If you commute to work by train, were you stung by a price rise when renewing your season ticket? With the average price of an annual season ticket increasing by 3.1% you may feel that prices are going off the rails.
Last month our chief executive shared some tricks of the trade for finding the cheapest train tickets – from split tickets to buying singles rather than returns for some journeys.
One tweeter told us they’ve swapped train transport for walking to work as an extreme measure to cut back on travel costs:
@WhichConvo @Savvy_Woman Yes, so I’m tying in my NY “walk more” resolution with saving on my commute by walking to work!
— Sian Williams (@SianWilliams41) January 6, 2014
Costly commuting lines
But there isn’t always a way round the rail networks. Only 30% of people are planning to spend less on transport in the next few months – which could be due to the inability to switch to another form of transport.
Our research showed that just three in ten(30%) trust the rail industry to act in their best interests – less than those who trust the banking industry (33%). And on average, households spend £530 a year on public transport with 30-49 year olds spending the most – £744 on average.
And only six in ten (59%) say they feel able to complain, which is one of the worst scores across all industries we looked at, with only trade services (53%) and long-term financial products (51%) scoring less.
Price increases result in better service?
Neal shared this tweet:
Happy to pay 4% higher on my monthly train fare as I assume the Worcester line will improve by at least 4% too @LondonMidland @networkrail
— Neal Murphy (@NealVanMurf) December 31, 2013
Perhaps the fare hikes would be easier to stomach if improved service and complaint resolution were part of the package? How are you dealing with the price hikes and have you found a way to tackle your travel costs?
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