Gregory's Server@quixoticgeek @cstross @SteveJonesnono1 Meaningful price comparisons are complicated between railways that use dynamic pricing. I doubt it is hard to find examples of tickets on British trains that are clearly less expensive than tickets for comparable journeys in some other country. I didn’t bother looking exhaustively. Just one example with comparable price, journey time, not far in advance purchase: Edinburgh–London and Hamburg–Mainz on July 17.
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11 comments
@quixoticgeek @cstross @SteveJonesnono1 But do you accept different prices for the same journey at different times of the day, or on different days? That would be fixed in advance, not vary according to demand.  @tml @cstross @SteveJonesnono1 nope. The only one I'm kinda willing to accept is peak Vs off peak. But even that i would like to avoid if possible. The whole point of public transport is to transport the public. Money making is at best a 5th of 6th on the list of things for it to do.  @quixoticgeek @tml @SteveJonesnono1 Yup. Public transport should be funded like roads—as vital national infrastructure available to all and supported via the common purse. @cstross @quixoticgeek @SteveJonesnono1 But now quixoticgeek and Charlie are talking about different things, no? Infrastructure (and rolling stock ?) vs train operation. @tml @cstross @SteveJonesnono1 it's all linked together. Trains should run at least every 15 mins, from every station, from very early in the morning, until late at night, and cost very little to use. Once a society and government realise this is both worthwhile, and attainable. Then we can work out the infrastructure and operational set up necessary to deliver it. Right now too many people start from the point that we can't have nice things because we currently don't have nice things. @quixoticgeek @tml @cstross @SteveJonesnono1 @biohumanisti @quixoticgeek @cstross @SteveJonesnono1 Nah. I would say that it is relatively common in large public transit networks to offer separate off-peak fares. For instance TfL does it. https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/tube-and-rail-fares @biohumanisti @quixoticgeek @cstross @SteveJonesnono1 Also in Berlin. A separate “10 a.m.” one-month ticket. https://www.bvg.de/en/subscriptions-and-tickets/all-tickets @tml @biohumanisti @quixoticgeek @cstross @SteveJonesnono1 It also doesn't help that the peak/off-peak rules are inconsistent in the UK. They vary between TOCs, and even by type of ticket. The 9:21 train from my local station is off-peak if you have an off-peak day return, but counts as a peak train if your ticket is an off-peak open (within one month) return. @bencc @tml @biohumanisti @cstross @SteveJonesnono1 UK train ticketting is utterly broken and makes no logical sense, anywhere. Even TFL, the one half decent bit of public transport on the cursed isle, has an utterly fucked up ticket structure that is sexist and discriminatory. |
@tml @cstross @SteveJonesnono1 if I was in charge, I would ban dynamic pricing. Or mandate that it be brought in for all motorways and a roads too...