Could it ever be cheaper to drive than to travel by train?

Lithian

Possibly if you already had a car that got over 40mpg anyway. (400miles@40mpg with fuel at £1.35 is just over £61)

But over a year thats getting towards 15,000 miles for 3 times a month so we can't really ignore servicing/wear and of course depreciation, although i guess your pattern changes during holidays

property.advert

Forget the car as it is a non starter.

Coach will be via London I'd guess and a long journey to boot.

Advance rail fares and her getting a railcard are the only realistic options.

moneypooh

property.advert wrote: »

Forget the car as it is a non starter.

Coach will be via London I'd guess and a long journey to boot.

Advance rail fares and her getting a railcard are the only realistic options.

I agree totally. I only use my car for long journeys if I have passengers. If you look at all the costs of the journey a car just isn't cost effective. People often just count fuel, but a car costs so much more per mile.
I'm travelling from Oxford to Cardiff in November for £16 return (with a network travelcard) there is no way I could do that in my car!

Bowling_4_Gold

Definitely tell your girlfriend to get a railcard. Even using it for one trip saves her more than the cost of it! It will only take a few minutes at the station. You can even save a couple of quid buying online.

rev_henry

I find as a general rule one person with a railcard is cheaper by train than by car. Any passengers and the car is cheaper. BUT that's based on petrol alone really because I already have the car and pay the insurance etc regardless of whether I drive it that particular day or not. Having said that there are occasional exceptions - to go from my parents home in Cumbria to visit a mate in Leeds its only around £3 extra by car, and quicker, so I do that. I usually compare car v train when planning any significant journey. All this is irrelevant though if you're JUST getting the car to visit your gf because you'd be paying tax, insurance as well etc.

Voyager2002

One of you should transfer course to eliminate all this commuting.

scheming_gypsy

don't forget as well. If you drive it's highly unlikely you'll have a car full of old people that smell of wee; unlike every train i've ever been on

vaio

moneypooh wrote: »

I agree totally. I only use my car for long journeys if I have passengers. If you look at all the costs of the journey a car just isn't cost effective. People often just count fuel, but a car costs so much more per mile.
I'm travelling from Oxford to Cardiff in November for £16 return (with a network travelcard) there is no way I could do that in my car!

fair point but if you wanted to do it at short notice, say tomorrow, it would cost you about £160 whereas the cost by car would't change

thefishdude

there is allways megabus but its long journy. would be about £25 return on that would need to get two tickets leeds to london and london to reading.

leeds 5.50am get in london 10:30am
london 12pm get inreading 1:30pm

Gordon_Hose

Jeff_Bridges_hair wrote: »

Oh dear. It looks like you never even read what you actually wrote so i will quote it and highlight it for you




So as I said. You would need a time machine to do the journey 4 hours quicker by car given that the fastest journey i saw by train was 3 hours 50 minutes.

even the slowest journey time was 5 hours by train. Yet you are claiming that you can do it 4 hours quicker which means you are claiming that you can do Reading to Hull in an hour.

Astonishing claims there. I didnt even have to use google maps or anything - just a train journey planner to show that your talking rubbish.


So again - I will ask - Is the journey from Reading to Hull 4 hours quicker by car then train?

I shall await your answer with baited breath.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: :T:T:T

Me too!!