Trains too costly for Network Rail staff!

This is classic and pretty much somes up Britain's mismanaged train network to a tee...

Network Rail, the company responsible for the country's rail network (as the name suggests) have discovered that sending 200 of their staff from Reading to Coventry is prohibitively expensive by train - so they're sending them by coach instead!

An open return ticket by train is a whopping £135.  By coach, it's just £12.  A bit of quick mental arithmetic tells me that the train costs just over 11 times more than coach.  Yes, that's right - ELEVEN times!

Despite Network Rail being the company that maintains the rail system they aren't entitled to discounted services from the companies that run the trains on their network.  Even if they were to receive a discount, it's hardly likely it could compete with the far more sensible fares provided by bus and coach (including the ones run by the same companies that run the trains!)

By choosing road over rail, the company has saved itself £24,000.  None to shabby!