WTF? 11-15% Rail Fare price hike?

[Raven]

Fuck cycling to work, who wants to sit around stinking like an old sock all day? Some of us have jobs where we are expected to look decent, not like we have just ridden 20 miles in all weather to work.

Anyway, I earn quite a lot more than 20k a year and I live hardly any distance from work. Beat my personal best last week, 6 minutes from office door to home front door, without breaking any speed limits.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Today it took exactly 47 minutes from station to office seat. The time was spent watching Breaking Bad.

Fairly sure neither of those things are possible while cycling.

 

[Poag]

My train leaves at 6:43. I get to my office desk by 7:40. I sit on the train read FH, social networks etc, have a doze. Chat to friends who are awake.

Even the drive from home to the station isn't that bad. I leave at about 6:10 and i'm on the platform by 6:40 99% of the time. That includes the drive, parking and walking from the car park into the station (about half a mile or so)

 

[Wazzerphuk]

You big lazy fatty. DO SOME EXERCISE

 

[Poag]

Yer sorry, best stop walking the dogs daily and going cycling at the weekend. Such a terrible person I am.

 

[old.Tohtori]

You big lazy fatty. DO SOME EXERCISE

Quite. People who don't exercise are the reason why people get shot in cinemas and why the space program got scrapped!

 

[Tom]

Dear Lord, Scouse levels of pedantry. It's a hypothetical situation to you in case you hadn't figured that out.



Do a bit of exercise You're a moron sometimes you really are. I play football 3 times a week and gym 2-3 times a week. I exercise more than most people I know and am very fit. 80 minutes would greatly increase my commute time, which is already too long for my liking. Maybe you should realise that not everyone's situation is like yours and that cycling isn't necessarily a viable option, especially one that's constrained heavily with time.

Whereas you're an offensive moron pretty much all the time.

Whinge about railway fares all you like, the simple fact is that if you live and work in or around one of the world's most expensive cities then you're going to have to pay the price. If you don't like it then why not move to an area of the country not full of people wearing stupid pearly costumes rolling barrels of jellied eels around the streets shouting "oi Pat, see you at the Queen Vic you old slappah!"

And really, going to a gym to exercise. LOL. Have a jpeg:

 

[Tom]

I wouldn't ride the roads near me into Manchester, too many cyclists killed every year due to a terrible cycling lane system that was never finished. Half a dozen places along the main routes with flowers and tributes. No thanks, as much I would like to cycle in and save myself a nice amount of cash it just isn't worth the risk on my side of Manchester.

I've been cycling around Manchester for the last 25 years, it doesn't faze me one bit. I completely ignore the cycle lanes, as far as I'm concerned they don't exist.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Whereas you're an offensive moron pretty much all the time.

Whinge about railway fares all you like, the simple fact is that if you live and work in or around one of the world's most expensive cities then you're going to have to pay the price. If you don't like it then why not move to an area of the country not full of people wearing stupid pearly costumes rolling barrels of jellied eels around the streets shouting "oi Pat, see you at the Queen Vic you old slappah!"

And really, going to a gym to exercise. LOL. Have a jpeg:

Things you don't understand, at all:

The industry I work in has jobs in London and fuck all elsewhere in the country.
I use the gym for strength toning. Good to see you ignored the fact I play football regularly and targeted abuse at something you YET AGAIN DON'T UNDERSTAND.

The problem isn't so much high fares: it's the repeated above-inflation increases, or are you too thicky and ginger to understand why that has the potential to cause massive problems?

It's fucking hilarious how every time a bike is mentioned on these forums you become the highest and mightiest prick in the world.

 

[Scouse]

The problem isn't so much high fares: it's the repeated above-inflation increases

To be fair, trains are currently 40% taxpayer-supported. Tories are good little capitalists - they want the costs put onto the consumers.

I travel on trains, well, erm, once in the last ten years - actually a few months back after a bike ride to Chester from the land of Scouse. It did cross my mind that it was a fuck load of infrastructure that I'm subsidising through my tax...

Thought everyone around here was pro-capitalist? Pay for what you consume!

 

[Tom]

Things you don't understand, at all:

The industry I work in has jobs in London and fuck all elsewhere in the country.
I use the gym for strength toning. Good to see you ignored the fact I play football regularly and targeted abuse at something you YET AGAIN DON'T UNDERSTAND.

The problem isn't so much high fares: it's the repeated above-inflation increases, or are you too thicky and ginger to understand why that has the potential to cause massive problems?

It's fucking hilarious how every time a bike is mentioned on these forums you become the highest and mightiest prick in the world.

