Public Transport rant

Argh! No wonder people drive and don't use public transport!

Trying to get from Preston to Hampstead on Wednesday for Hevvur's hospital appointment.

The train is a minimum of £170 each (inc tube etc) . And that's if we specify a return train. Problem is, since we have no idea what time Hev's appointment will finish, whether they'll be running on time etc, it's hard to specify the exact time.

The drive is 4.5 hours each way, and is a 400+ mile round trip.

We'd happily take the train, but with prices like that, there is no way we can afford it!

Of course, had we known about the appointment 6 months ago, we could have got a cheaper ticket, but since Hevvur only found out on Friday, it's a bit short notice.

And the government wonder why they can't tempt us out of our cars??

Ridiculous ain't it?

Is the bus any cheaper? It'll be a longer journey time wise but might be a bit cheaper.

It's so obvious isn't it, in a few weeks I hope to be able to say no more trains, buses, planes, taxis, zilch, I'll be able to go where I want, when I want, with whom I want, and at any time I want and it'll be a hell of a lot cheaper

I once took the bus from Manchester to London, the overnight one, it's probably a lot less than £170 but TBH I would not recommend it. It stops at Birmingham and all those leaving there have to grab there own bags, of course they may have to remove yours to get to theirs, do you think they bother to put yours back, no way

The government don't set the prices, the operating companies do.

There is now a train ticket that is £1000 from Newquay in Cornwall to Truro.

How do I know this? OH is a train driver.

You can borrow him if you like as he gets to travel for free, as will I lol

But it's the government who keep harping on about carbon emissions and using public transport cos it's greener etc!

Does your OH fancy a trip on Wednesday??

have you tried doing the train ticket in different ways - sometimes if you play around and dont ask for return or look at alternative via's then you can get a better fare - have you tried thetrainline.com ?

failing that do you have megabus down there ? they are normally quite cheap ?

Don't know if it is much help - I usually buy my tickets throught First Great Western - I usually find them cheaper.

I am not sure what your travelling times are on Wednesday - but I think you could do it for £120 return each on there from Preston to London Euston. But of course that is still a lot of money.

Or have you thought about driving so far- perhaps to Birmingham, parking and then catching the train to London from there. Birmingham to London should be much less and would then give you chance to relax before and after the appointment.

Hope you find something x

I've been using thetrainline.com all day!

The £170 is single tickets (a return is £280+ each) at specified times, off peak....

I've been checking out coach companies, but they are all as expensive as the train and have loads of changes

Coaches don't look good do they - they seem to take ages - for example MegaBus takes half a day to get to London (wherever do they go to in between??) and it still costs £60 each return

When we wanted to go to London, online I could only find ridiculous prices well into the hundreds for the 5 of us on the train. In the end I asked at the station and got day saver returns for £45 for all of us It was open return too so we could come back anytime we wanted. Might be worth an ask at the station.