Loco2’s interesting infographic

Loco2, the excellent booking website for overseas travel, has done some research and produced interesting infographics - it can be seen at www.loco2.com/blog/traintravel-infographic.

These compare journeys across the Continent, to see if there’s any truth in the claim that Britain has Europe’s most expensive fares. They show that while we pay the highest walk-on fares in Europe, our advance fares can compare well with the cheapest available on mainland Europe. They also show which are generally the cheapest days to travel.

However, as with all such presentations, you have to be careful what is being shown. For example, it shows what are usually the fares between London and Glasgow 30 days before travel (£40), the day before (£82), and on the day (£134.10), plus the cheapest possible (£20).

It doesn’t say so, but these are singles - including for on the day (the Off-Peak single). It masks the fact that as most people come back, you have to double the advance fares. And that means for booking the day before you might pay £164.

But - and it’s a very big but - it ignores the fact that the walk-on OP Return is only £1 dearer (£135.10), and so can be a lot cheaper than advance tickets if bought only the day before (although it’s true that the return journey might be less than £82).

It is worth re-emphasising what I have always maintained: never book advance tickets until you have found out the walkon return for the journey you require.

After all, you certainly don’t want to pay more for advance, and you might well be happy to pay rather more for the walk-on in order to retain the flexibility that can be so important for many travellers.