Leicester is the most expensive city in the country to travel from by train

[davieG]

By Leicester Mercury  |  Posted: March 22, 2016

By Samantha Fisher

 

File pic

 

 Comments (5)

Leicester is the most expensive city in Britain to travel from by train, a study has revealed.

Research by travel comparison site Gopili found Leicester people pay on average £35 per 100 miles when travelling by train.

That is three times more expensive than Glasgow people who pay £12 per 100 miles.

The average cost across the country is £21 per 100 miles.

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The research focused on the cheapest train tickets available, one week in advance, from Britain's 20 largest cities to their top destinations.

Rodolphe Morfoise-Gauthier, manager UK of Gopili, said: "This can be explained by several factors such as the distance of the journey, the demand, the competition and the number of stops between the two locations.

"Britain has a strong rail network with train operators offering high quality services. It is surprising to see that train travel costs can vary a lot depending on the city you're travelling from."

READ: Congestion data shows Leicester to be the 11th most gridlocked city in the UK

 

 

Alex Ulyett, 19, a music teacher, of Market Harborough, said: "I travel by train around once a week and although I am quite surprised about the findings of the study, I often find buses to be much cheaper. I find the fact that Leicester is so expensive to travel from by train quite shocking and I think it should be cheaper, especially for students in the area."

Keeley Price, 30, social work student, of Saffron Lane, said: "I commute three times a week on average and I feel that it is far too expensive and the costs need to be reduced.

"The findings of the study are not surprising to me at all and I believe that Leicester trains are so expensive because East Midlands trains tend to travel to locations all over the country. Whenever I have commuted, I have found the costs to be very high."

An East Midlands Trains spokesperson said: "East Midlands Trains have Advanced One way fares between Leicester and London from just £14.50 when booked at www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk. For the best value tickets we encourage that passengers book as soon as possible, with tickets available 12 weeks in advance of departure.

"Passengers who require more flexibility with travel are able to purchase a Super Off Peak Return standard ticket at £59.50.

"Season tickets are also available which offer great savings to regular commuters."

The survey found the second most expensive city was Cardiff, followed by Southampton.

It revealed Britain's cities with higher populations, such as London and Birmingham, were the cheapest to travel from.

The statistics also showed that Scottish train travellers paid less, with Glasgow and Edinburgh placed first and third in the ranking.

Read more: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Leicester-expensive-city-cpuntry-travel-train/story-28971661-detail/story.html#ixzz43it9IuUG 
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[AKCJ]

When I went up to Sunderland away last season I spent about 8 quid going from Whitby to Sunderland.

 

It's 60 miles. It's ridiculous how much we're overcharged here.

[separator]

I'm travelling tomorrow morning at peak time Leicester - London for £14.50, I could have gone first class for £20, it is the first train out of Leicester so its a bloody early start but I need to be in London before 7am so works out well. The cheap fares are there if you look for them.

[Benguin]

Don't even get me started on travelling to and from uni! If I didn't choose longer routes via London, it would cost me £150 or £300 for single and returns respectively to Dundee. It's a joke! I now buy a single to London for around a tenner if I get it in advance and can then travel from London to Dundee for £40. Really frustrating going down to come back up though!

I'm travelling tomorrow morning at peak time Leicester - London for £14.50, I could have gone first class for £20, it is the first train out of Leicester so its a bloody early start but I need to be in London before 7am so works out well. The cheap fares are there if you look for them.

 

Any travel to London is cheap, you can do it for a £1 on the bus. City to city excluding London is extortionate

[Dan LCFC]

That doesn't surprise me in the slightest. How can it be about a third of the price to get to London from Rugby or Nuneaton than from Leicester?

 

On that note I once went to London from Nuneaton because it was £6 return - which was actually less than it cost me to get to Nuneaton from Narborough in the first place

[Fox92]

The thing that winds me up is the lack of ticket inspectors. 

 

Legally you have to buy a ticket but then on board they rarely come 'round and check. It's no wonder so many people dodge fares - and it's exactly what I try and do... When I was at Uni I could get from Uni [Manchester] to home [sheffield] for free, because of no (or lack of) inspectors.

[Dan LCFC]

Why would that wind you up?!

 

Train prices are hilarious. Another one... Sheffield Wednesday away, £25 return from Leicester to Sheffield, but it's £10 from Leicester to Derby and about the same from Derby to Sheffield, despite the Leicester to Sheffield train stopping at Derby, so you actually get charged an extra fiver for nothing. We just did Leicester to Derby and no-one checked again. Too easy.

[Fox92]

Why would that wind you up?!

