London Tube ripoff Exposed

[FireBlade]

WHEN I was asked to take the most expensive train journey in the world my heart leapt with excitement. I donned my finery and began conjuring up images of myself sipping champagne aboard the luxurious Orient Express.
But sadly it wasn’t to be.
To my horror I soon learned that a 43-second trip on the London Underground is the priciest train trip on Earth.
Following fare hikes introduced earlier this week, a single Tube journey in central London now costs an exorbitant £4 — even if you are just travelling one stop.
The shortest journey it is possible to take on the Tube is between Covent Garden and Leicester Square on the Piccadilly line — a distance of 0.26km.
At £4 that works out to an astonishing 1.5 pence per metre.
Amazingly, that means the Tube journey is more expensive per metre than wallowing in luxury on the Orient Express.
A trip on the legendary train from London to Venice works out a snip at 0.13 pence a metre making the tube TWELVE times more expensive.
So what delights would await me on this top price journey?
As I descended to the chilly Piccadilly line platform via escalator at Covent Garden I found myself serenaded not by the gentle strains of a string quartet . . . but by a shivering, out-of-tune busker on a guitar. It was a little cosier, to say the least, once I boarded the Tube. The carriage was terribly crowded — but I still managed to grab a seat, so at last my journey could begin in style.
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ut the glaring neon lights, ugly lino floor and garish upholstery hardly created the kind of sophisticated ambience I was hoping for.
And in my taffeta cocktail gown, long silk gloves and sparkly stilettos, I found myself slightly overdressed for the occasion.
However. I bravely soldiered on — determined to make the most of my costly trip. After all, it was more than two-and-a-half times the price of the next most expensive train trip in the world — a short hop on the Tokyo metro which costs just £1.51.
In New York, a subway ride costs £1.07, and in Rome just 67 pence and allows unlimited rides on tubes and buses for 75 minutes.
Last night London Mayor Ken Livingstone said Tube trips cost less if you buy a pre-paid electronic ticket called an Oyster card — as opposed to the paper ticket I purchased.
He said: “There are now huge savings to be made by using Oyster. Many now cost half the same journey paid for by cash.”
But the world’s most expensive trip is still the world’s most expensive trip, after all, and I was determined to celebrate the occasion.
So I cracked open the champers regardless, despite the slightly bemused looks I got from fellow passengers.
I wasn’t the only traveller determined to be wined and dined.
Other commuters munched burgers, and one gentleman joined me in my alcoholic tipple — with a can of Carlsberg Special Brew.
But my trip was so brief I barely had time for a sip before we arrived at Leicester Square.
And as I struggled to scramble out of the carriage before the doors trapped my dress, I learned a valuable lesson.
Taffeta really should not be the fabric of choice for commuters.



http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007000415,00.html

[Mule]

If you get the tube between Covent Garden and Leicester Square then you'll walk further walking through the stations than you would just walking there directly. It's only a rip off if you're an idiot.

If I get in a cab at my local train station and get them to drive me to the supermarket 100 yards away it'll cost me at least £3 (the basic fare) so I just walk, I think most people would.

The sun really is a steaming pile of shite - In fact, how much is the sun? Whatever it is then that's the real ripoff.

[partyman]

FFS it's not rocket science, get an Oyster card. Anyone can get one and you can get the deposit back when you're finished with it. Damn I fucking hate The Sun.

[FireBlade]

sorry lads i dont know fuck all I live in Gibraltar hehe its made not to ripoff the good honest Cockney folk but us poor unsuspecting Tourists same thing in Gib ther eis a cable car that takes you like 200m to the top of the rock costs 8 quid to go in it robbing bastards

[GTI]

FFS it's not rocket science, get an Oyster card. Anyone can get one and you can get the deposit back when you're finished with it. Damn I fucking hate The Sun.

For us Londoners its a no brainer, but if you're a tourist or just visiting the capital then £4 for a tube journey is going to sting. But anyway, WTF happened to the London Underground Carnet?? You used to be able to get a book of 10 x Zone 1 tickets for a tenner. Ken couldn't have increased the price of a Zone 1 journey by 400%.. could he??

