Every penny counts

Barry Doe has waxed eloquently on his lack of need to book ahead and the claim that only a small percentage of passengers do so, despite the advantages of lower prices.

‘Eye-watering’ is one charitable description of almost any walk-on fare much above about 100 miles that does not benefit from the anomaly of split ticketing.

In 2014, I and my wife travelled from Annan (south west Scotland) to Camborne (Cornwall): walk-on fare £131 single, £132 return.

Splitting the ticket at Birmingham and Exeter (where train changes were necessary anyway) and waiting an hour at Exeter for a cheaper ticket brought it down to about £78 return. Between us we collected no fewer than 32 tickets and reservation coupons.

The motoring lobby frequently quotes a cost per mile for driving as several dozen pence, usually in the context of a claim/demand for a reduction in taxes. When comparisons with rail fares are made, it suddenly drops to only (or not much more than) the cost of the fuel.

At about £1.30 per litre (it can cost less than this, especially at supermarkets), and with many cars doing at least ten miles per litre (45mpg), we are talking 13p per mile. How many rail (or bus) fares are this cheap? And the car will take three extra passengers!

What is usually not pointed out: it costs a lot to actually own a car, with high fixed costs per year that vary little regardless of miles driven, but apart from extra fuel, not much more to actually drive it. Tyres will wear and need replacing, as will clutch and brake linings, but infrequently.