Britain invented the passenger railway, and has been complaining about it ever since. The Stockton and Darlington opened in 1825 and the Liverpool and Manchester in 1830, and the network that followed reshaped the country and was exported worldwide.
How to buy a ticket cheaply
This is the single most useful thing to understand, because British rail pricing is genuinely irrational and the gap between best and worst is enormous.
- Advance tickets go on sale up to twelve weeks ahead, are tied to one specific train, and are by far the cheapest. London to Edinburgh can be £30 booked early and over £180 on the day.
- Off-Peak and Super Off-Peak are flexible within time restrictions.
- Anytime tickets are fully flexible and very expensive.
Two tricks worth knowing. Two singles are often cheaper than a return — always check. And split ticketing, buying separate tickets for legs of the same journey on the same train, is entirely legal and frequently cheaper; several websites do it automatically.
Railcards
A railcard costs around £30 a year and gives a third off most fares. There are versions for 16-25s, 26-30s, over-60s, two people travelling together, families and disabled passengers. It pays for itself in one or two journeys, and visitors can buy them too.
Why it is so complicated
British Rail was privatised in the 1990s and split apart: the track went to one company and passenger services to franchises operated by around twenty-five different businesses. Ticketing remained nationally integrated, which is why you can buy a through ticket across several operators — but pricing, quality and reliability vary enormously between them.
The model has been partially unwound. Several franchises have collapsed back into public control, and a new public body is being created to take over the running of the network — an admission that the fragmentation did not work.
The complaining
Rail is a permanent national grievance: delays, cancellations, strikes, replacement bus services and fares among the highest in Europe. The phrase “engineering works” over a bank holiday weekend produces an audible national groan.
Some perspective is fair, though. Trains run frequently, reach almost everywhere, and are used for ordinary daily travel by millions of people. Britain has more rail journeys per head than most of Europe, which is part of why the crowding is so keenly felt.
Beeching
In the 1960s, Dr Richard Beeching’s reports led to the closure of around a third of the network — 5,000 miles of line and 2,363 stations, mostly rural branch lines. Whole towns lost their railway permanently.
“Beeching” is still used as shorthand for short-sighted cuts, and a handful of closed lines have since been rebuilt at great expense, which rather makes the point.
Heritage railways
Britain has around 150 preserved steam railways run largely by volunteers, many on lines Beeching closed. They are a genuine national eccentricity and a lovely day out, and several — including the Jacobite in Scotland, used in the Harry Potter films — carry serious tourist traffic.