Strength toning, lol, give it a rest. I used to go to the gym in my late teens before I realised that 95% of the exercises I was paying a premium for I could do elsewhere, for nothing.

Whinge whinge whinge, if you think trains are expensive then get a car. If you think cars are expensive then get a bicycle. Do something, but shut the fuck up whatever you do. I've had to swallow a £6,000 bill because OFCOM are flogging the radio frequencies I use for work. Maybe you should contribute toward the cost of buying me a new set of radio mics, after all, you railway users expect everyone else to pay for your comfy seats so why shouldn't I have some nice new taxpayer-subsidised radio microphones?

I see people like you every day except where you're sat on a train, they're sat in their cars bitching about how unfair it all is. 20 miles, a long commute? LOL.

 

[Job]

Fuck me they are 40% tax funded and still stupidly expensive, they seriously need to consider tarmacing the tracks and putting the whole system in the history books.
Here's an explanation why, stand by any train track and one train will go by at the most every ten minutes, usually a lot less than that.
Stand by the M6..do you get my point?
The fundamental idea is a joke, they can't even overtake each other and the best they can do is drop you off some distance from your destination.

 

[old.user4556]

With respect Tom, I see your point of view on cycling, but it just does not work for a lot of people for a lot of reasons.

I could probably cycle to work (I'm 15 miles away, therefore 30 miles roundtrip - easily commutable by your standards) but that's by motorway. If I cycle using the all purpose roads, it would take me about 1hr 30 minutes (it currently takes me 40 minutes in rush hour traffic). I wouldn't be able to go to the driving range after work for my golf, I wouldn't be able to make impromptu trips to the shops at lunch time, I wouldn't be able to go straight from work to see my parents, I wouldn't be able to do one of my biweekly shops at Tesco, I wouldn't be able to pack my photography gear in the boot and head straight for the hills - the list goes on.

In addition, as Raven said, I don't want to stew in my own shit at work. The shower facilities in my place are substandard as a lot of the offices in London can be, so that almost makes it a non-starter right away. What about winter? It's pitch back in Scotland between 5pm and 9am in winter - I'd need to be on my bike at 7am, probably in the pissing rain, when it's pitch black; no thanks.

I worked hard to get my German motorway cruiser with heated seats and xenon headlights. I'll be fucked if I give that up in a hurry.

 

[Job]

I cycled to work for a year, 12 mile round trip, most done on canal path so rather nice, lost 20 pounds and became rather fit indeed, managed to pull a 22 year old when I was 42.
Then I packed it in and put 30 pounds back on, got married and well I 'm not the man I used to be.

 

[old.user4556]

managed to pull a 22 year old when I was 42

Surprise sex on the canal after dark?

 

[old.user4556]

Also, I don't wish to ruffle the feathers of my London peers on this forum, but this makes my eyes fucking bleed and yell at my monitor "whyyyyyy the obsession with working / living in London?!".

I was on a stag do a few weeks ago and a lawyer mate of mine is chucking in Glasgow for the Big Smoke - "I can earn at least 50% more down there, the money is great". Why does the cost of living not ever cross people's minds before moving? It just seems bonkers.

 

[Embattle]

I cycled to work for a year, 12 mile round trip, most done on canal path so rather nice, lost 20 pounds and became rather fit indeed, managed to pull a 22 year old when I was 42.
Then I packed it in and put 30 pounds back on, got married and well I 'm not the man I used to be.

No you are 30 pounds more than the man you used to be

 

[Job]

Surprise sex on the canal after dark?

No , but I did find a guy squatting on the path having a shit and reading a newspaper.

Yeah G, saw a program years ago where they compared a single guy in Newcastle and one in London, the Southern earned a 3rd more, they added up all their weekly costs and the Geordie was about 200 pound a month better off , but they still concluded the cockney was better off cos his house was worth more.

 

[Raven]

Also, I don't wish to ruffle the feathers of my London peers on this forum, but this makes my eyes fucking bleed and yell at my monitor "whyyyyyy the obsession with working / living in London?!".

I was on a stag do a few weeks ago and a lawyer mate of mine is chucking in Glasgow for the Big Smoke - "I can earn at least 50% more down there, the money is great". Why does the cost of living not ever cross people's minds before moving? It just seems bonkers.

...and the utter ballache of it all.

 

[old.user4556]

This is it.

My good friend and colleague works in our London office and was paying through the arse for rental on a 1 bedroom shithole of a flat in Highgate (he likes decent places......) and he's just moved into a brand new mid-terraced house outside the M25 perimeter in the north west. He's up at 6am to get to the office for 8:30am, then leaves at around 6pm to get home for around 7:30pm if he's lucky.

