The UK train routes so expensive it is cheaper to fly via Europe
It’s the sort of thing that shouldn’t happen in a functional transport system: a Cornish couple saved £250 on their cross-country journey by choosing to fly via Malaga rather than take the train.
Kristina Coulson says that she and her husband were quoted more than £200 each to travel via train from Newquay to Crewe, where they needed to pick up a car.
Instead she says that the duo were able to fly from Newquay to Malaga, before flying back into Manchester the next day. They say that the whole trip cost them £153, including one night in a hotel.
It isn’t the first time that someone has been able to avoid sky-high rail fares by taking circuitous flights instead. So why does this keep happening?
Over the years, campaign groups like Transport and Environment have claimed that Britain’s rail fares are the steepest in Europe. But some experts – like travel blogger Mark Smith, who founded the blog The Man in Seat 61 – say this isn’t quite accurate.
Instead, he says that UK rail operators tend to be much more ruthless in their dynamic pricing models, utilising a similar approach to low-cost airlines. In short, that means that passengers who book on the day will pay a hefty premium.
In those circumstances, UK fares are generally higher than European equivalents. But those passengers who book weeks or months in advance will probably get a better deal than their peers on the continent.
Of course, that’s not much consolation when you need to take a short-notice train journey. But is it really cheaper to fly? Here’s what our investigation unveiled.
London to Edinburgh – via Budapest
It’s one of the most popular long-distance rail routes in Britain, but it certainly isn’t cheap for last-minute trips.
When I checked at 4pm on Monday afternoon, a seat on the 5pm train out of Kings Cross to Edinburgh was priced at £199.60, with later trains costing £150 or £130.
Was it cheaper to go with budget airlines? A quick search on Ryanair’s website revealed that both London and Edinburgh had regular flights to and from Budapest, meaning I could connect via the Hungarian capital.
Indeed Ryanair offered me a same-day flight at 7pm from Stansted to Budapest for £97.59, with a return flight to Edinburgh the next day available for £87.99 – so a total of £185.58.
It was a small saving (£14) that would inevitably be swallowed up by the costs of getting to the airport, let alone staying in Budapest. But would the picture be different if I had a bit more notice?
When I decided to check train prices for Friday evening, the same journey (5pm from Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley) was priced at £96.80.
Alternatively, Ryanair was offering a flight to Budapest for that evening for just £19.99, followed by a mid-morning flight to Edinburgh for £41. On the face of it, it was a much better saving this time around.
But I still needed to factor in the cost of one night’s accommodation. Not to mention that getting to Stansted on Friday afternoon required a lot more flexibility. If I could escape the office that early, then why not just get an earlier train to Edinburgh?
Indeed, leaving Kings Cross at midday reduced the train ticket to £78.90, slashing Ryanair’s price advantage. But was it the same story for longer train journeys?
Bristol to Edinburgh – via Tenerife
For another example, I looked at travelling between Bristol and Edinburgh – a whopping six-hour journey – on January 29.
Looking on Trainline in the afternoon of January 27, the peak ticket at 9am cost £106.30, though I could travel for a fraction of that (£46) if I was prepared to wait just 35 minutes…
By contrast, Ryanair had a flight from Bristol to Tenerife for just £16.99, followed by a second flight to Edinburgh for £29.43. A decent saving on the peak prices, then.
Given the flights were morning and evening respectively, I could also do the detour without having to factor in hotels. The gap would give me just enough time to explore Tenerife.
Yes, it would still involve some extra costs – tapas and ice cream, perhaps – but wouldn’t that be more pleasant than spending the best part of seven hours on a CrossCountry train?
Aberdeen to Bradford – via Gdansk
A search on Trainline revealed that this particular journey would cost between £65 and £93.70, depending on which service you wanted to travel on.
Looking on Ryanair’s website, I was surprised to find that I would be better off taking the early-morning flight to the Polish city of Gdansk, before catching a return leg to Leeds Bradford Airport.
Together, both flights would cost just £59.24. Even better, the return leg was just £14.25 – one of the cheapest single tickets I’ve seen on Ryanair in ages.
London to Liverpool – via Marrakech
Fancy a city break in Liverpool? When I checked Trainline, I was offered a peak ticket from London to Liverpool tomorrow evening for £171.30.
Alternatively, Ryanair had flights for Marrakech from Stansted for £99.99 on the same day. I could then book a return to Liverpool the next morning for just £30.48.
A £41 saving wasn’t to be sniffed at, but would it really persuade the average traveller to reroute their journey via Morocco? I wasn’t convinced.
The verdict: are the savings really worth the hassle?
Thanks to low-cost airlines like Ryanair, it isn’t hard to find instances where taking an international detour can be cheaper than relying on the railways.
But the kind of big savings (£100 upwards) that Kristina Coulson enjoyed only work if the alternative is taking the busiest peak train services without any kind of pre-planning.
Looking at tomorrow’s peak trains from Newport to Crewe, there’s only one service with tickets over £200 (the 7.12am departure), with most of them priced at around £140. If you can wait until Friday, you can do the trip for £93.60.
Generally, the people who end up paying the larger ticket prices are those with less flexibility in the first place. Which means they’re less likely to have the time to take a quick detour via the Canary Islands or North Africa.
Still, it’s nice to know the option is there – if you’re feeling spontaneous enough to make the most of it.
