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

boyse7en

thescouselander wrote: »

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

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.

That's one of the problems with with way we pay for car usage - fixed costs for RFL and insurance mean that there is a cost to having a car even if it is not used, or looked at the other way, you've got to pay those costs, so the more you use the car the cheaper those elements are per mile.

robt_2

jamespir wrote: »

sorry that was a return 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

An off peak return is £56.70, so that would be £113.40 for both of you on a walk up fare as opposed to £44 for both of you booked in advance on the bus?

You are still not comparing like for like. Even so - it is still a saving of course, but not one I would personally choose on balance.

jamespir

robt wrote: »

An off peak return is £56.70, so that would be £113.40 for both of you on a walk up fare as opposed to £44 for both of you booked in advance on the bus?

You are still not comparing like for like. Even so - it is still a saving of course, but not one I would personally choose on balance.

no it was was 22 pounds altogether there and back for 2 of us i know trains are quicker like but

wealdroam

thescouselander wrote: »

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.

If I were you I would use similar logic when next using the train.

Just tell the ticket inspector you didn't buy a ticket because the train was going to make the journey whether you were on it or not.

:beer:

thescouselander

wealdroam wrote: »

If I were you I would use similar logic when next using the train.

Just tell the ticket inspector you didn't buy a ticket because the train was going to make the journey whether you were on it or not.

:beer:

Good thinking - you cant really fault that logic.

mikey72

robt wrote: »

a) It is not a low percentage of electric trains.
b) I know exactly how it works, cheers

Well, if you know exactly how it works, and the percentage of trains using it, you'll have no problem quoting a figure on how much power is actually re-used from the braking system then.:)
cheers

catflea

Lum wrote: »

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

I'm staring out of the office window at Brighton sation right now Direct train from Brighton to Southampton Central :D:D

robt_2

thescouselander wrote: »

Not all trains have regenerative braking - diesel ones for instance. Perhaps you could tell me exactly what proportion of the train fleet in the UK is actually fitted with regenerative brakes - probably less than half I would suspect.

I'm not sure how full trains get - I don't normally get on them because they're too flippin expensive.

mikey72 wrote: »

Do you know how low a percentage of electric trains actually have regenerative brakes, and even that usually isn't fed back into the national grid.

mikey72 wrote: »

Well, if you know exactly how it works, and the percentage of trains using it, you'll have no problem quoting a figure on how much power is actually re-used from the braking system then.:)
cheers

I have been very bored over the last hour.

Remember this is electric trains only, and I have excluded Eurostar, carriages which are hauled by locomotives, and anything under construction.

Out of 1936 electric trains, 985 have regen brakes which is around 51%.
Out of 7727 electric train carriages (not locomotive hauled carriages), 4282 have regen brakes, which is around 55% (showing a trend that newer trains are longer).

Obviously neither of those are a 'small' percentage.

The brakes would normally return between 16% and 21% of the power the train consumes back into the power system for other trains to use, thus less power is sent into the rail network from the national grid.

What has this got to do with the original post? Nothing. But some people commented on it.

anewman

Free annoying chavs getting rowdy and/or playing crap music on their tinny mobile phone speaker with every train journey.

catflea

Oh yeah, thats a favourite.

Thats where noise cancelling headphones come in :D