I keep hearing the same fucking bullshit - "aww mate, the money's just so much better" - so he's knocking his pan into the ground, working silly hours, commuting across one half of greater London, paying an absolute arm and a leg for the train all for no life and a mid-terraced townhouse? No disrespect to the guy, but his whole point of moving there was to earn enough to have his detached four bed house in a leafy area and that certainly has not seemed to be the way it's panned out. If anything, his lifestyle and quality of living have taken a big step back than if he was working up here.

 

[Tom]

Surprise sex on the canal after dark?

The nomenclature has changed, it's now known as a struggle cuddle.

 

[Tom]

With respect Tom, I see your point of view on cycling, but it just does not work for a lot of people for a lot of reasons.

I could probably cycle to work (I'm 15 miles away, therefore 30 miles roundtrip - easily commutable by your standards) but that's by motorway. If I cycle using the all purpose roads, it would take me about 1hr 30 minutes (it currently takes me 40 minutes in rush hour traffic). I wouldn't be able to go to the driving range after work for my golf, I wouldn't be able to make impromptu trips to the shops at lunch time, I wouldn't be able to go straight from work to see my parents, I wouldn't be able to do one of my biweekly shops at Tesco, I wouldn't be able to pack my photography gear in the boot and head straight for the hills - the list goes on.

In addition, as Raven said, I don't want to stew in my own shit at work. The shower facilities in my place are substandard as a lot of the offices in London can be, so that almost makes it a non-starter right away. What about winter? It's pitch back in Scotland between 5pm and 9am in winter - I'd need to be on my bike at 7am, probably in the pissing rain, when it's pitch black; no thanks.

I worked hard to get my German motorway cruiser with heated seats and xenon headlights. I'll be fucked if I give that up in a hurry.

Of course cycling doesn't work for many people, but it would work for most people. People fall into the trap of thinking that commuting time in the car is just wasted time but commuting on a bike (I can't btw) is time spent thinking, listening to music, looking at your surroundings, listening/smelling nature, etc. You notice so much more of your surroundings when cycling. BTW you can easily get a week's shopping on a bicycle, that's what panniers are for.

As for the sweat problem, you just ride in lycra and keep a change of clothes at work. It's only your back that'll get sweaty, a wipe with a clean wet towel fixes that. Five minutes to change, you're nice and awake, alert, no smells, ready to go.

I think if I wasn't doing the job I am, I wouldn't have a car. But if anyone doing a regular commute needed further persuasion, look at this:



Or maybe look at my "commute":

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Strength toning, lol, give it a rest. I used to go to the gym in my late teens before I realised that 95% of the exercises I was paying a premium for I could do elsewhere, for nothing.

Yep, the two free gyms I go to are a REAL DRAIN financially. (Virgin Active through work, private one through residence)

 

[old.Tohtori]

So in order to be a productive member of the society(not a smelly fatty as every non cyclist is), or cut down on my costs, according to Tom i should;

- Get a bike (around 500€ from a cheapo store, if i want a bike that'll handle day to day operations).
- Get a lycra suit (that's around a 100€).
- Spend an extra 1.5h/day to get to work and change my clothes, which would mean less time with freelance work, games, or other free time.
- Another 45 minutes taken away from reading that i do in the bus that i'd have to do another time.

So let's see, 600€ cost for the overall cheapo gear to get to work and the monthly fare for the bus is 40€. That would mean that in just 15 months i'd start to see a profit! Yei! After that it would ofcourse still mean that i'd read less and lose an hour or two of free time each day. Oh, but it's worth it to smell the flowers.

Which i ofcourse could do in the serenity of a garden with the extra hour or two i have each day if i didn't cycle.

In short;

If i want to get to work, i take the bus like the rest and stay out of peoples way(because it's more efficient and time is money) and if i want to sizzle the fat i'll go running in the park.

 

[soze]

So the best rail line in the country is run by virgin. Who have invested in Trains, Train Lines and staff. They have the best customer satisfaction scores and have shown that they care about the customers. And they have been replaced by a mob who have said they will increase prices while cutting 20% of jobs. Money obviously matters more than people.

 

[Raven]

Brown paper bags, stuffed with used 20s

 

[Scouse]

Ian Hislop says you train-lot are a bunch of moaning ninnies - and the costs of train travel have always been an issue.

Worth a watch, informative, touches on exactly the sort of things that people are talking about in this thread.

(Link prolly won't work for non-UK-er's)

 

[old.Tohtori]

(Link prolly won't work for non-UK-er's)

Yeah it doesn't.

Racist