Having not lived there for awhile, one forgets. Tried to find a flight between Cardiff and London for tomorrow. None to be had, thank you very much. Unless you want to connect in Amsterdam, Dublin or Paris, that is. I’m flabbergasted – no direct flights between Cardiff and London? Surely, there must be some kind of mistake?
Oh, well. On to the trains, then. Cue picking myself up from the floor: almost bloody £200 for a return ticket. First class would have been closer to £300. No, I didn’t want to buy a one way ticket to NY, just a train ride 150 miles away. It’s not the moon, you know?
Why isn’t EVERYONE flying their own planes? They’d not only save time, but save money by the truckload with these prices! God, I’ll never travel anywhere else ever again without my plane…
By the time you have flown your PA28 or DA42 from Cardiff to Biggin Hill or so, and found some way to get to the city, paid all kinds of fees and a bit of fuel, then everything again back to Wales, will you have spent less money (and less time) than the 200 quid for the train? I don’t think so. Still, train service in the UK seems to be expensive and not very user-friendly – I am SO happy to live in tiny Belgium! A train ticket from Oostende to Verviers ( a comparable distance) is 21,10 €, one way, and the trip takes 2:42
A flight to the City of London might be useful, but I can’t see why anyone would fly from Cardiff to Gatwick or Heathrow – by the time you’d cleared your baggage it would be faster to catch a train. It takes quite a while to get to Cardiff Airport by public transport as I recall.
The price you quoted was for a peak ticket (though I make them slightly over £200). It’s £76 for an off-peak return. £56 if you’re willing to take a slower route via Salsbury. National Express coaches are from £18.
The problem is that in London, platform-space is very expensive at peak times, so anytime tickets cost an arm and a leg. If you can avoid those times, they become much cheaper. When I used to live in Newcastle the cheapest way to get into London was to get a train up to Edinburgh and take the night sleeper down, arriving just before peak time. It wasn’t possible to get there so early if you went direct, and I found I arrived quite refreshed.
Sometimes you can get better prices by breaking the journey – e.g. if you buy tickets in advance, but break the journey in Swindon, you can arrive on a peak time train but pay less than if you book a direct ticket on the same train. Don’t let the inspector see both tickets at the same time though.
A return ticket from Aberystwyth to Birmingham 125 miles would cost me £31 and take 3 hours, so trains here can be comparable in cost to Jan’s example. My quibble would be with the complexity of the system – I find it miserably complicated trying to work out how to travel for a decent price. Also, they penalise you hugely if you buy tickets at short notice, and I’ve never understood why the prices of singles are so close to the price of returns.
I do reckon that when my Turbulent is up and running (any time soon) I’ll be able to undercut the price of railway tickets to London. When the weather’s nice.
The problem is that in London, platform-space is very expensive at peak times
Are you saying that train operators are charged for platform useage in the same way airlines pay for gate useage?
London itself has no GA-usable airports, especially if you want IFR.
Biggin has very poor transport to just about anywhere – unless you are a bizjet user in which case you get a limo to pick you up.
Here they explain how this works
Biggin to the nearest part of “London” is 45-60 mins by car.
UK trains can indeed be very expensive (there have been big increases in recent years) but the worse bit IMHO is the way they sometimes run only for peak time travellers (commuters to work). For example the direct connection from Shoreham to London runs only in the morning, and the connection from London to Shoreham runs only in the early evening. The tracks are there H24 of course and that particular service would be used by many people who presently have the hassle of having to change in Brighton. This cynical type of accounting obviously shafts Shoreham Airport, which would otherwise be a great airport for reaching London – about 1hr on a train and about £15 each way.
The key to living in the UK is to avoid living in London and you can possibly buy a TBM900 for the saving in the cost of a detached house, but many would disagree
Are you saying that train operators are charged for platform useage in the same way airlines pay for gate useage?
I’m not in railways, but that’s my understanding. The track and stations are owned by networkrail which is more or less a national company, who then charge the companies who operate the trains a fee towards their upkeep. Some of the stations are operated by the train companies, who presumably charge other train companies for their use. Hence the inconsistency – e.g. in some stations the toilets are free; in others you have to pay 200 pounds for your train ticket, and 50p to wee (presumably if the stations were owned by the train operators, they would figure that it’s cheaper if people go to the toilet in stations than in trains). In some regions you can rush onto the train and buy your ticket there. In other places that would get you into a lot of trouble. Every train company has a different policy regarding taking bicycles on trains. Every ticket inspector has their own personal policy on whether or not it’s acceptable to take recumbent bicycles on trains. Some companies upgrade you to first class if you’re pregnant. Others make you walk the full length of the train to find a non-existent seat. Peak and off-peak times are different from region to region, and I have found it very hard to find out when they actually are. And so on.
Nobody really understands the system. The other day I had a ticket that was meant to let me use the underground from Heathrow to London, but the tickets didn’t work. We asked the person at the barrier, who said that they probably wouldn’t be valid – he would have to make a call. It took 5 minutes of telephone conversations being bounced from person to person before he ascertained that we were allowed to use the underground with our tickets, and let us onto the platform. Of course, in London we find that our tickets won’t let us off the platform, and the rigmarole starts again.
This website explains some of it. Apparently:
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/using-our-network/cp5-access-charges/
The other thing is that if you are taking 2+ trains to get somewhere, it can be a lot cheaper to buy them individually rather than from one company’s website. This is because in such cases the 1st company can be reselling the 2nd company’s ticket, with a margin. It can make a 30% difference.
I think buying them individually at a ticket office is OK.
Tickets often don’t work. Last weekend we went to London (do that about 2x a year) and Justine’s ticket failed to work just about everywhere. The guard looks at it and lets you through. It’s a joke… So at platforms which are unmanned (or unmanned in say the evening) they just leave the barriers open…
If you live near Biggin Hill or Southend, then flying GA to Cardiff is easy. Especially as both Southend and Cardiff are H24 (albeit at a hefty surcharge at Southend, last time I looked).
My whole aviation life has been aiming towards the complete elimination of having to use cars, public transport and airlines for travel. Even if it costs more, it is worth every penny in my book. Having your own plane, and being able to use it whenever you want, is priceless.
AdamFrisch wrote:
My whole aviation life has been aiming towards the complete elimination of having to use cars, public transport and airlines for travel.
And you moved to SoCal ? !? !
Good luck with that plan ! 
I reckon there is a case for a small commuter airline that services places like this.
If you could run an airline from say London City to the south coast (shoreham, Bournemouth) then on to Devon and Cornwall (Plymouth, Newquay), across to Wales (Swansea/ Cardiff) then back it might work….
Providing…you can have very fast turn around times – no more than 15 minute stops. You have hassle free transport – no long waiting at the airport beforehand, just turn up and go. And the price is reasonable….oh and the timings are reasonable to allow one to commute to London in the morning and back home again in the evening.You could then take Pax on any or all of the legs, so LCY to Cardiff. Or Shoreham to Plymouth…etc….
A Pilatus PC12 would be ideal for this low volume to traffic expected and would keep costs down…except it isn’t allowed….
