If you book train travel in advance you can actually get pretty reasonable fares
Try turning up at an airport and asking ryan air for a ticket on the next plane to anywhere - i can guarantee it wont be Ā£50
I just tried Trainline for a return ticket to Waterloo from Southampton on a Tuesday in September during rush hour - Ā£39
If I turn up tomorrow wanting to travel that day at the same time - it is over Ā£100
As a comparison a return ticket from Paris to lyon tomorrow at rush hour time (2hr trip) is E150
Thatās still dearer than driving, even for one person. If thereās two of you, thatās the thick end of eighty quid for a trip that might cost thirty in petrol.
Big issue for Germany is they are still paying the price of reunification - effectively modernising a whole former communist countryā¦
Good luck parking in London for under Ā£10 for a day!
Edit: plus the congestion charge obvs 
And the ULEZ
If youāre getting out at Waterloo and walking, thatās true. But you might as well get the tube from Kew or Hanger Lane if youāre going to get it anyway.
If youāve got the leisure to do that then itās fine. Otherwise thatās a ball ache if youāre on a timetable
Is there free parking at Kew and ULEZ exemption too? I know itās a special place 
Are you still using an environmentally unfriendly vehicle?? 
I can see that, and itās a completely valid view. But the point stands that mass transport ought to be relatively cheap, and you only have to compare the cost of Southampton to Waterloo via train or coach to see that the current rail network system is ripping the piss out of us.
True for the people who need to commute or need to travel at short notice. Anyone who isnāt (& is flexible / maybe has a travel card) can get good deals.
I wouldnāt mind, if it was a premium way of travelling to justify the cost. But by most accounts itās still as shite as BR was but with a hugely higher price tag. Itās hard to make an argument for that privatisation being a success.
No I sold it to help pay for the parking 
You seem to have forgotten how shite the rolling stock actually was.
I moan about my local trains but I remember they were using the old slam door trains with ropy decor, ripped upholstery
Also,you could smoke back in the day, so remember the overflowing ashtrays and stench
Well the trains are about to get a fuck load more expensive because the govt are about to give the RMT and ASLEF an open goal to. Hike driver wages
They will be averaging six figures by the end of this Parliament (Inc overtime)
In your opinion of course, right?
What do you reckon a militant union with rolled back unions laws is going to do with a nationalised company when the govt of the day owes their funding to them
They are going to want their ROI
ā¦ and get a beer on board. 
Sorry but you have form for slagging off absolutely anything that is related to Labour and what they are trying to do to sort out the mess left by the Tories. Itās almost as if you want the Tories back in power.
Sorry if Iām doing you an injustice but thatās how you come across in everything on political threads.
Mind you, Iām the opposite to you. Go figure, eh?