AGA's Stansted Express pricing

[mrmartin]

The pricing of this service doesn't make a huge amount of sense, at least to east london where I live if you have 2 or more people.

I can get a local minicab for ~£35 each way direct there, sometimes cheaper. So £70 total.

The best Stansted Express can do is £50 rtn for 2 people; plus I need to get a bus to Stratford if I've got luggage so 4x£1.50 so £56. This just gets worse if you have more people obviously.

Taxi with no traffic can get me there in 30-40 minutes depending on how much of a lunatic the driver is. Stansted express takes over an hour as need to change at TOM, plus every time I have been on a late night flight it's been diverted via Seven Sisters so need to go to LST and then back out again (which requires another fare and don't know how you could excess it).

I can understand if you're coming straight from Liverpool Street as it's every 15 mins and way cheaper/faster than a taxi. But it seems overpriced to me from Stratford or other local stations. Even the coach is probably a faster option than the express from here.

It would be good if they lowered fares a bit from non LST stations as it would compete more with taxi pricing or offered a bigger discount as a group.

 

[yorkie]

Abellio Greater Anglia (AGA) who operate trains branded Stansted "Express" price London to Stansted Airport at a premium, as is common with many operators who serve airports.

It's cheaper to go further, e.g. London to Audley End is cheaper than London to Stansted.

AGA will not change their current policy as business people are not prepared to look for cheaper fares and are prepared to pay almost any price.

Savvy passengers can save large sums on rail travel by purchasing fares that are not as terrible value as operators like AGA would want you to pay.

 

[mrmartin]

I'd agree for Heathrow Express or Gatwick Express but for Stansted I think it's a bit different.

The airport is a massive hub for Ryanair, so customers are very price conscious. I ended up getting the coach from there to Stratford recently for the first time and was amazed that 2 entire coaches filled up and had to wait for a 3rd, considering the stansted express is so dead at that time of night. I genuinely do think if it was cheaper more people would use the service instead of the coaches. I've seen late night loadings so low that I doubt I counted a couple dozen people on a 8 car train. Also reminds me of a story when I got the last Stansted Express and I was the only person on it and Liverpool Street was locked up by the time I got there...

There was also a massive queue of people waiting for buses to liverpool street and other destinations.

I think the pricing is going wrong when a taxi is very similar in price and way more convenient (as it goes straight up A12/M11).

 

[robbeech]

Whilst it wasn’t the main bullet point of your post, you shouldn’t have to pay more money just because it is diverted.

 

[James H]

It's cheaper to go further, e.g. Finsbury Park to Stansted (route +Any Permitted; valid via London Liverpool Street and including a cross-London transfer) or London to Audley End are both cheaper than London to Stansted.

Are you sure about Finsbury Park? The fares seem to be more expensive than from London Terminals

 

[yorkie]

Are you sure about Finsbury Park? The fares seem to be more expensive than from London Terminals

Sorry, I appear to have made a mistake. That one isn't cheaper.

 

[MikeWh]

Whilst it wasn’t the main bullet point of your post, you shouldn’t have to pay more money just because it is diverted.

Does the diverted train stop at Seven Sisters? Can you take the Victoria line from there to Tottenham Hale?

 

[mrmartin]

Would the duo ticket cover that though?

 

[bb21]

The airport is a massive hub for Ryanair, so customers are very price conscious. I ended up getting the coach from there to Stratford recently for the first time and was amazed that 2 entire coaches filled up and had to wait for a 3rd, considering the stansted express is so dead at that time of night. I genuinely do think if it was cheaper more people would use the service instead of the coaches. I've seen late night loadings so low that I doubt I counted a couple dozen people on a 8 car train. Also reminds me of a story when I got the last Stansted Express and I was the only person on it and Liverpool Street was locked up by the time I got there...

There was also a massive queue of people waiting for buses to liverpool street and other destinations.

They have their respective strengths and shortcomings.

Trains aren't designed to be particularly convenient if you have lots of luggage due to the nature of the operation. Plenty of people find coaches vastly more superior to trains when they have luggage, as they have a comfortable seat with luggage stowed away and fetched with the help of the driver. Coaches are also far more flexible in being able to serve more destinations with direct journeys.

For a journey like Stansted to Stratford, with luggage, there is no chance in hell the railway would be able to compete well with coaches.

I think the pricing is going wrong when a taxi is very similar in price and way more convenient (as it goes straight up A12/M11).

The railway can rarely compete effectively on price with a multiple occupancy car/taxi, hence various offers for groups travelling together. With four people, it is almost always cheaper in a taxi than paying walk-on fares for fairly short journeys. It is a phenomenon to be expected.

 

[Starmill]

Sorry, I appear to have made a mistake. That one isn't cheaper.

Your information is just out of date, that's all.

The OP will be shocked to discover that the cause of this is that the price of tickets from London to Stansted Airport has been decreased recently.

