A BRIT commuter has been left speechless after discovering that flights to Morocco for a week would cost him just a little over half the price of a train from London to Motherwell.
Chris Thomson noticed the staggering issue after browsing for tickets from the capital up to the Scottish town yesterday.
Unable to believe the cost, Chris took to travel metasearch site Skyscanner to see what flights he could bag for the same price or less.
Incredibly, the ticked-off traveller found that return flights to Morocco for a week would cost just £54 – just over half the cost of the approximately six-hour train ride.
A screenshot taken by Chris of the booking page on Trainline shows that the journey from London up to the town in North Lanarkshire would cost him between £105.50 – £124.50.
Incredibly, another screenshot from Skyscanner’s search shows that the flight to the port city of Essaouira on the North African coast would cost at least £51 less.
Other destinations in Morocco are also on offer such as Agadir and Marrakech, with only the latter coming close to the train’s cost at £107.
This means that the 390-mile journey within the UK would cost Chris almost twice as much as the 1889-mile journey to Morocco – which would also take two hours less.
Shocked into disbelief, Chris shared his discovery on social media yesterday with the caption: “It’s cheaper for me to get return flights to Africa than it is to get a train to Motherwell.”
The post has since received over 8,300 likes and dozens of comments from social media users left in disbelief by the sky-high price of the train ticket.
One user said: “Train ticket prices are wild. Tried to get from Glasgow to Birmingham and back they wanted £350, just booked a bus for £25 instead.”
Another added: “Train drivers striking over not being paid enough, but train tickets are 4x where there should be. Where’s all the money going? One man’s pocket?”
A third wrote: “I think that second train is going via Morocco! 5 hours 20 minutes? London to Marrakesh is not only half the price but two hours faster.”
Another joked: “To be fair the only reason there’s transport in Motherwell is so you can leave.”
