Woman's Train Fare From London To Manchester Is 'More Expensive Than Her Holiday'

It's fair to say that a lot of people aren't happy with how the trains are run in the UK. In fact, people are genuinely really pissed off about it.

At the beginning of the year the largest price hike in five years took hold and the price of a season ticket in London rose by £146 this year, after they went up by £74 last year.

The 3.4% price hike seems pretty expensive for the service that UK commuters - or indeed anyone trying to go anywhere on the rails - receives.

So what could you get for the price of a train ticket? Well, one Twitter user has shown just what she could have won by posting the price of her ticket.

Laura (@laxra_m) was travelling on a return journey between London and Manchester - on her work's money, thankfully - and bought a First Class open return, allowing her to return any time within a month.

It set her work back £484 - which is much more than £1 per mile travelled.

OK, so it's a First Class open return bought on the day of travel but that is still steep, right?

She posted the ticket on Twitter saying: "My return ticket to Manchester costs more than my holiday to Norway"

One user responded to let her know that for less than £484 he travelled to Iran, which is more than 3,500km from London.

Others let her know that for a similar price she could have gone to Tokyo, or to New York. Manchester is great, but given the opportunity I'd still rather go to one of those places (perhaps not Iran just now, but you get the point).

Some people have defended the train companies though, suggesting that the price is more reasonable when you consider that the ticket was an ultra-flexible return in First Class, which is fair enough, but it's hard to feel that much empathy for the train companies - after all, we've all been screwed by a train at some point in our lives.

So next time you are asked to go to a meeting in Manchester or London, at least you can financially defend asking to make the meeting on a different continent instead.

I hear New York is beautiful at this time of year anyway...

Topics: Trains, travel, Manchester, UK, London

Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a freelance journalist and LADbible contributor. He graduated from University of London with a BA in Philosophy before studying for a Masters in Journalism at the University of Salford. He has previously written for the M.E.N Group as well as working for several top professional sports clubs. Contact him on [email protected]

@TPWagwim