 

Train prices are hilarious. Another one... Sheffield Wednesday away, £25 return from Leicester to Sheffield, but it's £10 from Leicester to Derby and about the same from Derby to Sheffield, despite the Leicester to Sheffield train stopping at Derby, so you actually get charged an extra fiver for nothing. We just did Leicester to Derby and no-one checked again. Too easy.

 

I meant it winds me up when I pay for a ticket and then nobody comes around. Places like London for example (and even Leicester) where you have to pay because of barriers and nobody checks. Sat there with a ridiculous expensive train ticket in me pocket when I could have travelled for free (though not when there are barriers because that's what they are there for - to stop dodging but I understand why it happens).

 

I do a lot of what you've mentioned there. Break down the ticket, too. Or even just buy not for that station. Much cheaper.

[DB11]

I meant it winds me up when I pay for a ticket and then nobody comes around. Places like London for example (and even Leicester) where you have to pay because of barriers and nobody checks. Sat there with a ridiculous expensive train ticket in me pocket when I could have travelled for free (though not when there are barriers because that's what they are there for - to stop dodging but I understand why it happens).

 

I do a lot of what you've mentioned there. Break down the ticket, too. Or even just buy not for that station. Much cheaper.

 

You could go into a shop and take something off the shelf and walk out with it for free. What's stopping you from doing that?

[Fox92]

You could go into a shop and take something off the shelf and walk out with it for free. What's stopping you from doing that?

 

In shops they usually have security guards though.... I can get on train at Sheffield and get off at Chesterfield without anybody even checking my ticket. I'm then not going to mention it am I. And that's what I meant by my OP, lack of inspectors when ticket prices are so so expensive is a joke... When you have paid and nobody has checked your ticket it's just that feeling you could have travelled for free basically.

[Kevinparr71]

From Rhyl to Leicester direct £69 go through Derby it costs £35 gets us back home same time 10pm Saturday

[DB11]

In shops they usually have security guards though.... I can get on train at Sheffield and get off at Chesterfield without anybody even checking my ticket. I'm then not going to mention it am I. And that's what I meant by my OP, lack of inspectors when ticket prices are so so expensive is a joke... When you have paid and nobody has checked your ticket it's just that feeling you could have travelled for free basically.

 

Well you clearly have no morals then. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Everything has a cost associated to it. I bet if you ever get caught you'd come out with "but it's my first time, honest, please have sympathy"

[Gerard]

When I went up to Sunderland away last season I spent about 8 quid going from Whitby to Sunderland.

 

It's 60 miles. It's ridiculous how much we're overcharged here.

 

Going to Man City this season my train ticket seemed very expensive so I broke it down by going to Crewe and then a separate ticket from Crewe to Manchester. It was £3 to get to Manchester for a 36 mile journey.

[jammie82uk]

The pricing is daft I've Just looking for tickets for this Saturday for a last minute trip for a single ticket to London to go direct from Leicester it's 37:50 standard class

But If I go via Nuneaton it's £3:70 to Nuneaton then you can get a 1st class ticket for £30:50 to London

[AndWhat?]

Train fares are an absolute joke.

 

Wrexham to Market Harborough return is £50 and a single is £49. How on earth does that make sense?

[red5]

Train fares are an absolute joke.

 

Wrexham to Market Harborough return is £50 and a single is £49. How on earth does that make sense?

 

BOGOF

[Dan LCFC]

Wish I was as good a person as DB11 is.

[Vicki Vixen]

In shops they usually have security guards though....

Hmmm

[ScouseFox]

train prices are crazy tbf. considering how crap most of the trains are, how crap all of the staff normally are, how often they're late and how slowly they usually go paying for them at all seems mental most the time, let alone paying hundreds of pounds to get somewhere not even that far away. you can get tons of planes across all of europe for less than a ton and be there in a couple of hours, but to go from liverpool to newcastle is £108 and takes basically a whole day? nah. 

[Fox92]

Well you clearly have no morals then. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Everything has a cost associated to it. I bet if you ever get caught you'd come out with "but it's my first time, honest, please have sympathy"

 

You're missing my point as my first post clearly states that I am wound up about lack of inspectors. 

 

As for morals I take it you've never done anything wrong or illegal in your life ever.

[Dan LCFC]

I've been the same with football. I'll buy a kids ticket when I think I can get away with it because I think they're greedy rip-off merchants. If I get in trouble (still yet to do so) then I get in trouble. Not really blaming anyone for it but myself. I'll not do it next year though as I'm happy with the pricing of away tickets.

 

I think train companies take the piss out of their customers similar to the way football clubs take the piss out of their fans. That's why I'll not have any shame in not paying or hold anything against anyone else for not going back and paying after not getting charged. Bit different to going into a shop.

