GettyIf you’ve ever had the misfortune to travel on a British train then you’ll know that in order to afford a ticket you have to either remortgage your house or sell off your vital organs.
In fact rail fares in this country are so expensive that it’s literally cheaper to fly over a thousand miles to another country rather than pay for a rail ticket, as two friends proved this week, The Mirror reports.
27-year-old Lucy Walker, from Newcastle, had planned to meet up with her Zara Quli, 26, a friend from uni in Birmingham but was left flabbergasted when she discovered that the return trip would cost £105.
Presumably the fare’s so high because train engines can only be powered by unicorn tears and they’re in short supply these days.
Thankfully though it seems planes run on a far less costly form of fuel, so the girls instead arranged to meet in Spain when Lucy realised they could both get a return flight to Malaga cheaper than they could get a train.
Lucy payed just under £20 to fly the 1,350 miles from Newcastle to Malaga while Zara payed £55 to go from Birmingham to the southern Spanish city. They then both payed £10.00 a night for a stay in a hostel.
Linkedin So rather than endure a torturous journey on a British train, I don’t know which service it would have been but the good thing about them all being shit and overpriced is we can say they’re all shit and overpriced, Lucy and Zara got to enjoy the sizzling Spanish heat.
Lucy said:
Trying to travel last-minute in the UK is always such a kick in the teeth as they put such a big premium on it.
There are always these last minute deals for flights and so we just checked for a better deal.
We realised it was cheaper for the both of us to go to Malaga instead. Considering I try to be environmentally friendly it is not something I would normally do but the train is so expensive and this was just so much cheaper.
Google MapsAnd while you might’ve thought that a trip to Spain’s bound to be more expensive than a trip to Spain you’d be wrong!
The girls managed to do things on the cheap by drinking bottles of beer and enjoying the free tapas that bartenders have to serve in Malaga by law!
Amazing work girls!
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.