The cost of a single ticket on a French TGV train from Paris to Brussels is £43 for a distance of 165 miles,compare that to our cattle truck train fares.

Unbelievable!! - And to think what we have to pay to travel to London (about 150 miles?) with our tinpot railway.

Rip off! I can drive from my house to Cardiff and back (300 miles) on £17 worth of petrol. A return ticket from Shrewsbury would cost me about £25, plus whatever petrol I'd use getting to Shrewsbury, which is half an hour's drive from my house. And they say public transport is cheaper...

There was an article in one of the papers yesterday that travelling on the London underground is the most expensive way to travel by rail in the world.

A 43 second journey on the shortest route possible costs £4.00 which is the minimum price for travelling on the underground network.

We pay a lot less than that, you can get to London for about £27 return from Shrewsbury even without booking in advance, just get a regular return to Birmingham (about £12) then go on the Chiltern Line from Birmingham Moor St, they do a walk-on fare of £15 return whichcan be used on any train after 1100.

It's slower than the TGV and takes about 30 mins longer than Virgin from Brum but it's worth it if you can't book in advance and get the cheap Virgin fares.

That's not including the other car ownership costs though. A half decent car will cost at least 15p per mile to run on top of petrol costs once you've taken into account depreciation, interest, tax, insurance, MOT, servicing, parking etc so that's another £45 on your Shrewsbury-Cardiff round trip, more if you're driving a more expensive car or don't do many miles per year.

Yes but most Londoners and more and more visitors use Oyster Cards which means a single costs £1.50 and if you use the tube more often the total spend is capped at the cost of a travel card.

The cash fares have been deliberately hiked to get everyone using Oyster.

My car is cheap, I drive it often, and I am the ultimate petrol conservation driver :D

I don't actually think train fares are too expensive. Book in advance and get the best fares. I can get about £12-15 to London if I book a return for set times in advance or £25 for an unrestricted ticket. Telford is only £2.75 for me or £4.10 for an adult return. Add the cost of parking to a car trip and it's pretty cheap.

Remember guys that the Shrewsbury-London rail link starts this Summer with return fares for £25, £15 for Young Person's Railcard holders. Bargain.

You hope it does Sam,dont hold your breath though.

The cost of air fares has never been lower,the price of diesel/petrol is coming down and train fares are at an all time high and this goverment has the gall to say we should all be concerned about global warming,this is not about the enviroment its just another way of screwing us for more tax.

But if the government lowered train fares it would have to make up the difference with more subsidy meaning more taxes, you can't have your cake and eat it.

The reason that France has a better transport system (as well as better healthcare and lower rates of poverty) is that they pay 50% of their GDP in taxes while we only pay 40% and they have done for years meaning far more investment year in year out. The flip side is that we have more after tax income to spend on playstations, holidays and overpriced houses.

You can't expect us to catch up after 4 or 5 years of high spending when the railways were starved of cash from the mid 60s to the late 90s and the NHS was whittled to the bone during the 80s and 90s.

It took years for the lack of investment to become noticeable as it's possible to "make-do" in the short term and the increases in spending will also take time to work as there's a huge backlog of repairs and upgrades needed, that's just the way it goes.