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I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train

metro.co.uk

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Re: I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train

#161

Post by petercooper »

pera wrote: post #69
Daviey wrote: post #5

Compared to the UK where a standard-class rail season ticket for me to get to London (including underground), at £8,272 p/y.. but for that, I also have the luxury of either standing in an overcrowded carriage, or if I am super lucky I get to sit in a seat that smells of urine.

I never understood why trains are so expensive in England: when I lived in Bristol I liked to spend time in Bath, it's just a ~10 minutes ride but it costed 10 pounds each way if I remember correctly... but at least you could bring your bike for free :p

Public transport in the UK is trapped in a vicious cycle. The system is poor, so people buy cars, which means fewer people use the system, which means less investment, which means the system gets even worse, so more people buy cars. Despite all its ills, driving is, for enough people, a more pleasant experience than tackling strikes, standing on a train for two hours, or being unable to travel at certain times at all.

I have to go on a cross country journey this Sunday which would suit the use of the train, except there are none at all on my section of the main line early in the morning, so I shall drive all the way into London. The data may make it look as if no-one needs or wants to use the train early on a Sunday, except we might, if we had the option.

Re: I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train

#164

Post by dav_Oz »

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #52

If I was his age a $2.5K on a years interrail ticket for unlimited travel across Europe (admittedly 2nd class and there may seat reservation charges) would be very tempting https://www.eurail.com/en

On October he did began to incorporate the Global Pass (3 months) which got him as far as Istanbul and Ankara and high up north as Kiruna in Sweden, Lapland.[0]

Seems a very cautious guy, as he was booking a night train from Budapest to Bucharest, apparently he was warned at the counter by an employee which made him very uneasy. Reminds of the story of that TEDx talk.[1]

He is clearly enjoying it so I hope the positive experiences encourage him to even go beyond Europe, like to India ;) [2]

[0]https://leben-im-zug.de/mein-jahresrueckblick-2023/

[1]https://youtu.be/R7vmHGAshi8?&t=778

[2]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie_trail

Re: I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train

#165

Post by kwhitefoot »

carlmr wrote: post #155
RamblingCTO wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's not the only one though. I read about a guy that spends his whole days in trains, driving the whole day through Germany. They accounted for that, I'm sure. It just these people are in, what, the 0.000001% or something? He's subsidized by the state and other passengers, not the company.

>It just these people are in, what, the 0.000001% or something? Exactly. It's not comfortable, it's not safe and cozy, it's not that cheap that homeless people would buy the BahnCard 100 that you couldn't find some form of cohabitation for a similar price. And then there's the constant strikes as of now, so you might go days without shelter or need to pay for hotels which adds up quickly. I'd say this is a rounding e…

> it's not safe and cozy

What's unsafe about it?

Re: I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train

#167

Post by jplrssn »

jamil7 wrote: post #149

Good on him, I guess? I'm happy we have a somewhat functioning high speed rail system here but I can't say I'm in a hurry to be in the ICE 24/7 for the same price as renting a flat.

Especially seeing as the steady state of DB operations these days seems to be utter chaos.

But it does seem like a good way to explore the country.

Re: I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train

#168

Post by dghughes »

>I decided to live on a train when I was 16 years old. My school days were behind me and the whole world was open to me.

That alone is amazing. Is 16 normal in Germany or did this guy graduate years earlier than normal?

Answering my own question, seems maybe they went to a "Realschule"? If I understand it correctly kind of a trade or technical school for those whose path leads into a job right away. Otherwise it's Gymnasium (funny sounding to English speakers) a regular school path that leads to University.

Re: I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train

#169

Post by MagnumOpus »

ithkuil wrote: post #160
627467 wrote: post #112

There are so many possible perspectives for such story but in this day and age the focus is on how much this cost. So let's talk about cost: I don't know how often he sleeps in this way[0] but clearly at £8500/year no one is discussing the externalized cost of taking up (arguably empty) seats he didn't pay for and setting the stage for future "nomads" to do the same and turning first class night trains into a substan…

> he didn't pay for hey, he paid for it! They gave him an unlimited ticket in exchange for euros. You're free to say that the train company shouldn't have created an unlimited ticket but it's unfair to paint a person who uses what he legally bought as a thief.

Read the comment again - he pays for one seat, he sleeps across 3 or 4.
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