User Group Meeting

I spent today attending a User Group meeting in central London. With the new rail service from Stockport to London this isn't too big a deal, the whole journey takes less than two hours on something they label as their "flagship service".

What I find amazing is the cost of the journey. A same day return cost over £200! Looking at the prices for other tickets on the same train I see that something called a "business return" costs £317!

Don't get me wrong, I like the service. You can't beat the speed that this train gets you into central London. I'm just wondering how much money this type of service generates. A large percentage of the train seemed to be first class and I saw very few empty seats.

However almost everyone I saw on the train was wearing a suite. I presume that the only way people can use this service is if it is being paid for by their company- which is certainly my case. But it does seem like an extraordinarily high cost compared to a regular return ticket. A quick search tells me that if I had travelled down a couple of hours later, and not returned until after 6:30pm, then my ticket would have only been £57 - a much more reasonable amount.