Do you think public transport is expensive?

Pound

I'm seriously considering getting rid of my car completely and relying largely on public transport. Something that has always put me off is the cost of the fares. £3 for a recent 10 mile journey I made seemed very expensive per mile than using a car.

But having looked at Arriva's website if you buy one of their 'saver' tickets you can get very good value for money. The best value one is done using their mobile application (works with most phones) used to purchase a 4 week 'm-ticket' with a 10% discount which comes to £37.80 (£491.40 annually or cheaper if you leave a gap between tickets).

This ticket gives you unlimited travel within the region, in my case this is the whole of Staffordshire and the West Midlands. This is obviously a lot cheaper than owning a car.

Arriva's mobile application is very cool as well. You purchase a saver ticket using their app and the ticket displays on your phone and you just show the driver your phone when you get on. A few of the other bus passengers seemed a bit bewildered at me showing the driver my phone before sitting down without handing over any money.

Edit: Typical cost comparison:

Harry_Flashman

Hmmm - personally, I think I'd lose too much freedom using the peasant wagon. Wouldn't work for me.

harveybobbles

you couldnt take your old settee to the tip in a bus either...

Pound

People can come up with lots of valid reasons why a bus isn't feasible. I've given an argument against one of these in the OP but there's many and I think there is a counter-argument against the majority of them, although I appreciate some people genuinely can not do without a car.

Harry_Flashman wrote: »

Hmmm - personally, I think I'd lose too much freedom using the peasant wagon. Wouldn't work for me.

I don't think you lose much freedom. You can still travel anywhere you want but obviously you will need to plan ahead (ie. look at bus times). You lose the freedom to spontaneously jump in a car and go somewhere but giving up that freedom seems worthwhile to me in order to be enjoy the financial and health benefits.

harveybobbles wrote: »

you couldnt take your old settee to the tip in a bus either...

Sometimes you need to think outside the box on a lot of things.
Your local council will, for a fee, take your old settee away.

Need to take your granny out for dinner now and again? Use a taxi.
Need to go to Cornwall for a week and can't do without car? Rent a car.

You pay more for these things but over a year you'll probably save money.

harveybobbles

Don't think you would to be honest if you totalled everything up you do in your car over 12 months.

Car is still cheaper than pubic transport.

Edit: i've left the typo in. It made me laugh...

Coveredinbees!!!!

harveybobbles wrote: »

Don't think you would to be honest if you totalled everything up you do in your car over 12 months.

Car is still cheaper than pubic transport.

Edit: i've left the typo in. It made me laugh...

me too :rotfl:

ZootHornRollo

i absolutely need a car (van) for my hobby - dog agility - need to lug dogs around and a caravan for shows.

however, outside of that the van is a luxury. I can get to work via public transport (train & bus) but it would at least double my travel time (2 hours per day instead of 1) and the cost is comparable to the cost of fuel i'd use. as i need to have the van for my hobby i am paying the fixed costs regardless, hence it works out as cheap for me to have the luxury of my van instead of using public transport.

In my current situation (recently separated) i could probably do away with the van if i didn't use it for the dogs - and be a lot better off for it. But the cost of public transport stops me from using it for work and keeping the van on the road.

Like the OP i have considered the costs of using rented cars and taxi's when needed, get things delivered instead of picking them up and i think it would work out cheaper in the long run depending on your circumstances. If you live where there are good transport links then there is no reason for it to be massively inconvenient.

p.s. and you might save even more money as it won't be so easy to just nip out to the shops.

KeithP

ZootHornRollo wrote: »

...as i need to have the van for my hobby i am paying the fixed costs regardless, hence it works out as cheap for me to have the luxury of my van instead of using public transport.

But isn't almost the same as saying something like...

"The bus/train is going that way anyway whether I'm on it or not. It costs no more when I'm on the bus/train, so why do I have to buy a ticket?"

Harry_Flashman

Pound wrote: »

I don't think you lose much freedom. You can still travel anywhere you want but obviously you will need to plan ahead (ie. look at bus times). You lose the freedom to spontaneously jump in a car and go somewhere but giving up that freedom seems worthwhile to me in order to be enjoy the financial and health benefits.

Actually, I value the ability to travel more or less when and where I want.

A trip to work (17 miles) would become a true nightmare (and damned expensive too)

And what health benefits? Sitting in the peasant wagon with a troop of sniffling proles? Dammit a chap could catch anything. :eek:

ArsenalFC

Public transport can work out more than running a car if you have to use it regularly.

If you only need it for the occasional trips/weekends then it will work out much cheaper than a running a car.

Dave_Z

When i first moved to London i gave up my car and used public transport for 2 years. I ended up getting a car again last year as it worked out cheaper, plus it gave me a lot more freedom. Where i live now takes 10-15 mins to get to work. In total, a bus would take at least an hour door-to-door and would work out at least as expensive as owning a car. Definitely no savings to be made. The government really screw you. They take every last penny they can from your wallet in taxes for owning a car but don't give you a viable alternative. I live 5 miles from my office, but it would take a 10 minute walk followed by 2 buses to get there and i'm not even going to start with how complicated going to the supermarket would be. Not to mention that i could only bring a couple of bags of groceries back each time.