Cheaper from Plymouth to Rome than to London?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64827711

Cheaper train tickets: Five ways to save money

The cost of regulated rail fares in England will rise by up to 4.9% from Sunday.

The jump is likely to be unwelcome for rail passengers, adding to the rising cost of living seen in recent year. It also comes at a time when passengers have faced disruption to services due to strikes by rail workers over the past 18 months.

The article goes on to promote Advance Fares, Groupsave, Split Tickets, Railcards and Flexiseasons.

I'll give you another - these days Interrail passes give you 2 days in your own country - idea being to get to the point of departure and back at the start / end of a trip, and a 4 days in a month ticket for an adult costs €283 - that's £241.90 at current exchange rate.  Compare that to a £299.00 open return Plymouth to Paddington

OK - if I was "hustling" to save money on the £299 I could make better savings, but if you're headed for somewhere in Eurpoe Interrail is an incredibly good value way of doing it rolling in the travel to St Pancras, and not withstanding the €32 "reservation fee" that Eurostar charge on top of the Interrail price for their train (and they do limit reservations so in essence that leg is an advance fare)

Look at this sort of possibility ... all selected with the only reservation needed being the Eurostar one - so via Brussels:

Melksham to Zurich - 07:21 - 22:00
Zurich to Rome - 07:35 - 23:45
Rome to Zurich - 06:12 - 22:27
Zurich to Melksham - 09:59 - 22:54

Euro 32+32+283 = £296.58 (from any UK^▸ (United Kingdom) station reachable early to London). 15% off the Interrail prices for thr next day of two as well.

Melksham to Paddington, return anytime via Swindon now £215.20
Plymouth to Paddington, return, any time any permitted = £299.00

[LiskeardRich]

I used national express recently. £15 each way. Only about an hour or so longer than the train.

Flixbus available from £2.99.

I regularly pick up flights from Bristol with EasyJet / ryanair for sub £50 return. The falcon coach from Plymouth is quicker than going to Bristol by train and then getting the airport bus back, and less than a third of the price, guaranteed seats. And clean comfortable coaches

I’ve barely used the train in the last 12 months having made 50+ return journeys in the previous year, the train is too expensive, very uncompetitively priced, and very unreliable. The road options yes they sometimes get stuck in traffic, but I’ve never had one cancelled or not turn up

[grahame]

I’ve barely used the train in the last 12 months having made 50+ return journeys in the previous year, the train is too expensive, very uncompetitively priced, and very unreliable.

Indeed - hard to argue.  Is it that the train because of the technology involved cannot be better, or because of a decision or lack of decisions somewhere to actually make it better even though it could be?