Irreverent Thinking

I am due in London tomorrow, at a meeting in the West End, so I am daytripping, rather than slog down in the car just for the day. I would normally use the rather excellent train service out of Leeds. Recent changes have made traveling by train a real joy and not the drag it used to be. I book my seat online and therefore have a guaranteed slot to rest my head, do some work and catch up on some reading (I currently have a 223 page report on web analytics that I am ploughing through).

My fiance? lives along the M62 corridor and rather conveniently next to Brough (a mainline train station to Kings Cross) so I have the convenient option of deciding where I can travel from. I can take the train to Leeds (?8) tomorrow morning and get a fast connection to Kings Cross or I can take a direct train from Stella’s doorstep and arrive a little quicker than travelling from Halifax.

Now this is the shocker….a day return from Brough to Hull (via the excellent Hull Trains) this late in the day and getting into Kings Cross at 10:53 costs a very reasonable £44 and this gives me a reserved seat, modern trains and a good service with no car parking costs.

Conversely, the best that GNER can manage is an eye wateringly different £108! I make that a huge 250% more expensive than Hull Trains. The standard open fare from Halifax to Kings Cross (via Leeds) is pretty shocking at £170 versus £103 from Brough (65% more expensive) but it just goes to show the vast differences in the price of rail tickets at the moment. Both prices were taken on similar journey times and were designed to suit my meeting tomorrow. I also understand that they are broadly similar in terms of journey distance as well, making the price differentials even harder to stomach.

I am sure that GNER would argue that they have better trains, a sit-down breakfast option (which is very good, but you can only get access to the dining car after Stevenage as a second-class ticket holder). They also have more train services running but as long as Hull Trains fit the bill why is there any need to pay way over the odds. Looking closer I could have got the return for £30 if I had planned a little further ahead and maybe altered my traveling times.

I don’t suppose you would be surprised that tonight after work I am driving along the M62 corridor and will enjoy a nice quiet bottle of wine with my future wife, we will natter and chatter all evening. I will get a good night sleep and jump on the train at 8:24am tomorrow morning rather than being on a 7 o’clock train out of Halifax. Even adding the 1 hour the journey across the M62 it is still quicker and with the rather nice advantage of seeing Stella as well. What would you do?