawed in many ways, but I have also had to spend several months analysing all of the available rail statistics and it is impossible to ignore that privatisation has had a lot of benefits as well - anyone who cannot see that needs to seriously consider whether they are basing their assessment of the entire rail system on an extrapolation their last train journey or a more balanced view - the former has a little value, but not much.
- Tom, London
Jonathan, you have either been deliberately misleading or are suffereing from amnesia. You refer to New Labour's failed transport policy over the last 12 years, yet singulary fail to mention how it was the Conservative Party who actually privatised the rail industry! In doing so, you fail to mention how railtrack - set up by the Tories - was brought into insolvency in 2002, replaced by Network Rail - a state owned company, meaning the ludicrous situation of track and infrastrucure in private hands subsidised by the taxpayer was reversed thanks to this Labour company.
You shouldn't let your party-politic basis get in the way of providing a proper valid account of what has actually happened in the rail industry.
- M S Brown, Harrow
Perhaps money could be raised to create a larger subsidy for rail fares by ensuring that airlines pay the tax on their fuel comsumption.
Ring fence money from proper taxation on airlines, for investment in public transport.
- David Secker, EALING/LONDON/UK
Andy of Manchester - please don't give credit where it is not due. It was Thatcher's Government which started all this privatisation of essential services nonsense and now we have a so-called Labour Government too lily-livered to do the sensible thing and re-nationalise.
- Nick Rudd, England
Isn't the real scandal that this journey takes six changes and twenty hours to complete, and includes a godforsaken 90 minute wait on Crewe station from 10pm to midnight? Surely the demand for this service from the many Kyle of Lochash workers based in Cornwall would mean we'd have a decent high speed direct service by now? No wonder the country's going to the dogs if we can't even get this sorted.... broken britain, makes you sick.
- Ross, Reigate, UK
The real cause of the railway fare problem is the loss of the economies of scale due to the loss of a UK wide railway train operator and the steady withdrawl of tax payer subsidy for rail fares.
The way forward is to continue to develop a national rail product and operating systems. Clip the wings of the train operators where their back office and consequently their costs duplicate other franchise holders adding unnecessarily to the fare bill.
A good piece work for the Department for transport?
- Nigel Cripps, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands
That is one big rip-off at £1000. I can travel the 4352 kilometres Perth to Sydney using the Gold Service $2008 on the Indian Pacific train, or get a Red Service sleeper cabin for $1352. You are definately being taken for a ride.
- Len, Perth Australia
It's the sharp practice I really object to. I travel from Berkhamsted to Euston by London Midland. I use First Class with the point to point fare being £4,604 and Second Class £3,068. If I want to have a Travelcard add-on London Midland charge an extra £1,196 on top of the First Class fare but only £892 on top of the Second Class fare - a difference of £304. A few years ago there was no difference for the Travelcard add-on. I understand from friends in the business that Transport for London takes the same fare from the operating company no matter what class the customer has been sold. For nearly all journeys used by a Travelcard holder, 'bus, tube, DLR, Overground and most national rail journeys there is no first class so London Midland are just profiteering at their customer's expense.
All rail fares should be regulated because the present regulation is just a joke.
- David Patterson, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
@ Tim from Shanghai - you realise that Chinese train fares are obviously going to be cheaper than British ones due to the fact that the people who are running the trains are going to be paid far less than you'd pay them in the UK - the station staff in China probably earn about $150/month which is about £1000/year.
- Eraserhead, London, UK
I could take my grandaughter and daughter for eurodisney for that and have spending money. How ridiculous and what a con our train fares are!
- Louie, London South East
Train fares in the UK are a scandal. They should learn from the Italian rail network (Trenitalia). Just checked this on their website. Traveling from Turin to Palermo (the length of the country) costs about €260 First Class return depending on the time of day.
- John Williams, Colchester
A pointless fare which no one need ever purchase.
As others have pointed out, for £650 you can travel First class between Newquay and Kyle plus have seven days First class travel in the whole of the UK.
As the only 'extra' you get for travelling first class on this journey is a free tea or coffee, most would prefer to travel Standard Class and pay for refreshments. A Standard Class Off Peak Return is £244.10. This is a walk up fare and valid for travel on any train after 0500 (the first train from Newquay is at 0657 Mondays to Fridays). Book ahead fares for the same standard class journey start at £59.50.
I would be surprised if Barry Doe - who normally finds out the cheapest option - had failed to point these alternatives out.
