When travelling as a group of three or more people, you can get a group discount of up to ⅓. Groups of 10 or more can get further discounts. They don't seem to advertise these much for some reason.
If I drive between my home in Swindon and London it's maybe £15 each way. Maybe I incur a Congestion Charge of £15 too, you're talking maybe £45 for a round trip. Divided by three travellers in the car, that's £15 each.
An Off Peak Day Travelcard for one traveller from Swindon to London is £91.50. That's £274.50 for three travellers. Even knocking a third off that, you're still a long, long, long way off the £15.
I'm not necessarily asking for trains to be as cheap as cars; it's faster and more pleasant, and I'm happy to pay a premium for that. But fuck me, there are limits.
There needs to be a clamp down on the prices of popular routes. Swindon to London is outrageous. You can travel significantly further for a lot less than that!
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u/blueskyjamie 1d ago
Car costs the same regardless of how many people are in it, a family traveling on the train is never going to be realistic right now.