[Staffs Fox]

Not surprised in the slightest EMT are the biggest joke,

 

Last summer I was going to the Oval for the Ashes which meant I had to get the train pre-9am. A return from Kettering to London was £78!! So I drove to my family's who live in Tamworth and got a return for £14! I went backwards on myself but even with the petrol I saved £55 which is a lot of beer vouchers

 

Kettering to Oakham (20 miles journey) is £19!! How can that be justified?

 

As others have said the cheap tickets are there but you have to be on the ball and want to travel at those times

[Countesthorpe Fox 1884]

Last week going to palace by train from rugby the Ticket office cocked up and I got a return to London Euston with travel card zones 1-6 for........£1

[BoyJones]

We flew to Milan annually for several years to take in an Inter game and have a weekend jolly.

This because the price of the flight there and back, plus the cost of the ticket for the game was cheaper than getting a return train ticket to Leeds or Manchester for a weekend away. Crazy really.

Having said this I have just shelled out for five first class train tickets for the Chelsea match, going down early Saturday morning and back midnight Sunday. But it is going to be a once in a lifetime occasion, whatever the result or seasons outcome.

[davieG]

 

Unfair fares.

 

 Comments (5)

Welcome to Leicester, says the sign at the London Road railway station. What it doesn't say is: "Don't catch a train from here if you're going to London. It would be much cheaper if you caught a train from Rugby, Tamworth, Nuneaton, Peterborough, or sometimes even Nottingham and Derby."

In the interests of full disclosure, maybe it should. Because it's true.

A recent survey revealed Leicester is the most expensive city in Britain to travel from by train.

Research showed that train users here paid £35 per £100 miles compared with commuters in Glasgow, who pay just £12. But what does that mean? How does that equate to ticket prices?

 

A Mercury investigation has revealed just how disparate some of those fares are.

Rail user groups have criticised the vast differences in price and city MP Jon Ashworth said it was outrageous Leicestershire commuters were receiving a raw deal.

He pledged to raise the matter with the Government and East Midlands Trains. "This needs to be sorted out," he said.

We wanted to find out just how expensive it was to travel by train from Leicester.

A week ago, we picked two dates – Saturday, April 2 and the following Tuesday, April 5 – and tried to find out how much it would cost one adult and then a family of four to travel to London; not just from Leicester but eight stations nearby.

Two random dates. Two different, but common enough scenarios. A whole load of surprising results.

It cost £59.50 to travel to London from Leicester station at about 9.30am on Saturday, April 2. That's the standard open weekday return fare.

Yet at Rugby station, it was £28 – a saving of more than 52 per cent. At Peterborough station, it was just £18.60 for the same trip – a saving of more than 70 per cent.

It was 10p cheaper from Nottingham (£59.40) and £18.40 cheaper from Derby (£41.10).

That's the same line and the same company – yet it's often cheaper to get to London from stations 20 miles or so north of Leicester.

 

 

Terry Hoult is the chairman of the East Midlands branch of Rail Future, a pressure group which campaigns for better rail service and better prices for commuters.

"I just don't understand that at all," Mr Hoult said.

"You will always find some fare discrepancies and it really is worth shopping around, well in advance if possible, to compare and contrast stations and times."

The golden rule is: if you are flexible, you can save money, says Mr Hoult.

"If you can be flexible, you have a much better chance of finding a good deal.

"Try to travel after peak times – after 10am and returning after 7pm – and you will save money."

It may well be cheaper to get to London from Rugby or Nuneaton or Peterborough stations but, as Mr Hoult explains: "They are different lines, with different operators – London Midland and Virgin, rather than East Midlands Trains.

"But, even then, the differences shouldn't be as vast as you found.

"It should never be the case that it's cheaper to get to London from Nottingham and Derby than it is from Leicester.

"It is the same line, the same operator, East Midlands Trains, the same stock, the same service.

"It stands to reason it should cost more to get to London from Nottingham or Derby.

"I'd be interested to hear what they say about that. I think it's hard to justify that kind of price difference."

The differences are even more marked if you are buying tickets for a family of four.

It costs £259.50 for a family of four leaving Leicester station at 9.30am tomorrow to London.

The same return trip is £62 from Rugby – and that includes free bus and tube travel in London. It's a saving of 76 per cent.

It's £82 from Nuneaton (with free London tube and bus travel) and £83.10 from Peterborough.

But, again, its also cheaper for a family of four travelling to London from Derby (£204, a saving of 22 per cent) and cheaper again to get to London from Nottingham.

It is £178.20 for a family of four travelling from Nottingham station to London at 9.30am tomorrow. That's £81 less – 32 per cent – for the Notts family.