- Stuart Walker, St Ives, Cornwall
The privatistion of the old British Rail has not worked,and it like all essential services should be Public. It was only bad management that they never worked before.
- Bill Francis-Williams, Beaumont Pied de Beouf
Sounds like a grand day out to me!
- Tango Mike, Kensington, London
It begs the question, how many of our"Honourable Gentlemen"
are shareholders in our privatised services. Reminds me of the show,"Opportunity "Knocks" and, like the expenses scandal, they will have taken the opportunity.
- Thomas Hayes, Leeds UK
I will buy the ticket and rip it up in the station if you like just to show how much disdain I have for the Government and the Train companies. Evening Standard if you promise to put me in the paper I will do it let me know.
- David Brett, london uk
I travelled from Rome to Rimini, 1st class for 50 Euros. This is a four hour cross country journey. The train was very comfortble, air conditioned and served proper coffee by pleasant carriage staff.
The booking system in Italy is straight forward and the train operators could learn a lot from the Italian model.
- Tigersplat, Birmingham
Yes, but how many days would it take to get there?
- Simon, London
People are being priced back onto the roads.
- David, Abbey Wood SE2
I traveled first class from Truro to London at the end of this summer and thought the advance purchase price a great deal. However, a train employee had obtained free first class passage for herself and three friends...no big deal except they were a drunken and obnoxious lot...and this was 10 a.m. One of the party members finally passed out in front of the bathroom door. No train employee made any effort to ask them to depart or to calm down. Just the guy in my party did. So much for admiring the British countryside as it whizzed by the window.
Clean up train service before asking this type of price.
- Annette, durham, NC USA
Sorry but you fail. A 7-day first class All Line Rail Rover goes for far less than this.
- Aleksandar, Edinburgh
Amazing. With current increasing environmental problems, flooding, climate change around the world, rail travel should be run as a service rather than a profit making enterprise. Until that time, people will travel by car or on domestic flights vastly increasing CO2 emissions. Ironic that this has occured whilst world leaders are discussing how to tackle climate change in Copenhagen which as usual has resulted in a lot of empty talk and no specific results. Getting people off roads and planes and onto a decent train service is surely primary, yet in this country this is a long, long way away.
- Mcw, London
Can I ask who's pocketing this amont of money as I do not see any form or the rail serviceis getting better what did Robert Stepenson said some time back uhm may have to look on the plauge in Baker Street Station but agrand for a trip not april fools day yet
- Leroy, London
An interesting historical perspective.
About 150 years ago, parliament passed a law, bitterly opposed by the railway companies, that forced them to run at least one train every day on which the third-class fare was no more than one penny per mile.
Back then, one penny was 1/240 of a pound, which was a gold sovereign (about 1/4 ounce of gold). Today 1/4 ounce of gold is £170, so one penny was about 70p of today's money, and the *minimum* fare for this (my guess) 600 mile journey in today's money translates as £420. In third class, wooden seats and no heating, on the slowest and least convenient train of the day!
- Nigel, London
Matt, the railways are only going to get more expensive, more crowded and more unreliable. They're ancient technology which costs a fortune to keep in barely adequate condition, which is the main reason fares keep going up. What we are going to have to do at some point is come up with some way of replacing them. Transporter beams are still some way off so any thoughts, anyone?
- Kevin T, Beckenham, Kent
It costs about £60 to travel, by rail, the 800+ miles from Shanghai to Beijing. God knows what it would cost if First Great Western et al ran the route.
The Chinese government has pumped the equivalent of millions of pounds into the semi-privatised rail system here, and it shows. The British private railway companies, especially the Southern and the Great Western, were on the brink of collapse before WW2- it was only nationalisation, prior to Beeching (who was heavily influenced by the oil and road lobby), that saved the network.
I love not having to run a car here, with all the attendant savings. You can rely on public transport to get you from A to B- it's not ideal, and sometimes very crowded, but it works. Public transport is much more sensible than private transport- when the will to pay for it is there.
- Tim, Shanghai, China
1,000 quid you have to be joking,..???
gone are the good old days of 45 quid return from Manchester to London under Maggie Thatcher days,..no leaves on the track then,..nor BR & Virgin rates as now
- Andy, Manchester
Why buy a train ticket when you can buy a car for the same price?
- Gazza, London,England
In Germany the Bahn Card is very popular. In return for an annual payment of approximately £3,000 unlimited rail and tram travel is permitted. It is a really effective way of encouraging rail travel but of course will not be introduced here whilst we have to put up with greedy operators such as Virgin Trains.
