Ultima Online began to utilize recall runes. While this is obviously not the solution in the game, I have said before that maybe there could be some type of 'grotto' in the game where cross continental travel is possible through a little bit of risk. Area's underground that you can mount in to run through for fast traveling. Again this is getting away from needing to balance the pay of traveling, and also gives incentives for pvp.
Now that I have suggested my opinions on how to fix Albion Online Items, my opinion on the future of it.

Let's face it, the dev's are making completely new maps.. while they may not be large variation from the current setup.. there is possibly a fix in the work's right now for the current issue at hand. Changing large percentages of the map to say Black/Red zone is going to have a large effect on the game in itself. With those changes should come the restriction of ease of travel. The whole idea of red zone's not having territories, only black zones... all of that changes the landscape a lot. On top of that the world is supposed to be getting much LARGER... so fast travel may be even more prudent in the future.
My final suggestion is that instead of bitching.. offer up some suggestions. Clearly you think it's important to keep fast travel, but your reason's are... should we say...