Virgin Trains at least are nice and if you book well in advance very reasonable deals are to be had. We paid ~42 quid from London to Manchester in first class, one way. Alas we bought the tickets month' in advance and, of course, non-refundable.

For shits and giggles I tried to figure out what the same ride costs like when you buy the ticket 30 minutes in advance. And there we come to 280£ each, which is completely ridiculous. It's not that good (2nd ist still ~90quid)

Now, don't get me started on Northern. Filthy, Expensive, Clueless and slathered with a heavy dose of disorganisation.

I think you can honestly say that privatizing trains in the UK was an experiment going horribly wrong.