[{{909}}]

simple facts stirred up into contravercy for simple people, thankfully the average sun reader just moans about the rubbish they have read to their husband/wife/coworker and it goes no further, think of it as a simpleton movement that never moves

[partyman]

For us Londoners its a no brainer, but if you're a tourist or just visiting the capital then £4 for a tube journey is going to sting.

Why can't you get an Oyster card if you're a tourist? There's vending machines for them in allot of stations now.

[Over Carl]

Okay, the sun may have added their own particular flavour to this story, but facts are facts. If that is genuinely the most expensive journey in the world, it shows that our system must be seriously flawed.

UK Govt. wants us to leave our cars. They also hike prices of public transport up by ridiculous amounts. I don't think I need to carry on.

Simple fact, to travel a journey by public transport should cost less than 1/4 of the price the petrol for that journey for an average car would be.

Otherwise if you have a car on your drive, taxed and insured, why would you want to pay more to walk to a bus stop, wait in the rain, for a bus that turns up late, jump on a cold/hot/smelly/etc bus, then repeat the same at the train station, then walk to your destination. I can't believe the gov't are that stupid.

[Erad]

Every time i make a trip into london i just get a travelcard, costs me something like 6-10 quid depending on what time, theres my train journey sorted, my many tube journeys and if i wanted to take a bus i could, and thats not bad for the price, now why cant the benders get it round there head they don't have to pay 4 quid to go a few hundred feet every time.

[Tammer]

TBH, the fact that at both Covent Garden and Leicester Sq stations there's clear signs saying "Covent Garden (or Leicester Sq) 350yards" with a big fucking arrow pointing the direction....its not actually a problem at all, and shite that only the sun would publish to fill space.

[{{909}}]

its garbage, where i live theres a really steep hill and ive been on the bus at the bottom and seen people pay the fare just to ride to the top, the distance is fook all, but its still 40p to travel it, thats just how it works out sometimes. Quick, ill write to the sun, most expensive bus ride in the world.

The sun, most expensive bog roll in the world more like

[GTI]

The sun, most expensive bog roll in the world more like

Can any Scousers tell me if The Sun is still outlawed in Liverpool?

[MercuryRises]

Why can't you get an Oyster card if you're a tourist? There's vending machines for them in allot of stations now.

Nothing at all to stop tourists buying an Oyster card. Except I'm not sure If they can claim a refund of the credit if they don't use it all. They said something on the News last night about a website being set up so tourists could buy them in advance, so that they already had the card when they got to London (I'll try to find a link)

[Tattooed Freak]

My Oyster Card costs me £150 a month to travel between zones 1 and 5. Most of that is spent stood up on an overcrowded carraige that rarely ends up at the correct location and is diverted elsewhere. If I could get to work by any other means and not give these f@ckers a penny I would. It is a disgrace.

[MercuryRises]

Can any Scousers tell me if The Sun is still outlawed in Liverpool?

Forget Liverpool that racist, fearmongering, hatemongering rag should be outlawed everywhere

[Midnight_Toker]

Can any Scousers tell me if The Sun is still outlawed in Liverpool?

Too fucking right it is!

I saw a guy get a right mouthful for buying it in the train station just before Christmas.

[Zippeyrude]

its a fucking disgrace.
the contractors are creaming profits whilst the punters are forced by this fucking monopoly to use the travel at extortionate prices.

get an oyster card. have them record your every movement, when where, etc. watch this space there are plans to extend the oyster card with 'smard card' entitlement. you read it here first.

cunts

[Tammer]

Too fucking right it is!

I saw a guy get a right mouthful for buying it in the train station just before Christmas.

Whats the story behind the sun being a no-go area in liverpool?? I've never heard about it before

[partyman]

Whats the story behind the sun being a no-go area in liverpool?? I've never heard about it before

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsbo..._Sun_newspaper

[MercuryRises]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsbo..._Sun_newspaper

Fuck, I'd never read the whole story before. No wonder Liveerpudlians don't buy the sun