A return rail ticket? That'll be £1,000, thanks

Published on Tuesday 3 November 2009 21:09

IT IS a 1,200-mile journey with up to 120 stops taking nearly two days of travel – and comes with Britain's most expensive rail fare.

A flexible first-class "walk-up" return between Newquay in Cornwall and Kyle of Lochalsh in the Highlands has become the first to top 1,000, researchers have found.

However, the 1,002 ticket involves a marathon trek in at least four trains, half of which do not even have first-class seats.

The price has also increased by nearly 10 per cent from 912.50 a year ago – several times the rate of inflation.

Michael Palin, the celebrity explorer and fan of the Kyle line, described the fare as "staggering", while passenger watchdogs called for an urgent review of long-distance tickets.

The price was unearthed as part of a survey by fares expert Barry Doe. He said: "For the first 183 miles to Bristol you might get a trolley service offering a cup of tea. From Bristol you might get some paltry snacks. You ought to be getting linen tablecloths and wall-to-wall service."

The 1,001 ticket would enable a dedicated rail passenger to travel between Newquay and Kyle over a variety of routes – the shortest of which is 611 miles and would involve 18 hours, 45 minutes aboard a total of four trains. The journey would start before 7am and end about 11:30am the next day.

Travellers would use First Great Western on the Newquay-Par "Atlantic Coast" line, most of whose trains are standard-class only, before changing to a CrossCountry service to Edinburgh.

They would then join a ScotRail train to Inverness, and continue on another ScotRail service to Kyle – which doesn't have first-class seats – the following morning.

That option would involve the trains calling at a minimum of 51 stations, with another nine request stops along the way.

Palin, who featured the Inverness-Kyle line on the Great Railway Journeys of the World TV series, said: "The fare is staggering. Fares do seem to be rising and complicated."

Ashwin Kumar, director of official watchdog Passenger Focus, said: "This is one of the many examples of a confusing fares system which leaves passengers baffled.

"This emphasises further the need to simplify the long-distance fares structure as a matter of urgency."

Cat Hobbs, public transport campaigner for the Campaign for Better Transport, said: "The Newquay 1,000 fare shows just how pricey and complicated the fare structure is.

"We think fares in this country are far too expensive.

"They are the most expensive in Europe. We think the government should step in and review how they regulate fares."

Liberal Democrat MSP John Farquhar Munro, who represents Kyle of Lochalsh, said: "This is absolutely ridiculous. You could go round the world for that price."

A spokesman for CrossCountry said: "We've never sold one of these fares, but there has to be a fare for every route regardless of whether anyone's bought one or not. The price of a first-class saver return is 561. That's what people are likely to pay if they want to do that route."