Trivia: What’s the best and worst value rail single you can buy in Britain?

[Alex365Dash]

Inspired by a recent thread on how far you can travel with a £50 note, I thought I’d ask a tangentially related question (or questions)!

What is the best and worst value Anytime Single or Anytime Day Single ticket (of those two ticket types only) you can buy between two National Rail stations in Great Britain (to mean England, Scotland & Wales)? Value in this case is measured in price per mile, with the worst value ticket having the highest price per mile, and the best value ticket having the lowest price per mile. Mileage is measured in the shortest route by scheduled passenger services between the origin and destination.

Where both an Anytime Single and Anytime Day Single exist, use the Anytime Day Single for worst value and the Anytime Single for best value.

For the avoidance of doubt, SailRail tickets and tickets with an origin/destination of London International CIV or London Eurostar CIV are excluded.

I’ll start with a suggestion for the worst value ticket - London Blackfriars to City Thameslink route Not Underground costs £3.50 for any Anytime Day Single with a distance of 28 chains or 0.35 miles - making a price per mile value of £10/mile.

 

[Lampshade]

Isn’t Greenfield - Marsden widely acknowledged to be the highest fare per mile?

 

[Agent_Squash]

Isn’t Greenfield - Marsden widely acknowledged to be the highest fare per mile?

It shouldn’t be, considering it’s £1 a mile (ish) - and Oxenholme to Kendal is £3.10 for 2 miles (approx £1.55 a mile) - and the OPs example even more extreme.

 

[nw12398]

You can buy a ticket from Gunnislake to Barnstaple for £8.20 (adult fare, w/o railcard) on the day, which works out at less than 8p/mile.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Berwick to Chathill is quite pricey

 

[Haywain]

Luton to Luton Airport Parkway at £4.60 for 1 mile is fairly expensive.

 

[miklcct]

I’ll start with a suggestion for the worst value ticket - London Blackfriars to City Thameslink route Not Underground costs £3.50 for any Anytime Day Single with a distance of 28 chains or 0.35 miles - making a price per mile value of £10/mile.

Is this deliberately priced to make people use pay as you go?

 

[30907]

Is this deliberately priced to make people use pay as you go?

PAYG, being Zone 1, is £2.50, so a mere £7-odd per mile

 

[Watershed]

Is this deliberately priced to make people use pay as you go?

Yes, in a word. Paper tickets within the Zones are, with the exception of certain National Rail only season tickets, generally very poor value for money.

 

[Hadders]

A paper ticket on the Underground between Leicester Square and Covent Garden costs £6.30. The platforms are around 300 yards apart.