It just drives me mad!!!!! I'm trying to figure out the optimum ticketing arrangements for a journey from Milton Keynes to Aviemore on 19 October, with a return from Aviemore to Milton Keynes on 21 October. Criteria: 1. I want to leave Milton Keynes at a civilized time (ideally not before 8 in the morning) 2. I want to arrive at Aviemore at a sensible time (ideally not after 6 in the evening) 3. On the return journey I ideally want to leave Aviemore no earlier than 10 in the morning 4. I want to be at Milton Keynes no later than 9 in the evening 5. If you wish, you can cheat and bring me back to London (because I have a season ticket to cover my journey home from there) - in which case I want to be in London no later than 7.15 in the evening 6. At no point do I want to travel on a bus (but I will happily walk between Glasgow Central and Glasgow Queen Street, which will take me 15 minutes max) 7. I do not want tight connections which will have me wetting my knickers with anxiety in case the incoming train is late, causing me to miss the outgoing train, and screw the whole thing up. It's doing my head in ... but I THINK I have found the optimum combination of journeys and tickets, which will enable me to do the whole thing for £131. Can anybody come up with an itinerary that will allow me to do it any cheaper??
Sorry, life is too short to try to find train itineraries... that's progress, that is. You're a customer now, not a passenger and all of the choice you have is either to make your ticket price cheaper or it's to bamboozle you into paying over-the-odds for a journey with no buffet car and no seats so you have to stand until Glasgow! I suspect the latter.
1. Vote in a progressive government 2. Wait for them to raise taxes on private motoring via congestion charging, toll roads, pollution-related taxing and fuel duty increases 3. Ensure the progressive government you voted for ringfences these funds for development of the public transport infrastructure 4. Wait a number of decades for said development of the public transport infrastructure 5. Hope we don't all die of CO2 led global warming and related catastrophes 6. Get on a cheap, subsidised high speed train
