Public Transport vs Driving. Are they mad?
Discussion
Public transport is not something I use very often, the odd bus into town every now and again maybe. That's reasonable enough I guess.
Planning to take the young lads to the National Railway Museum in York from Manchester when visiting the in laws. After a 5 hour drive to Manchester I didn't really fancy another hour and a bit to York, hey, why not take the train I thought?
One less car on the road, be a good citizen, the lads will probably love the adventure and surely it's dead easy in York, it's RAILWAY museum after all. Plus I can save a bit on petrol and parking too. Win all around.
Except the train is £60 fking quid which is a damm sight more than I'd spend on petrol and parking.
How are we expected to see public transport as a more viable alternative to driving when it's more bloody expensive?! What's the point?
Planning to take the young lads to the National Railway Museum in York from Manchester when visiting the in laws. After a 5 hour drive to Manchester I didn't really fancy another hour and a bit to York, hey, why not take the train I thought?
One less car on the road, be a good citizen, the lads will probably love the adventure and surely it's dead easy in York, it's RAILWAY museum after all. Plus I can save a bit on petrol and parking too. Win all around.
Except the train is £60 fking quid which is a damm sight more than I'd spend on petrol and parking.
How are we expected to see public transport as a more viable alternative to driving when it's more bloody expensive?! What's the point?
MiniMan64 said:
Public transport is not something I use very often, the odd bus into town every now and again maybe. That's reasonable enough I guess.
Planning to take the young lads to the National Railway Museum in York from Manchester when visiting the in laws. After a 5 hour drive to Manchester I didn't really fancy another hour and a bit to York, hey, why not take the train I thought?
One less car on the road, be a good citizen, the lads will probably love the adventure and surely it's dead easy in York, it's RAILWAY museum after all. Plus I can save a bit on petrol and parking too. Win all around.
Except the train is £60 fking quid which is a damm sight more than I'd spend on petrol and parking.
How are we expected to see public transport as a more viable alternative to driving when it's more bloody expensive?! What's the point?
A lot of people don't like driving, unless really necessary (my ex used to hate driving, if she could have a free chauffeur, she would've, happily). Some people will just happily stump up the extra £30-40 etc to take away the hassle of other drivers on the road, getting lost at junctions and being beeped, worrying about being caught on dash camera or just observed doing a perfectly safe overtake then having a not their fault crash but the witness that observed them overtaking coming forward to the police, blaming them for being a maniac on the road. That last one is a bit extreme, I'll admit. Planning to take the young lads to the National Railway Museum in York from Manchester when visiting the in laws. After a 5 hour drive to Manchester I didn't really fancy another hour and a bit to York, hey, why not take the train I thought?
One less car on the road, be a good citizen, the lads will probably love the adventure and surely it's dead easy in York, it's RAILWAY museum after all. Plus I can save a bit on petrol and parking too. Win all around.
Except the train is £60 fking quid which is a damm sight more than I'd spend on petrol and parking.
How are we expected to see public transport as a more viable alternative to driving when it's more bloody expensive?! What's the point?
Is less stress on a coach, train, bus, maybe more expensive and an hour etc longer but it's less worry.
otolith said:
Rail travel is bloody expensive, yes, but you're considering part of the marginal cost of using a car against the total cost of using the railway.
How come the Dutch, the Germans and the Austrians (in my experience) can provide trains which are capacious, clean and punctual at prices that don't make your wallet sting then?otolith said:
Rail travel is bloody expensive, yes, but you're considering part of the marginal cost of using a car against the total cost of using the railway.
That's the snag. Don't shout about though - it gives the road charging lobby ammunition.Public transport is nearly always going to look bonkers if multiple people are travelling though.
Often cheaper to book two singles via thetrainline.com up to the day before travel. On the day of travel you're stuffed -- I ended up paying £108 Leeds to Kings X cattle class 1-way after missing my pre-booked train.
I can fly Stansted-Glasgow for £50, but I guess I wouldn't expect to rock up at the airport with 20 mins to spare and buy a ticket for £50.
I can fly Stansted-Glasgow for £50, but I guess I wouldn't expect to rock up at the airport with 20 mins to spare and buy a ticket for £50.
MiniMan64 said:
Except the train is £60 fking quid which is a damm sight more than I'd spend on petrol and parking.
Your car cost a lot more to run than fuel and parking. If you have a car full of passengers it is about as efficient as it gets for moving people about and it will likely beat public transport on cost, convenience and environmentally friendliness. But you really can't compare costs on cost of fuel and parking saved Vs total cost of public transport, unless you only pay for the fuel of he train.
Neither car not PT is going to be the best for every trip, so look to see which suits.
MitchT said:
otolith said:
Rail travel is bloody expensive, yes, but you're considering part of the marginal cost of using a car against the total cost of using the railway.
How come the Dutch, the Germans and the Austrians (in my experience) can provide trains which are capacious, clean and punctual at prices that don't make your wallet sting then?Dutch and Austrian trains have lower subsidies than ours do, but I'm sure we could provide much cheaper rail services if taxpayers subsidised them as much as the Germans do.
Willy Nilly said:
Your car cost a lot more to run than fuel and parking.
Yes, I've never really managed to work this out but I reckon the HMRC 45p/mile allowance isn't far off the mark. You have fixed costs that you will incur if the car spends the whole year on your driveway: tax, MOT, insurance. Then you have the wear and tear on consumables: oil, other fluids, tyres, brakes, clutch. This sort of stuff can be costed for in a spreadsheet. Then there's the other stuff that wears out through mileage: CV joints, dampers, engines, gearboxes -- I don't think this can be measured at all with any degree of reliability. MitchT said:
How come the Dutch, the Germans and the Austrians (in my experience) can provide trains which are capacious, clean and punctual at prices that don't make your wallet sting then?
From my experience of living in Germany trains were expensive there unless you booked in advance. A bit like here really.... carl_w said:
Willy Nilly said:
Your car cost a lot more to run than fuel and parking.
Yes, I've never really managed to work this out but I reckon the HMRC 45p/mile allowance isn't far off the mark. You have fixed costs that you will incur if the car spends the whole year on your driveway: tax, MOT, insurance. Then you have the wear and tear on consumables: oil, other fluids, tyres, brakes, clutch. This sort of stuff can be costed for in a spreadsheet. Then there's the other stuff that wears out through mileage: CV joints, dampers, engines, gearboxes -- I don't think this can be measured at all with any degree of reliability. I use the bus at the minute to get to the current job.
It is easy, bus stop is a three minute walk from the house, parking is a nightmare at the other end, traffic coming home is really busy, a weekly ticket is £15. Never had a problem.
It saves so much wear and tear on the car not sitting in traffic on the way home.
It is easy, bus stop is a three minute walk from the house, parking is a nightmare at the other end, traffic coming home is really busy, a weekly ticket is £15. Never had a problem.
It saves so much wear and tear on the car not sitting in traffic on the way home.
G321 said:
MitchT said:
How come the Dutch, the Germans and the Austrians (in my experience) can provide trains which are capacious, clean and punctual at prices that don't make your wallet sting then?
From my experience of living in Germany trains were expensive there unless you booked in advance. A bit like here really.... Wait Here Until Green Light Shows said:
MitchT said:
How come the Dutch, the Germans and the Austrians (in my experience) can provide trains which are capacious, clean and punctual at prices that don't make your wallet sting then?
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