If you buy carefully in advance it can be very cheap indeed. Our son is in Glasgow and we very often go first class for less than £40 (though that is with a Senior Railcard, it would be a bit more without.)
We wrinklies can travel off-peak for very little.
Peter, I reckon you remember when that was, when I came to Brighton…..
Bournemouth to Brighton and back was over 100£ that day. A car rental would have been 30 or so. But I did not anticipate that.
Yes Swiss trains are expensive, particularly if nobody tells you about the half tax card. Visitors can buy a half price card for one month (if you are sure not to return within 12 months) for 120.- . Otherwise, it may be worth getting the full year valid card for 185.- If you have it, then a day card to travel freely over the whole rail system and many bus and ships as well starts at CHF 29.- which is not that expensive at all up to CHF 75.- if you buy it on the day.
I don’t use the train a lot as i love the independence of driving. But it makes sense some times.
Peter wrote:
That said, we have just paid about the same money for the 3 or 4 trains Zurich-Wengen, so the UK is not the only place with expensive trains
Difference being – Swiss trains run on time……
A car rental would have been 30 or so
On a quick search, I see no way to rent a car for £30. Most real-life scenarios, turning up at some airport like EGKK and renting a car there, are 3x + that. The cheap rentals usually involve travelling to some backstreet outfit in the town. £30 is very possible on a Greek island though 
Swiss trains run on time……
So do UK ones, about 99% of the time, but one always remembers the one which didn’t Also off-peak trains are usually OK; it is the commuters who suffer more.
I very often rent cars from airports for around 30-40 currency units per day. Next time it’s planned is from Caen next month.
Peter wrote:
Most real-life scenarios, turning up at some airport like EGKK and renting a car there, are 3x + that.
I turned up at EGBJ/Gloucestershire and rented a car for less than the taxi fare to Cheltenham station and back (the taxi firms gouge you for going 3.5 miles to the airport, doubly on a Sunday, I guess they figure everyone using EGBJ is a millionaire).
ch.ess wrote:
Gotta change your search engineExeter Airport Rental Car, 3 days under 70 EUR
Would do for me
That’s what I also found, the cost for a rental car is not the issue in this case.
We will plan for Exeter, we just have to sent the GAR before leaving ETSI as 4 hrs before ETA are required.
Peter,
at the time, when I got back I passed a big gas station near the railway station at Bournemouth which advertized car rental for £27 a day… plus gas. Also sites like rentalcars com are quite nice to find a good deal. I’ve had cars rented in Spain for instance for less than 150 Euros for 10 days….
When I lived in Hastings, it was not uncommon to have to buy a £45 peak hour single trip journey into London. This for one of the shittiest trains that took 2hrs to get 50 miles! Just as a comparison, the same distance, 50 miles, on the Victoria to Brighton train takes 50mins – how can this take 1hr10min more?
Many times I rented a plane from my club at Lydd and flew up instead. Didn’t save any time, but almost saved money! 
