Bristol Airport - 'most expensive' from city centre?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From the Daily Telegraph

Bristol Airport named most expensive airport to reach in Britain

Birmingham Airport found to be the cheapest followed by London Stansted, while Heathrow Express is the most expensive train journey to an airport, a new survey reveals

...

Journeys between Bristol Airport and Bristol, its nearest city centre, were found to cost more per mile than journeys to and from nine of Britain^s other busiest airports including London Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, despite the airport being closer in distance by miles to its city centre than all of the airports surveyed, apart from Newcastle.

...

Airport - miles - cost per mile
Bristol  7.8  ^2.01
Edinburgh  9.3  ^1.38
Heathrow  15  ^1.32
Glasgow  9  ^1.30
Newcastle  6.6  ^1.29
Luton  33.8  ^1.24
Manchester  8.8  ^1.23
Stansted  32  ^1.12
Birmingham 9.3  ^1.01

Rail fare from Southampton Central to Southampton Airport is ^3.70 single, for 4 mile journey.

[didcotdean]

Looking at the original article referenced from the Telegraph, this is some kind of average cost derived from the bus and taxi fare, and it is the latter that if anything is what has pulled up this 'average'. The bus alone figure is ^7.00 or about 90p per mile.

[TaplowGreen]

Isn't Heathrow Express the most expensive railway in the World in terms of cost v length of journey?

[grahame]

Isn't Heathrow Express the most expensive railway in the World in terms of cost v length of journey?

The most expensive I know is ^22 for 4.7 miles ...

[John R]

Isn't the cash fare for a journey from Covent Garden to Leicester Square fairly steep (approx ^30 per mile)?

[chrisr_75]

I happened to see a programme on TV^▸ (Thames Valley, or TeleVision, depending on context) last night about the suburban railways in Bombay (filmed in 2006) - it was mentioned that they charged at that time just 7p per mile for season tickets!

[didcotdean]

Isn't the cash fare for a journey from Covent Garden to Leicester Square fairly steep (approx ^30 per mile)?

There are lots of short rail journeys that translate into higher per mile figures that HEX - eg Maidstone West to Maidstone Barracks is less than half a mile and is ^1.70 anytime single.

[didcotdean]

Isn't Heathrow Express the most expensive railway in the World in terms of cost v length of journey?

It certainly now has a very complicated fare structure with advances bought different lengths of time before the journey with separated prices also dependent on whether it is for a weekend or the week. Cheapest ticket is now ^5.50 if bought 90+ days before weekend travel.

[grahame]

Isn't the cash fare for a journey from Covent Garden to Leicester Square fairly steep (approx ^30 per mile)?

There are lots of short rail journeys that translate into higher per mile figures that HEX - eg Maidstone West to Maidstone Barracks is less than half a mile and is ^1.70 anytime single.

I've always (well - since I thought about it!) felt that fare comparisons should be based on a mileage rate plus a faciities / station use rate.    So 80p per station used + 25p per mile for anytime singles.

I do question the fares in the original article ... I suspect they're the cost of getting to the airport and back as they seem rather high, or if they include a short taxi ride from the geographic centre of the city to the place the airport transport leaves from.   Stanstead (for example ) 35.84 for 32 miles at 1.12, yet an anytime single from Liverpool Street is 19.00; return is 32.00.
 

[didcotdean]

They have looked at the taxi, bus and rail (if available) and come to some kind of average. Since they haven't said how this 'average' was achieved it is hard to question the figures. Not clear either whether taxi means something pre booked (private hire vehicle) or taken from outside the airport (ie hackney carriage).