London Congestion Charge

kimajy

kimajy

Well-Known Member
About to head out the door on my way to a meeting later this afternoon and paid my Congestion Charge on-line.

WTBF .... £15 now - that's a 50% increase on a month ago.

Is this some permanent thing or a quick racketeer on the back of the Games ? I thought the Olympics were over now anyway :!:

FFS living in this country is soon going to be unaffordable - unless we all resign ourselves to living on Happy Meals and a life of waiting at bus stops !
 
Is that just for one day's ride into central London?
That's pretty insane! Especially if you've got to pay parking on top of that.
 
I was also shocked when a friend came to visit and she had to pay about £6 or something stupid for a single to Bethnal Green from Tottenham Court Road.

:confused:

...and here it comes - the post olympic slump.

Suddenly people will start to remember the (legal) banking atrocities and the (villified and arrested) rioters...the economy will start to creak further, the rich will take their slice of the pie and things will get worse and worse - as is demonstrated by further cuts and inflation in transport costs.

Till people wake up that is. 8)

(or at least that's what I'm hoping.)
 
£15 just to get into London?!!!?!??!?!?? :eek::eek::eek:

for that price i'd be expecting Carl Cox to be playing a 3hr set, being broadcast from speakers all over London..
 
Morbyd said:
Is that just for one day's ride into central London?
That's pretty insane! Especially if you've got to pay parking on top of that.
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Yes - that's just the charge for having your car in Central London for the day. The parking is on top. However .... I only paid £14 for on-street parking (4hours) so total cost driving including Diesel, parking and congestion charge was £61 (ignoring wear and tear on the car over 200 miles). Door-to-door travel time was about 1/2 hour less than using the train too.

As I left to come back in peak time round 5-6pm a second class train ticket would have been £120. So still half the cash cost of using public transport. I think what is wrong here is that the train fare should have been slashed to half the cost of using the car. If the train fare was £30 return I might think about using it :spank: :!:
 
kimajy said:
As I left to come back in peak time round 5-6pm a second class train ticket would have been £120. So still half the cash cost of using public transport. I think what is wrong here is that the train fare should have been slashed to half the cost of using the car. If the train fare was £30 return I might think about using it :spank: :!:
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Was that on the day? Book a day in advance, it's cheaper (usually).
Booked last week to come down to Brighton for a long weekend, and it's cost me £51 return from Leeds.
 
Ikoda said:
Was that on the day? Book a day in advance, it's cheaper (usually).
Booked last week to come down to Brighton for a long weekend, and it's cost me £51 return from Leeds.
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I have to go into London for business, Ben ... and those fares are buying a day ahead. when I go into London for pleasure at the weekend I drive out of congestion charging hours and grab a free parking space :!:
 
I was pretty shocked to pay £83 return on the train from Paddington to Reading today. I rarely get trains - is it always that much?
 
Buckley said:
I was pretty shocked to pay £83 return on the train from Paddington to Reading today. I rarely get trains - is it always that much?
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Peak-time, yes. Was even more from Oxford when I used to live there (moved last month as prices had escalated beyond all reasonableness). It's about £250 for me to take the train up from Devon these days if I'm to have 2/3 of a useable day in town. Public transport pricing has gone completely and utterly bonkers. It's no wonder Britain is so uncompetitive with costs like that feeding into pricing models, especially for services :!:
 
I remember taking the train London-Newcastle a few years ago and I had to be back in the morning so I got hit up for an extra 90-odd pounds by the conductor because it was peak time (on top of a £90 ticket)

£180 round trip... you can fly halfway across Europe for that kind of money!
 
I guess I book nearly all my fares weeks in advance, I don't tend to have any business stuff to deal with. If I do, I can charge it to the company ;)
 
Ikoda said:
I guess I book nearly all my fares weeks in advance, I don't tend to have any business stuff to deal with. If I do, I can charge it to the company ;)
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That's the whole point, isn't it :spank: ... when you ARE in effect the company, it is basically coming out of your own pocket ! :evil:
 
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