Great Western Coffee Shop

I was chatting with a local councillor (not from our town) an hour or two back; his local station has a catchment of around 6,000 (i.e. it's the nearest station to home for that number) but very low passenger numbers.  A very curious service "pattern" doesn't help, but he also quoted a fare to the next station that's £1.60 per mile.

Does anyone know of any more expensive fares per mile?

Exeter St David's to Exeter Central Anytime Day Single, £1.40. Distance 3/4 mile.

£1.87 per mile.

Clifton Down to Redland Anytime Day Single,
 £1.50 Distance 1/2 mile.

£3.00 per mile.

Winnersh to Winnersh Triangle, .775 of a mile, £2.20 single = £2.84/mile
West Ealing to Hanwell, .775 of a mile, £3.10 single = £4.00/mile

(Edited to correct typo as pointed out by stuving)

If West Ealing-Hanwell was really .62 miles it would be £5/mi - but it's 62 chains (.775 miles), the same as the other one in Winnersh, and the £4/mi relates to that.

Most of these short hops are expensive, though GWR probably charges more for the same distance than SWT or ... what about Southern?

Selhurst-Thornton Heath is only 57 chains (0.71 miles) so at £2.40 for a std single it's £3.37/mi. And remember that discussion about season tickets for very short trips? Well, Newhaven Town-Newhaven Harbour is all of 26 chains (0.325 miles) and costs £2.60 (why?) for an anytime day single: £8.00/mi.

Coombe junction to Liskeard, 0.5 miles. £2.40 single or £4.80 mile,
The distance being the walking distance according to google. The track goes round a big loop so is probably a fair bit further.

A very big loop - it's just over 2 miles.

I'd never guessed it that far. It's just under a 10 min walk for me, station to station. The train is scheduled 11 minutes. I wonder how many other direct train services take longer than walking.

The 0737 Patchway to Bristol Parkway, arrive 0808 is one contender.

The direct train from St Budeaux Ferry Road (18:10) calls at St Budeaux Victoria Road at 18:34, and in the other direction the 18:02 takes until 18:26.   I suspect you could walk it quicker.

The 07:37 from Patchway calls at Bristol Parkway at 08:09, and the 20:00 from Parkway gets to Patchway at 20:24.  I suspect it might be walkable in that time.  Pipped to the post!

The st budeaux option the railway doesn't offer a fare for that journey. Is it permitted? I'm guessing it would be cheap with a break of journey allowed at Plymouth?

No, you would have to buy a return to Plymouth.

Which shows the point about these very short fares; it's highly unlikely anyone would ever buy a ticket for them. You'd either walk, take a taxi door to door if unable to walk, and only use the train if you already had a season ticket or similar (or, of course, no ticket and count on not being found by conductor in the short distance  >:().

If you took a bus from Clifton Down to Redland (no. 8 possibly?) it would cost £1.50 and take a longer route.

Quite - out of this area a good example in Manchester is Deansgate to Oxford Road, which is in excess of £5 a mile.

The original question / reason for it came from a resident of Dilton Marsh with whom I was discussing the low usage of the station for the 6,000 population in the catchment.  One of the reasons he gave was the very high extra fare to be paid to get back home when arriving back into Westbury, and he had been told it was the highest per mile fare anywhere on the GWR network.   Some people do buy it (rather than have loved ones pick them up) if there happens to be a train, but they resent it.

The real answer to him isn't going to be directly fare-based ... I think that's a bit of a red herring in reality.

In "nearly all" cases, fares from Westbury Group stations are the same for a longer distance journey. Therefore they need to buy the (from) Dilton Marsh fare in the first place to avoid any "misunderstandings." Alternatively as Grahame is hinting simply look the other way.

Yes - that will be part of my longer answer, together with a recommendation to "excess" the ticket if they want to travel onward.


It should certainly NOT have read like that ... no hint intended.

Newbury to Newbury Racecourse at £2.00 for a distance of I think 55 Ch/0.6875m must be a contender?

Can Grahame's acquaintance not simply buy a ticket from Dilton Marsh even if boarding at Westbury? I'm assuming a return ticket; so on coming home, can get off at Dilton Marsh if practical or Westbury if not – all for the same fare, if I've understood correctly.

That's probably what I'll be recommending.  It leaves a couple of issues

* As the TVMs at Westbury only sell tickets starting at Westbury, it may mean queueing at the (one) ticket window

* Done on a regular basis it will distort Dilton Marsh's figures

* On Advance tickets, only those with DMH connections will be offered;  I recall the difference on a Gatwick to Chippenham v a Gatwick to Melksham being 3.5 time on one occasion (lowest cost)

Shouldn't this one be measured in furlongs?

But we all know there are exactly ten chains per furlong, don't we?

The second of these is not really a problem for the passenger, more a reason for GWR etc to update their counting procedures and/or ticket systems.

On my map, the distance from Oldfield Park to Bath Spa is exactly one mile. The single fare at any time of day is £2-40, return is £3-40 peak and £2-90 off peak.

London Blackfriars - City Thameslink, Anytime Day Single £3.00. Distance 0.175 mile (14 chains).

£17.14 per mile.

Beaten only by a tube cash fare. Leicester Square - Covent Garden, Cash Single £4.90. Distance 0.16 mile (260m).

£30.63 per mile. (The Oyster fare is £2.40 or £15.00 per mile)