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

111–120 of 191 posts

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

#111

Post by steve_gh »

blibble wrote: post #51
notahacker wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Many more than that. Pre-pandemic Bath was quite busy in the mornings. Only 75 mins from Paddington, good comfortable trains, and always a seat, so you could work. What's not to like

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

#112

Post by tomduncalf »

traceroute66 wrote: post #25
case0x00 wrote: post #8

Having both traveled across the country and throughout Greater London on trains, it is actually really convenient. London is its own kind of beast with the tube/overground, but throughout the rest of the country its definitely pleasant. Going through London during peak hours, dealing with trains randomly stopping midway through a journey with a packed carriage, dealing with anti-social teens, or traveling in the midd…

> London is its own kind of beast with the tube/overground To do well in London you really have to know the city (or at least the areas around your start/end points). Especially as you get towards the centre of London, there are lots of opportunities for "cheating" (i.e. getting out and walking is much more efficient than going to your actual destination station, or, worse, changing trains). If you want to go that ex…

As a London resident I find the app Citymapper pretty invaluable for making public transport decisions, it makes good use of both “shortcuts” and current conditions on the line to give pretty accurate results. Worth downloading if you visit (it’s also available in other major cities but I don’t know if it works equally well).

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

#113

Post by 4dregress »

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #100
Mordisquitos wrote: post #33

As someone with significant experience of using the rail networks in both the UK and Spain, I strongly agree with the last point regarding the hybrid reservation model. In addition, there's one further point which I don't think he mentions: the fact that in the UK you can buy a ticket at any station to go to any arbitrary station A from any arbitrary station B (notwithstanding the complexity of determining the best p…

Meanwhile in Japan (Tokyo at least) the red, blue, green, whatever lines aren’t even the same companies and good luck foreigner!

JR Pass is the answer for this! The JR Pass is awesome!

https://www.jrpass.com/

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

#114

Post by kochikame »

4dregress wrote: post #113
SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile in Japan (Tokyo at least) the red, blue, green, whatever lines aren’t even the same companies and good luck foreigner!

JR Pass is the answer for this! The JR Pass is awesome! https://www.jrpass.com/

No, the existence of the JR pass exactly proves their point.

It only works on JR lines, so in Tokyo you still need to buy tickets for all the private train lines and metro lines (city run and private run). Try getting around Tokyo on the daily using only JR lines; it won't be too much fun for you.

JR pass is only really useful for long-haul, intercity type journeys, primarily by shinkansen

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

#115

Post by switch007 »

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…

I don’t commute for work but get equally annoyed. Off peak services are prime time for engineering works, cancellations, rail replacements (which aren’t even replacements), reduced service etc.

Off peak tickets are hardly cheap either

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

#116

Post by kochikame »

traceroute66 wrote: post #14
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…

> British people love to complain about the state of their railways When British people go to Switzerland or Japan its like they've died and woken up in heaven. Japanese rail in particular is pure heaven compared to the UK. Trains are always punctual. Trains are always clean. Trains are always frequent. And that's before we start talking about the amazing food stores that are attached to main Japanese stations. In th…

Not to mention that it is absolutely standard for full-time employees to have the full cost of their commute covered by their company

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

#118

Post by matt-p »

nextos wrote: post #79
Mordisquitos wrote: post #33

As someone with significant experience of using the rail networks in both the UK and Spain, I strongly agree with the last point regarding the hybrid reservation model. In addition, there's one further point which I don't think he mentions: the fact that in the UK you can buy a ticket at any station to go to any arbitrary station A from any arbitrary station B (notwithstanding the complexity of determining the best p…

The problem is usually price and reliability. You can commute Segovia - Madrid Chamartin on a high speed train (95 km, 27 min, 200 euro per month). Reliability and price are top notch. A comparable commute is Cambridge - London (60 mi, 65 min, 500-600 pound per month depending on some details). I have used both, and there is no contest, sadly.

To be honest, I don't think that's a very fair comparison time:distance wise. Cambridge is infamously time consuming to get to by train and that's a very good route in Spain, they are not all that quick.

For example Peterborough which is quite some miles north of Cambridge runs trains to London in 51 mins.

What about Milton Keynes > London in 34 mins, Reading > London in 30 mins and so on.

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

#119

Post by switch007 »

Just to counter the “mainland Europe has superior trains” kind of argument. I find the IC in the Netherlands to be old, crowded, dirty and uncomfortable.

Compare https://www.seat61.com/images/Netherlands-ic-2nd-large.jpg and https://mobile.twitter.com/TPExpressTrains/status/9869664169... . The Dutch ones are refurbished original stock from decades ago I believe. I believe the latter seats a lot more people too. But I prefer the Dutch prices :D

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

#120

Post by karaokeyoga »

masklinn wrote: post #105
SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile in Japan (Tokyo at least) the red, blue, green, whatever lines aren’t even the same companies and good luck foreigner!

IME it’s completely transparent. You load up your suica and you’re off. The issue’s it’s a bit too transparent: and after a while you realise that your suica is emptying unexpectedly fast, because you’re paying (and resetting your trip counter) every time you pass a gate, and that you probably shouldn’t blindly follow western trip system because you want to limit network switches, at which point you run into the issu…

Google Maps shows us the total trip cost – I'm assuming that's reliable.
Post reply on HN