Why travel locally by car when you can do it much more expensively by train!
OK, Shenfield to Seven Kings is not like going from Lands End to John'O'Groats. It is a local journey. Tonight I thought I would do a regular journy by train and leave the car in the garage. Got to the stattion (only a 7 minute walk) and found I cannot buy an overnight return. Have to buy a single to destination, and a single back the following day. £9.20p in total.
My car will do the same (return) journey on less than a tank of diesel and in far more comfort. I can play music as loud as I wish, spit on the floor and scratch the initials of my latest beau' on the windows.
Afraid I won't be letting the train take the strain. Oil buner for me.
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Last Thursday had to get to Slough for 1pm for an hour. Options:
- Drive the 400 miles
- Train
But the train for returning between 2pm (ish) and 5pm was over £240. Depart later and it was only £65 (ish).
I knew I could leave Slough before 2:30pm so car it was. Got delayed avoiding delays (but not held up) and got home around 6:30pm.
Okay I could have taken the expensive train and expensed it as it was work but (a) I really dislike paying anyone's money like that and (b) drove the new car and it counted as working ;-)
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Train from home to work is £4.95 return. Miles wise, its 25 mile return journey. So in theory about £3 of diesel in my car.
But train takes 20 mins, car nearer 40 mins. In train I listen to my mp3 player, look out the window, update my PDA task lists etc. Get 10 mins fresh air walk at each side and arrive at work / home totally chilled and relaxed.
However the spanner in the works is that I need to use my car for work some days so in reality can only get train maybe 2 or 3 times a week.
[Its only when I re-read this I realise that 40 mins to go 12 miles to work, really is not a high average speed, but it is an accurate figure!] Something to do with having to go through 6 sets of traffic lights, none of which you can get through on second change, never mind first!
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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"less than a tank of diesel"
And a tank of diesel is £9.20? Is it me?
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About a month ago took four adults and three kids from Northampton to London to see the Terracotta Army. Total rail fare (saturday so off peak, but including travelcard) a smidgeon under £45.
No hassle parking; around an hour into town late morning more like 70 minutes returning at around 22:00.
No brainer.
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About a month ago took four adults and three kids from Northampton to London to see the Terracotta Army. Total rail fare (saturday so off peak but including travelcard) a smidgeon under £45.
I am speechless. I live in Medway, 32 miles from London and return fare to London Victoria is £21.80 just for myself plus £3.20 to leave my vehicle in car park!
My car would have to be doing 12mpg for the train to be cheaper on my everyday journey.
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[ Anything I drive can and will be used against me ]
Edited by v0n on 30/10/2007 at 10:03
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Von
Deal called groupsave, 4 adults for the price of two and kids for a further £1 each. Another £5.50 for car parking (unless you know the exactly what time attendants at Northampton knock off on a Saturday).
I was the fifth adult in the party and I pay £3400pa for a season and another £180 a quarter for parking - still better than driving or trying to live and bring up kids nearer the smoke.
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I used the train on Saturday to get to the Royal Albert Hall from Luton. £15:50 return which includes all tube and bus travel in central London. I could have driven but it would have taken about an hour more to get there. I also wanted a drink or two whilst there, otherwise I'd have probably driven in.
I'll next use it when I go and see The Pogues at Brixton academy, again cos I'll want a drink, its illegal to watch them sober! and cos parking round there isn't the best.
edited to add:
It's about a gallon and a half of diesel, plus parking costs if I can't find somewhere free to park, so more expensive than the fuel but probably not when you consider the complete running costs of the car.
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I read often, only post occasionally
Edited by spikeyhead {p} on 29/10/2007 at 21:04
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The train is fine if I am going 30 miles into London where the public transport is okay.
Recently I went to a friend's wedding near Cardigan, West Wales. It was a 260 mile drive each way and took 5 hours including a 30 minute stop. Fuel cost about £50. I took a friend who lived nearby, so that halved the fuel cost.
The train would have taken much longer, cost much more, and the destination station was miles from the wedding location requiring the hiring of taxis. In fact I could not have done it by train without taking half a day off work, and losing pay.
Oh and I didn't have to stand all the way. Or sit next to someone with big elbows and body odour.
Wasn't there a study recently that showed that the train is not more environmentally sound than driving, assuming an efficient car?
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its supposed to be a lovely line down to the coast though ,worth a taxi at the end in the summer maybe?
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The true cost of a car journey is far greater than just the cost of fuel.
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L\'escargot.
