----- Original Message -----
From: "B Vaughan"
Newsgroups: rec.travel.europe
Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2006 8:09 PM
Subject: Re: Train Travel in Europe
> It's hard to find an exact equivalent, but Genoa to Rome is 524 km,
> which is close. If you had to make that trip tomorrow, with a standard
> ticket, you could get an IC train that would get you there in about 5
> hours (some under, some over) for 34 euros.
But that's one way, Barbara! David's £18 fare was a return.
The problem with the British pricing system is that such ultra-cheap fares
are certainly available on a limited number of lines, if you can commit
yourself to a particular train and book well in advance. These will usually
be simple point-to-point trains with tickets only available on that
operator's services.
Some not quite so cheap services will be available on more complex routes.
For instance, the cheapest return fare from my local station (West Drayton)
to my hometown (Walsall) is a saver at about £36, routed via Reading and
Oxford, with changes of train at Reading and Birmingham, and services
provided by three operating companies: First Great Western to Reading,
Virgin Trains for Reading to Birmingham, and Central Trains from B'ham to
Walsall. This is subject to some (not too onerous) restrictions on peak-hour
travel, but is a "walk-up" fare. A fully flexible second-class return is
about £105 and the first class fare about £180.
Horror stories frequently appaer in the British press about people narrowly
missing connections, and being unable to take the next train on the desired
route because it isn't operated by the right company, and of people who
arrive at station A at 10.25, intending to catch the 10.30 to B. The train
to B arrives, they get on, and then are told by the ticket collector that
their ticket isn't valid, because this is actually the late-running 09.30,
on which cheap fares aren't available, followed by a demand for money with
menaces.
The great advantage of the Italian system is that generally available
walk-up tickets are cheap, rather than for tickets bought a month in advance
for Chuffa Trains' 11.20 from A to B, available on Wednesdays and Thursdays
when there's an R in the month.
Alan Harrison
|