- Simon Ellis, London
Just goes to show the price we are still paying for the TORY privatisation of our railways!!!!
Anyway I reckon buying seperate tickets for each part of the route would work out cheaper!!
And if rover tickets are valid and cost less then why is this not the price quoted for this and any other journey that would be cheaper by rover?
Its like the tube where return fares are sold that cost far more than using OYSTER it would be better to abolish all return fares for underground on journeys!!
As for thinking we are a small island the fact is this journey is far longer than some trips by eurostar.
As for comments about road verses rail then its time that roads were put on the same basis as rail is and road journeys were charged for on a per journey basis this would then level the playing field. While charging lorries to use roads would help transfer freight to rail or water as a level playing field would be created.
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex
That sounds great Dave. Let's save billions of taxpayers' money, cancel all the subsidies and let the railways collapse. Major problem: how is everyone in London and the south east going to get to work and back each day.
- Matt, London UK
The party that promises to renationalise the transport system and all our other privatised utilities will surely win the next election hands down.and they must do it as promised to save the British public from any more of the rip off culture we are in the middle of now.
- Thomas Hayes, Leeds UK
Isn't the important thing that you get a quality travelling experience. The cost is a secondary issue.
- Thomas, London
Travelling used to be an experience where you could meet interesting people.
Now, people have a poor sense of personal hygiene and the only converstaion that they seem capable off is "did you watch X Factor last night?" and "you'll never guess how drunk I was on Friday"
- Decency, London, UK
I do not own a car and travel around the country by rail. Personally I find as long as you book sufficiently in advance that rail tickets have never been cheaper relatively. This summer myself and partner traveled return first class from London to Leeds for £48. thats £12 per trip first class. First Class London to Cardiff single £28.50, you just need to book a couple of weeks ahead. Granted walk-on fares are dear but they're also convenient and fast.
- Squiz, Islington
How many people actually pay these walk-on first class fares?
I think the vast majority of passengers pay far less than the prices given here - in fact there are some extremely cheap fares if you book in advance.
The rail industry bring criticism upon themselves with this ludicrous fare structure, giving a voice to the anti-railway brigade.
If ATOC do not use common sense and simplify the fares, which could be achieved without loss of revenue, then there will be many more headlines like this one.
If no person has ever purchased one of these tickets, why sell them?
- Jim, London, UK
So much for the idiots who keep telling us that there is no inflation in the UK!
- Steve Cox, Porthcawl, UK
The Cross Country spokesman should know that Saver Returns disappeared in September 2008 when ticket types were "simplifed". Until then Saver Returns were not book in advance tickets, but available for purchase right up to departure, although they could not be used on peak time trains. If the railway's own spokesman does not know about the fare structure, what chance does anybody else have?
- Farepayer, London
who in there right mind are going to pay this ammount....fatcats looking after there pockets again i see
- Rsaviour, london
Get used to it, this news is just softening you up for even bigger increased on your Zones 2, 3 and 4 tickets.
Off peak one day return? Zone 2 I expect to see at 14 pounds, Zone 3 at 18 pounds and Zone 4 breaking the barrier at 21 pounds. Thanks Boris
- James, City of London
It must be a lot cheaper to hire a top class limo and stop
at a couple of 5 star hotels on the way
- Richard Edmunds, Rayleigh UK
The 373 mile journey from Tanger to Marrakech first class costs £12.50.
The railway stations at both Tanger and Marrakech are like palaces.
UK trains and UK rail stations are like Third World cesspits.
- Reuben Camara, Plot 1, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR
Railways are loss leaders due to the competition from roads which are cheaper to build and run. If the state subsidy was removed from the railways, they would collapse quickly.
They are not the future.
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, Hants
You could probably get a taxi for that, Ken used to get them back from Blackpool.
- P Staker, London
Your annotation of CrossCountry's quote is wrong here - a Saver fare isn't book-in-advance at all, it's a walk-up fare which, on this route, is valid on all trains.
- John Band, London, UK
The rail industry doesn't do itself many favours: An all line rover (£430 for 7 days, £650 for 14 days) covers you for this journey, as well as unlimited rail travel for the time its valid. So under no circumstances would anyone pay £1000 for this, no wonder they have never sold a single one! All these fares make for is bad publicity.
You can get some really good fares like London - Leeds for £10, megatrain fares, or All lines Rovers for the South West and Wales for £70 for 3 days, but little known about.
- Rob, South Coast
Isn't the important thing that you get a quality travelling experience. The cost is a secondary issue.
- Thomas, London