Imagine that, if you can. A family of four from Leicester catching a 9.30am train to London tomorrow morning.

And a family of four from Nottingham.

One of them will be paying £81 more for their rail fare. It won't be the family from Notts.

That cheaper option was not available for passengers at Leicester.

 

 

Leicester South MP Jon Ashworth said there was simply no justification for the Leicester price hike.

"I accept this is a snapshot, and not perhaps every journey, but still, these are astonishing figures and I'm sure Leicestershire train users will be as mystified as I am.

"I understand there may be small differences between the stations, if they are run by different companies.

"But these are not small differences. It should not be £59.50 for a 9.30am train from Leicester to London and £18 from Peterborough. That's not right.

"And it should never be more expensive to go to London from Leicester than it is from Derby or Nottingham.

"East Midlands Trains is having a laugh there – and at our expense."

Mr Ashworth said he would raise these anomalies with both the Government and East Midlands Trains.

"Whatever the reason is for this, it's not right and it needs to change," he said.

A spokeswoman for East Midlands Trains produced a table which showed off-peak fares to London from Leicester, booked four weeks in advance, for £15.50.

It did not answer the central questions here: why is it so much cheaper to go to London from stations like Rugby and Nuneaton and Peterborough? And why is it cheaper, at those times, from its own stations in Nottingham and Derby, which are further north, on the same track?

We looked at other dates – next week, the week after – and it is always more expensive to go from Leicester than it is from Derby or Nottingham if you are travelling at about 9.30am, which is just the sort of time you would pick for a day trip to London. A spokeswoman for East Midlands Trains said fares were not set according to miles travelled but for certain regions.

The Leicester-to-London fare was set with similar stations in Nottingham, Beeston, East Midlands Parkway and Loughborough.

"We do offer a range of fares on different routes across our network," said the spokeswoman. "And in common with other routes on the UK rail network, different stations and companies have different pricing structures.

"These pricing structures can take into account factors such as the speed and frequency of the services available from that station, as well as the level of investment being made to improve the station and train service.

"The Nottingham vs Leicester comparison on this service is Nottingham's 09:05 and Leicester's 09:32, which arrive into St Pancras at 10:56.

"This is during a peak time with large volumes of passengers on this train in particular.

"To manage crowding, we do not offer advance tickets on that particular train."

By that, she means the Leicester train. Advance tickets are offered at Nottingham and Derby.

Rivals firms offering cheaper prices elsewhere take into account other factors such as the speed and frequency of the services "as well as the level of investment being made to improve the station and service".

That doesn't really wash with Terry Hoult, chairman of the East Midlands branch of Rail Future.

He said: "We have paid a large premium here, in Leicester, for the so-called modernisation of the railway but we're still waiting to see the results. The east and west coast routes have been improved, but not here.

"About 40 per cent of our London trains are from the old 1980s BR days – slam doors, awkward disabled access, pushing the toilet waste straight out on to the track – yet we seem to be paying more here than anywhere else."

Stephen Abbott, secretary of Travelwatch East Midlands, said you can find hard-to-justify price differences like this week in, week out.

"It is an absolute minefield, the price discrepancies in and around Leicester," he said. "None of it serves the consumer.

"The difference in price you've found doesn't surprise me. It's less of a problem northbound, where the ticket prices seem quite uniform.

"But buying a ticket to London – the busiest and most popular route – seems almost deliberately confusing."

 

 

Stephen Abbot said it was time for East Midlands Trains to sort this out.

"We hear gripes like this all the time. I'm glad you're doing something like this because it's a mystery. People need to know."

There is one solution, said Stephen.

"You really have to do your homework. Don't always, for example, buy a return ticket from Leicester to London.

"Yes, check the other stations but check, too, if it's cheaper to split your ticket."

Seasoned rail users know all about splitting tickets – that is, rather than blithely buying one direct ticket from Leicester to London, buying multiple tickets from Leicester to another station on the same line and then a ticket from there to London.

A lot of tickets and a lot of needless fuss, said Stephen.

"But it can also save you a lot of money."

Lianna Etkind is the public transport spokeswoman for the Campaign for Better Transport, a group pushing for better rail services.

There are discrepancies like this across the country, said Ms Etkind.

"That's because the current fares system is a hodge-podge of different policies, companies and approaches, leading to considerable variation of fares across the country.

"I think if passengers from Leicester are paying more for their rail ticket than those travelling from further afield, for the same journey, that is clearly is unfair.

"What passengers need to see are more-affordable, fairer and simpler train fares across Leicestershire and the whole of the East Midlands."

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