Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Train Travel in the UK: A Foreigner’s Perspective

paliparan.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 191 posts

Re: Train Travel in the UK: A Foreigner’s Perspective

#51

Post by blibble »

notahacker wrote: post #36
blibble wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt many people are paying 20%+ of net income to commute in you'd have to be on minimum wage and a reasonable distance out (in which case you might as well just work locally) 10% however I can believe

Annual season ticket to London from Peterborough, at the edge of the commuter belt with relatively affordable housing is £9,500 (including Tube) That's 20% of your after tax income if you're on more than double the median UK salary

there's like 5 people who commute daily from Bristol too

peterborough is on the border of super-commuter category

Re: Train Travel in the UK: A Foreigner’s Perspective

#52

Post by ozim »

jotm wrote: post #7
michaelt wrote: post #4

> British people love to complain about the state of their railways I find people have a very different experience with UK rail on whether they're travelling for business or pleasure. People who commute have to take trains at peak time, at the absolute highest ticket prices, take hundreds of trains a year giving lots of opportunities to get delayed, might get yelled at for being late, and at the end of their journey…

When I lived in the UK, I thought 30 minute delays two days per week were the worst thing ever. After living in Germany... British railways seem like an enterprise level SLA. Tickets with a short expiration time (2 hours... why?), hour(s) long delays, sudden last minute platform changes (you need to use the underground passage full of people), trains just disappearing off the screen with no notice after being delayed…

Wait till you get to travel Polish trains - 120 minute delay suddenly becoming 240.

It got better as personnel seems to be more friendly than 10-15 years ago.

Train! You were lucky to have a train! We used to run on the rail, all twenty-six of us, no sitting spots, 'alf the floor was missing, and we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of falling.

Re: Train Travel in the UK: A Foreigner’s Perspective

#53

Post by pgorczak »

cirrus-clouds wrote: post #39
blibble wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt many people are paying 20%+ of net income to commute in you'd have to be on minimum wage and a reasonable distance out (in which case you might as well just work locally) 10% however I can believe

I've posted this before: a monthly season ticket comparison from 2017 for UK and Continental Europe. The price differences between UK and other countries are stark: - UK: Luton to London St. Pancras (35 miles) | Monthly season ticket cost: £387 - UK: Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Piccadilly (32 miles) | Monthly season ticket cost: £292 - Germany: Dusseldorf to Cologne (28 miles) | Monthly season ticket cost: £8…

I checked the German rates recently and I wish that were still true. The ticket for going between Dusseldorf and Cologne train stations with intercity or regional trains is 175 GBP (146 if you book for the whole year). The one for regional trains only but including transport within the two cities is 269 (216) GBP.

Re: Train Travel in the UK: A Foreigner’s Perspective

#54

Post by GOATS- »

The author of this post seemed to have struck gold with the trains he went on. This entire summer, my train trips have been troubled with constant delays and cancellations either because of heat or the constant rail strikes.

Travelling to-and-fro Stansted by train was awful compared to taking the National Express up to the airport. The CrossCountry trains were small and crammed to the brim, I had even less leg space in the train than I did with my budget airline flight. Even sitting up completely straight, I still felt my knees rub up against the metal of the seat in front of me. The train stations and trains themselves were filthy with trash lying around. One thing that always bothers me while travelling in the UK, is how there's essentially no cell service along the whole route. You're lucky if you even get to pull up HN reliably.

I suppose it helps travelling first class - but that is not at all realistic for most people living in the UK.

Re: Train Travel in the UK: A Foreigner’s Perspective

#55

Post by chrisseaton »

notahacker wrote: post #36
blibble wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt many people are paying 20%+ of net income to commute in you'd have to be on minimum wage and a reasonable distance out (in which case you might as well just work locally) 10% however I can believe

Annual season ticket to London from Peterborough, at the edge of the commuter belt with relatively affordable housing is £9,500 (including Tube) That's 20% of your after tax income if you're on more than double the median UK salary

Commuting from Peterborough would be absolutely insane. You can't convince me you can't find cheaper housing between London and Peterborough. That radius has got to be the majority of the UK's housing stock?

