Should it be More Expensive To Travel By Train Rather Than Car

Cardelia

robt wrote: »

I think you need to check back to secondary school level physics, and research regenerative braking for electric trains.

Of course an empty train is more polluting than a car with one passenger - how many empty trains do you see?

There are plenty of empty trains running round the rail network. Mostly those which have been taken out of service and need to get to a siding/those being shunted round in sidings/depots, those being cleaned etc.

In terms of scheduled services, there are many which run with very few passengers on. I'm amazed the Gatwick Express franchise actually makes any money because whenever I see their off-peak trains, there can't be more than 3 or 4 people in a carriage.

robt_2

Cardelia wrote: »

There are plenty of empty trains running round the rail network. Mostly those which have been taken out of service and need to get to a siding/those being shunted round in sidings/depots, those being cleaned etc.

In terms of scheduled services, there are many which run with very few passengers on. I'm amazed the Gatwick Express franchise actually makes any money because whenever I see their off-peak trains, there can't be more than 3 or 4 people in a carriage.

If we are going to be pedantic I will rephrase the statement.

How many empty trains do you see compared to ones at least 25% full?

Gatwick Express is not a separate franchise these days by the way, it is just a brand.

catflea

Personally I find the train to be Excellent value, you just need to work out how to play the system a little bit.

I'm currently paying £5.70 a day for a journey that would cost around £18 in the car. The most I have had to pay per day is £11.35 which still works out significantly better.....

Lum

I'm guessing from your location that you are commuting into London?

The London commute is just a special case of the suburb*->city centre situation which is about all most public transport systems in this country are good for.

*ie, the suburbs in this case would be the likes of Cambridge, Aylesbury, Brighton, parts of Kent and Essex etc. etc.

catflea

Nope, Commuting to Brighton, from Southampton

jamespir

public transport is way over priced and trains are the worse

the cheapest train ticket i could find (even advancing split ticketing) was 67 pounds from where i live to london

yet i went on the megabus and paid 11.00 each way

robt_2

jamespir wrote: »

public transport is way over priced and trains are the worse

the cheapest train ticket i could find (even advancing split ticketing) was 67 pounds from where i live to london

yet i went on the megabus and paid 11.00 each way

Out of interest, I have just looked for tomorrow and there are advance tickets for £21 and a walk up ticket bought on the day is £33. No split ticketing required. Are are you exaggerating for the sake of it?

Lum

I guess you're lucky to live on a convinient route then.

Can't realistically get anywhere by train from here. For example by car it takes me 20 minutes to get to Newport. By train the local trains go through Newport without stopping and then on to Cardiff, then I have to get another train back to bloody Newport.

Or there's an hour long bus journey to Newport that costs over £5 for a one-way ticket.

Of course, the cost of parking at Newport or Cardiff station is extortionate, higher than the Severn Bridge tolls, so may as well just do the entire journey by car and pick a more direct route that goes nowhere near either city.

thescouselander

Well, I'm going on a journey today - lets compare the costs.

I have to go from Bristol to Blackpool - I will be going by car and I expect the petrol to cost around £28. A quick look at the train shows the equivalent journey will be about £70 so not worth it - and thats before I've spent the £12 taxi fare to get to the station.

I know I haven't taken other factors into account like depreciation etc but, to be honest, I already own the car and I'm not going to get rid of it on the basis of doing one journey by train - so the other factors are all sunk costs to me anyway.

To compete with the car the train has to cost about the same as the petrol need in the for the journey in the car - clearly this wont happen this time.

jamespir

robt wrote: »

Out of interest, I have just looked for tomorrow and there are advance tickets for £21 and a walk up ticket bought on the day is £33. No split ticketing required. Are are you exaggerating for the sake of it?

sorry that was 67 pounds return each even doing it your way which would still cost me 66 quid there and back so i was right (no exagerating plus there was 2 of us so that would be £132)

where as i paid 22 pounds for both of us