I just went and booked £500 worth of travel for the future. We're doing a fair bit of moving about this Summer. Heading to Utrecht to visit Mani and Joachim, Leicester to visit Sam, Stu and Alfie, Glasgow for our murder mystery night in November, and our big ten-day cycling epic in August.
The part that is ridiculous is the train prices. Our return tickets to Leicester cost £36, for a bit over an hour of travel each way. Then our singles to Newcastle is £39 for over three hours of travel. Then the return from Lancaster on Virgin comes in at a whopping £114.20! There just doesn't seem to be any relationship between distance and price. The prices are just totally arbitrary.
Of course, the journeys will be slow, beset with delays and getting our bikes on will, despite reservations, no doubt be a chore with a grumbling guard. Oh what fun!
Problem is, there's no other reasonable way to travel inside the UK with bikes. National Express leave taking the bikes at the discretion of the bus driver, and bus drivers are never the type of people who seem willing to help or satisfied with their lives. So we're stuck with these outrageous prices and unsatisfactory service. Oh well.