Yep
When I see the prices of tickets we paid in Japan...
Quick test:
- Luton to Nottingham: 144KM: $45,50 to £104 - so £0.32 to £0.72 per mile.
- Tokyo Central to Shinfuji 142Km: $31.60 - $0.22 per mile.
And in Japan, it's a Shinkansen that makes anything rolling in the UK look a bit like an open top cattle box car with service from a disgruntled East German border guard.
If you took the local train - about the same speed as an UK train, the price would be even lower. But still more comfy.
And this is Tokyo, the real estate might be a tad more expensive than in Luton.
As a quick story:
In Japan, we took the train on average once a day for 3 weeks.
All spot on time. Except one.
It was 3minutes late, the horror! The staff was on the verge of tears...
Bowing, excusing themselves for being lazy etc.
Came back to Belgium, second day back to Uni, train 45 min late and terminates one station early - effectively putting all the passengers 1 hour late.
The driver and the controller were having a gay old laugh about it.
(, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 10:54, Reply)
That sounds about right
BTW admittedly we did have to pay the top whack for the Luton to Nottingham train, and the flights were RyanAir & Easyjet at the lowest price we could get them. But still ...
Here in Germany you can for example get any day of the week a Brandenburg-Berlin ticket for 29€ that gives unlimited travel anywhere in Brandenburg for up to five people for 24hrs.
If you can't get together five people there are numerous websites where you can advertise for co-travellers. That's 6€ per person, and if you are on a popular run you can even end up making a profit!
(, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 11:34, Reply)
And did I talk about the packed meals on sale in Japanese train stations?
Bloody miss those... Ahhh.
(, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 11:50, Reply)