<story><title>Train Travel in the UK: A Foreigner’s Perspective</title><url>https://paliparan.com/2022/09/25/train-travel-uk-foreigners-perspective/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>blibble</author><text>I doubt many people are paying 20%+ of net income to commute in&lt;p&gt;you&amp;#x27;d have to be on minimum wage and a reasonable distance out (in which case you might as well just work locally)&lt;p&gt;10% however I can believe</text></item><item><author>notahacker</author><text>And travelling around with the sort of budget that can consider first class and a willingness to book tickets at suitable times (and comparing prices with international sleeper trains in the rest of Europe!) completely misses why British commuters paying 20%+ of their after tax income for an annual rail pass into London consider it expensive.</text></item><item><author>scmbradley</author><text>From the looks of it, this chap was travelling around in first class. Which would probably give a slightly different impression of train travel... I suspect he also wasn&amp;#x27;t travelling at peak times when trains are at their busiest and most unpleasant.&lt;p&gt;To some extent, I agree that trains get a lot of criticism, and only some of it is deserved. But some of that criticism &lt;i&gt;is&lt;/i&gt; very deserved...</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cirrus-clouds</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve posted this before: a monthly season ticket comparison from 2017 for UK and Continental Europe. The price differences between UK and other countries are stark:&lt;p&gt;- UK: Luton to London St. Pancras (35 miles) | Monthly season ticket cost: £387&lt;p&gt;- UK: Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Piccadilly (32 miles) | Monthly season ticket cost: £292&lt;p&gt;- Germany: Dusseldorf to Cologne (28 miles) | Monthly season ticket cost: £85&lt;p&gt;- France: Mantes-la-Jolie to Paris (34 miles) | Monthly season ticket cost: £61&lt;p&gt;- Italy: Anzione to Rome (31 miles) | Monthly season ticket cost: £61&lt;p&gt;- Spain: Aranjuez to Madrid (31 miles) | Monthly season ticket cost: £75&lt;p&gt;Source is the TUC (2017): &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.tuc.org.uk&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;uk-commuters-spend-6-times-much-their-salary-rail-fares-other-european-passengers&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.tuc.org.uk&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;uk-commuters-spend-6-times-much-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; UK workers on average salaries will spend 14% of their income on a monthly season ticket from Luton to London (£387), or 11% from Liverpool to Manchester (£292).&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; By contrast, similar commutes would cost passengers only 2% of their incomes in France, 3% in Germany and Italy, and 4% in Spain.</text></comment>
<story><title>Train Travel in the UK: A Foreigner’s Perspective</title><url>https://paliparan.com/2022/09/25/train-travel-uk-foreigners-perspective/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>blibble</author><text>I doubt many people are paying 20%+ of net income to commute in&lt;p&gt;you&amp;#x27;d have to be on minimum wage and a reasonable distance out (in which case you might as well just work locally)&lt;p&gt;10% however I can believe</text></item><item><author>notahacker</author><text>And travelling around with the sort of budget that can consider first class and a willingness to book tickets at suitable times (and comparing prices with international sleeper trains in the rest of Europe!) completely misses why British commuters paying 20%+ of their after tax income for an annual rail pass into London consider it expensive.</text></item><item><author>scmbradley</author><text>From the looks of it, this chap was travelling around in first class. Which would probably give a slightly different impression of train travel... I suspect he also wasn&amp;#x27;t travelling at peak times when trains are at their busiest and most unpleasant.&lt;p&gt;To some extent, I agree that trains get a lot of criticism, and only some of it is deserved. But some of that criticism &lt;i&gt;is&lt;/i&gt; very deserved...</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ljf</author><text>Season ticket from not that far from Brighton is the best part of £5k a year. My good friend who commutes from there earns £40k before tax from his job in London. So I reckon some people pay 20 percent or more if they have a job they can only do in London, and for various reasons cannot living in London.</text></comment>