I think there is a chance it will decrease futher, as all trains will soon be formed of 12 coaches when at present most trains are 8 coaches and some at the weekend are even 4. I suspect that this will lead to off-peak trains carrying large numbers of empty seats.

 

[Starmill]

It is a phenomenon to be expected.

It's the reality of travel in the UK - that doesn't mean it's good for the environment or good government policy. It's not, IMO, 'to be expected' - it's a result of our government's choices about environmental and tax policy.

Unlike the train, the real cost of the taxi journey would include the negative externalities from the air pollution, traffic congestion and much higher carbon emissions it is creating. The price may not include all of these things.

 

[Starmill]

Would the duo ticket cover that though?

A Two Together Railcard might save you a little more money? I see that an Off-Peak Return from Stratford to Stansted Airport with a railcard is £19.10 which is not too bad. You can also get a Zone U23* to Stansted Airport Anytime Return for £20 with the railcard.

 

[bb21]

It's the reality of travel in the UK - that doesn't mean it's good for the environment or good government policy. It's not, IMO, 'to be expected' - it's a result of our government's choices about environmental and tax policy.

Ergo, "to be expected", surely. Expectations can only be based on the particular economic environment the operation is in, otherwise it is meaningless.

 

[Starmill]

Yes I agree, but it's worth clarifying that while it is that way, it doesn't actually have to be that way. It's not that difficult to solve, it's merely unpopular. Some things, as you correctly pointed out, are intrinsic to the mode - like how on coaches the driver can help with luggage and everyone can be guaranteed a seat, and obviously rail does not and should not work like that. This isn't one of them.

 

[Paul Kelly]

The OP will be shocked to discover that the cause of this is that the price of tickets from London to Stansted Airport has been decreased recently.

I think there is a chance it will decrease futher, as all trains will soon be formed of 12 coaches when at present most trains are 8 coaches and some at the weekend are even 4. I suspect that this will lead to off-peak trains carrying large numbers of empty seats.

Possibly related to this, I was pleasantly surprised when travelling to Stansted a couple of weeks ago on an Off-Peak Return from elsewhere in the London & Southeastern area, to discover that the fare in question has been changed to a 4A restriction and there are no longer any afternoon peak restrictions out of Liverpool Street. It's a journey I make semi-regularly and previously I'd often found myself in a hectic rush across London to make the last off-peak departure (1625 from Liverpool Street, 1637 from Tottenham Hale) before the peak restriction kicked in.

Stansted Express definitely seems to be becoming more affordable.

 

[mrmartin]

A Two Together Railcard might save you a little more money? I see that an Off-Peak Return from Stratford to Stansted Airport with a railcard is £19.10 which is not too bad. You can also get a Zone U23* to Stansted Airport Anytime Return for £20 with the railcard.

You can't use two together railcards before 10am, otherwise this would have been fine.

 

[Starmill]

Ah right. The discount can be used from 0930 rather than 1000 (although some other railcards have minimum fares which apply before 1000), just to keep it nice and simple.

 

[mrmartin]

Sorry, youre right. I was going to do exactly as you say as I assumed minimum fare would apply but no. Hence started looking at taxi options.

 

[Shell]

like how on coaches the driver can help with luggage[...], and obviously rail does not and should not work like that

On certain long-distance journeys - most recently seen on a VTEC journey from Edinburgh to London King's Cross - there was a small collection of staff collecting people's luggage to store in the train's luggage compartment. A ticket with a number was given, and you collect your luggage at the other end. Perhaps a journey priced at a premium - such as airport journeys - should, in fact, provide a similar service.

 

[Starmill]

That's true, luggage check-in at VTEC is indeed an option but it's not clear if this will continue. It is a little limited too in terms of where you can load and unload luggage with impacting dwell time, and you have to arrive in time for it.

 

[Hadders]

On certain long-distance journeys - most recently seen on a VTEC journey from Edinburgh to London King's Cross - there was a small collection of staff collecting people's luggage to store in the train's luggage compartment. A ticket with a number was given, and you collect your luggage at the other end. Perhaps a journey priced at a premium - such as airport journeys - should, in fact, provide a similar service.

Fine when you can use the DVT to store luggage but will a similar facility exist on the Azumas?

 

[gray1404]

It is like this with most tickets to and from airports. Train companies charge more because they can. National Express also does this, for example, they seldom offer fun fares to/from airports.

 

[Kite159]

On certain long-distance journeys - most recently seen on a VTEC journey from Edinburgh to London King's Cross - there was a small collection of staff collecting people's luggage to store in the train's luggage compartment. A ticket with a number was given, and you collect your luggage at the other end. Perhaps a journey priced at a premium - such as airport journeys - should, in fact, provide a similar service.

Did Gatwick Express offer such a facility when they had the 460s?