Re: Train Travel in the UK: A Foreigner’s Perspective

#56

Post by techsupporter »

lol768 wrote: post #35

> The UK has a hybrid model which is also in use in countries like Germany, which means that seat reservations can be made on many trains but aren’t compulsory. > This optional seat reservation system is so much better as it means that trains can technically never sell out and you can always hop on board of a certain service. The UK system is starting to move away from this "get up and go" model, unfortunately. A num…

This is the problem I recently encountered with Avanti West Coast in particular, so often that I am kind of astounded that the author didn't hit it once and instead praises Avanti.

Avanti's ticketing system would flatly refuse to sell me an "anytime single" for virtually any route. I had to scroll through and finally find one that claimed to have a seat reservation available and then I could use the actual train I wanted--which, I might add, had buckets of unreserved seats. Once I got griped at by a conductor for taking the "wrong" train when he missed that I had any anytime (1st!) ticket, which was the only thing their own booking engine would sell me.

This month, every Avanti West Coast train I've tried to use has been canceled, and they seem utterly incapable of running direct trains. I've seen the inside of Crewe quite a few times more than I originally intended.

(I understand that it is partially due to "industrial action"--such a nice phrase for "striking workers because they don't get paid enough"--and partially due to limited overtime by those same workers. That's, frankly, not my problem. Pay your people and run your trains.)

Re: Train Travel in the UK: A Foreigner’s Perspective

#57

Post by chrisseaton »

SilverBirch wrote: post #44

>1. Train stations across the UK are gorgeous Yes, strategically we basically stopped investing Rail Infrastructure in the late Victorian era. So yes, everythin is very picturesque. >In my experience, looking up schedules, booking tickets, reserving seats and travelling by train was all as straightforward as can be. You clearly haven't ever bought a ticket . £30 please, unless you want to travel after 10am, then it'l…

> The idea of traveling first class is unheard off for brits.

Bizarre and falsifiable claim. Who do you think is in there? All foreigners? I travel first class quite often if I'm booking in advance, or if I'm travelling on the weekend - and I'm not any kind of money bags foreigner. More space to work, or if you are bringing your family.

Re: Train Travel in the UK: A Foreigner’s Perspective

#58

Post by KJKingJ »

notahacker wrote: post #36
blibble wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt many people are paying 20%+ of net income to commute in you'd have to be on minimum wage and a reasonable distance out (in which case you might as well just work locally) 10% however I can believe

Annual season ticket to London from Peterborough, at the edge of the commuter belt with relatively affordable housing is £9,500 (including Tube) That's 20% of your after tax income if you're on more than double the median UK salary

Or £8,800 if you choose the "Great Northern and Thameslink" only one rather than the "Any Permitted" one. The former lets you travel on the same services as the latter as well as intercity services operated by LNER. They are somewhat quicker of course by virtue of not stopping anywhere after Peterborough (if they even stop there in the first place!), but as Thameslink services continue through London instead of terminating at King's Cross their slower time to get to King's Cross can pay off with a shorter overall journey by virtue of not having to change trains (for a number of people, this can also mean not needing to pay for the tube either - bringing it down to £7,388 year).

Now undoubtedly £7,388 a year is a significant chunk of cash. But to be clear, Peterborough is very much on the edge of the commuter belt at 60 miles from London. A more typical 'commuter belt' origin on that route would be somewhere like Stevenage, Welwyn or Hatfield - which come in at £4,224/year, £3,300/year and £3,076/year respectively.

Re: Train Travel in the UK: A Foreigner’s Perspective

#59

Post by ozim »

SilverBirch wrote: post #44

>1. Train stations across the UK are gorgeous Yes, strategically we basically stopped investing Rail Infrastructure in the late Victorian era. So yes, everythin is very picturesque. >In my experience, looking up schedules, booking tickets, reserving seats and travelling by train was all as straightforward as can be. You clearly haven't ever bought a ticket . £30 please, unless you want to travel after 10am, then it'l…

Wait till you see old crumbling 1950's communist era stations. These get less common nowadays as they are fully rebuilt.

If you peeps could keep up Victorian era stations in decent shape imagine how much money was spent there.

Re: Train Travel in the UK: A Foreigner’s Perspective

#60

Post by eynsham »

gw99 wrote: post #15
eynsham wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was that on the new trains?

Was 2019 so I expect so unless they replaced them since.

Hm, the Mark 5 carriages were introduced in April and October 2019, so it could have been either just from the year.
Post reply on HN