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Car journeys cost the same(nearly)with one person or a load;trains don't.
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OK Shenfield to Seven Kings is not like going from Lands End to John'O'Groats. >>
Anyway I think they have closed the Lands End to John O'Groats line.
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>>Anyway I think they have closed the Lands End to John O'Groats line.
Penzance-Thurso: closest there's ever been and still open.
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"Penzance-Thurso"
There's one leaving at ten to three. Gets in at half-past two tomorrow afternoon, price £162.50...
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ps....original post should have said "same journey on less than a gallon of diesel"
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>The true cost of a car journey is far greater than just the cost of fuel.
About another 1p per mile, tops.
This weekend, London to Co. Durham. Train £120 - plus having to be picked up at the other end and dropped back off; hassle with luggage, etc. Or 300 miles each way, Say £65 fuel so about 50% cheaper than train. Add a passenger, and become 75% cheaper than train.
Add a second passenger and by extrapolation, 100% cheaper than train. Fill the car and extrapolate to being 125% cheaper than train. ;)
But it took more than twice as long each way; although it was door to door.
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>The true cost of a car journey is far greater than just the cost of fuel. About another 1p per mile tops.
I calculate the fuel cost for my car is approximately 12p/mile. According to What Car? magazine the total cost over 3 years/36000 miles is 39.6 p/mile including depreciation, fuel, insurance and servicing.
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L\'escargot.
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>The true cost of a car journey is far greater than just the cost of fuel. About another 1p per mile tops.
As pointed out elsewhere it's a heck of a lot more than that, but the problem with car use is that so much of the cost is pretty well fixed. It really doesn't make much difference to tax, insurance, maintenance, depreciation whether you do 6000 miles or 12000. Pretty well the only thing that changes is fuel.
Of course the cost equation will change completely when / if road charging is introduced and you find you have to pay a £1/mile in peak times in busy areas.
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>The true cost of a car journey is far greater than just the cost of fuel.
No doubt, but the decision to travel by car rather than public transport postdates the acquisition of the car. So all the overheads apart from wear and tear are being paid anyway. Once you have a car, fuel is the only easily-quantified extra cost incurred in any journey. Once you have a car, it is in your interests to use it. Otherwise why pay the overheads?
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Once you have a car it is in your interests to use it. Otherwise why pay the overheads?
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Quite. So what needs to happen is that all cars should be taken into public ownership!
Car clubs seem ideal to me - I think they're working in a couple of places but haven't really taken off.
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Imagine turning up at the filling station and being told Fuel is £2 a litre at the moment, but if you come back at 7pm it is only 90p. However if you are travelling on a friday long distance it will be £1.50 litre. If you buy your fuel on the internet before you turn up at the garage, you can get a 20% discount...on a Saturday only.
And if you travel in a rural area on a weekend, the roads are closed to cars and you'll have to take a bus instead, due to roadworks.
... this is what it would be like if travelling by car was like travelling by train..
The train is a good idea, but privatisation by too many different companies and a lack of investment over decades (which is only recently being addressed, but will take decades to cure) have created many issues.
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"on a weekend, the roads are closed to cars and you'll have to take a bus instead, due to roadworks"
I'd settle for that, if there weren't any the rest of the time!
Edited by J Bonington Jagworth on 30/10/2007 at 09:55
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i think all roads should be closed sundays except for emergancy service vehicles,it was pure bliss that saturday when they buried dianna i even considered a walk on the motorway,we will never have a day like that again.
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"all roads should be closed sundays"
Do they still have car-less Sundays in Holland? It would be a very interesting experiment - personally, I think the inconvenience would be more than offset by the amazing peace and quiet.
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Governments have neglected transport of all types. Now though, they have an excuse to discourage it which was not the case even 5 years ago.
As one has said above, it's the relatively high fixed costs of private/company cars which makes public transport seem expensive. If we factor in the total costs of all public transport, divide by the number of users, we'd get a seriously high figure per mile I imagine.
We cannot now re-open the Beeching closed lines of pre-1963, but it would be nice to hear of plans to make trains/trams more user friendly and actually compete with the convenience of cars. Open new lines, increase the number of tracks on existing lines, build more stations [has any new housing development got trains built in?], use the central reservation of motorways for new lines, use the hard shoulder of motorways, put a new line next to every canal etc. It could be done but when did we ever hear of a 10 year plan from politicians, never mind see it project managed to conclusion. Maybe we should invite the French to do it for us.
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if the bus can negotiate the roadworks why close them off to car users?
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