So much for trains
Jan. 7th, 2007 05:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bellinghmanI was just attempting to get train fares for a journey from Sierre (Swiss Alps) to London.
Holy crap! How do they expect anyone to use trains? I can get from Sierre to Paris at a reasonable price - a very reasonable price for a direct TGV that takes 5:20. But that's no use whatsoever, if it then costs THREE TIMES AS MUCH for the Paris to London link, which is only 2:40.
</rant>
EDIT: Many thanks for the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
purpletigron/purplecthulhu's advice on getting round Eurostar.
EDIT: OK, I can do Sierre to Paris-Lyon for 113 CHF, if I buy it from the Swiss, and using the halbtax card. That's just under £48. And going via the "I am American" part of the Eurostar site allows me to buy the single/non-flexible fare at $89 each - which is roughly £45. That's compared to the insane £300+ it was trying to do me for originally for the Paris to London leg!
So, Swiss Alps to central London for £93 isn't too bad. I just wish it wasn't such an incredible hassle finding this all out. If I was a PA doing this, and factoring in the cost of my time, it'd be another matter.
EDIT: Ooops, forgot time zone differences. That was 2:40, not 1:40
Holy crap! How do they expect anyone to use trains? I can get from Sierre to Paris at a reasonable price - a very reasonable price for a direct TGV that takes 5:20. But that's no use whatsoever, if it then costs THREE TIMES AS MUCH for the Paris to London link, which is only 2:40.
</rant>
EDIT: Many thanks for the
purpletigron/purplecthulhu's advice on getting round Eurostar.EDIT: OK, I can do Sierre to Paris-Lyon for 113 CHF, if I buy it from the Swiss, and using the halbtax card. That's just under £48. And going via the "I am American" part of the Eurostar site allows me to buy the single/non-flexible fare at $89 each - which is roughly £45. That's compared to the insane £300+ it was trying to do me for originally for the Paris to London leg!
So, Swiss Alps to central London for £93 isn't too bad. I just wish it wasn't such an incredible hassle finding this all out. If I was a PA doing this, and factoring in the cost of my time, it'd be another matter.
EDIT: Ooops, forgot time zone differences. That was 2:40, not 1:40
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-07 08:34 pm (UTC)What I was trying to do this evening was do the similar with a train. I'd gone to http://bahn.de (the site for working out how to get from a to b) and was trying to get from Leukerbad back to Royston. The timing was sane - about 12 hours is not that bad at all, departing from a high Alpine valley. bahn.de couldn't actually quote me tickets, though (part of the trip is by Swiss bus ...), and I was trying to break it down into chunks.
http://www.voyages-sncf.com will give me a ticket from Sierre to Paris-Lyon for the 2nd March for €176. Or http://www.raileurope.co.uk/lyria/ for £131 for the same train.
It now looks like the sanest fare from Paris to London is the £59 return, and just not take the other half at all. If there's a better fare than that, I'd be interested, but that is was, way better than the initial one I got quoted, and which caused the rant.