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Call to scrap Help to Buy in London as house prices become absurd
Comments
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trains are expensive ways of getting to a place quite a long way from where you want to be, without any convenient way of taking more than a few belongings with you. .
In most parts of the UK, taking a train somewhere is the slowest, least convenient, and most expensive way of getting there.“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.
Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”
-- President John F. Kennedy”0 -
I don't mind driving in London. I drive across London reasonably often when visiting one of my close friends who lives in zone 2. I went to meet up with some friends from this board at a restaurant in zone 1 (I think) a little while ago. They were surprised that I felt confident to drive in central London, especially in the dark, but the driving didn't bother me. It's parking in London that I don't like, so I'm sure if I lived there I'd use public transport as all the rest of you do, and as my family do when staying with our London friends if we're going somewhere where there won't be easy parking. (Our friends live somewhere with allocated parking and don't have a car, so it's never any problem to park at their house.)
My post was basically in agreement with what ruggedtoast said about there being no decent trains outside of London. Trains in London run a lot more frequently than over my side of the country, and there are always tubes and/or buses to take you quite close to your destination once you get off the train, so it's a different experience. Over here, I live a mere three and a half miles from the station, and it's suburban, not out in the sticks, but to get to the station by public transport I'd need to get two buses, one of which only goes once an hour. So perhaps if you think I should try driving in London, you should try getting about by public transport somewhere that isn't London (or Birmingham or another large city).
I agree with this.
I also have access to parking in London, though its in the congestion charge zone. If you remember I was dithering and in the end decided to come by train mainly because I was iffy about crossing London in the morning to my parking space By Time to get back to where I needed to be by the time I needed to be there. I could always have paid for parking, but a little like you, don't like finding parking in an area I don't know, most especially when time is tight.
As a result rather than use the station very close to my house I drove to a station much further away to make better use of late night trains. I live IMO 'relatively close' to London, close enough in time for theatre or meals out and to be home before might clubs close, but transport to the provinces doesn't recognise this. When I lived near where you are, for example, I drive to London for nights out regularly (weekly or so).
I still prefer to have a car when I lived in London for going out.......you don't always want to go out on 'easy' night bus lines, within london or pay out for a taxi all the time.0 -
I don't live in London but worked there for all my working life and due to the nature of my job I drove and the time it can take to travel short distances is terrible. Public transport is good if overcrowded in London.
I was unable to drive for a year and do agree that Public transport can be very bad outside London where I am the buses stop at 7pm.
I have to admit that I've not had much experience of driving in London when it's important that I arrive somewhere on time. I imagine that must be pretty awful.
Buses that stop at 7pm is worse than round here. But ours do start late, finish early and run even less frequently on Sundays and bank holidays. I have a friend who comes to work by bus - our work is in the centre of town and she lives near a bus stop for one of the more frequent routes - but she always has to get a taxi on bank holidays because the bus won't get her into work early enough.Do you know anyone who's bereaved? Point them to https://www.AtaLoss.org which does for bereavement support what MSE does for financial services, providing links to support organisations relevant to the circumstances of the loss & the local area. (Link permitted by forum team)
Tyre performance in the wet deteriorates rapidly below about 3mm tread - change yours when they get dangerous, not just when they are nearly illegal (1.6mm).
Oh, and wear your seatbelt. My kids are only alive because they were wearing theirs when somebody else was driving in wet weather with worn tyres.
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That recent trip to meet up with you and the other NP was the only time I've gone to London just for a night out since I've lived here. We used to do it quite a lot when we lived in Oxford, but that was Before Children. We used to go on the Oxford Tube bus from Headington to Marble Arch, and it was straightforward and reliable.lostinrates wrote: »I agree with this.
I also have access to parking in London, though its in the congestion charge zone. If you remember I was dithering and in the end decided to come by train mainly because I was iffy about crossing London in the morning to my parking space By Time to get back to where I needed to be by the time I needed to be there. I could always have paid for parking, but a little like you, don't like finding parking in an area I don't know, most especially when time is tight.
As a result rather than use the station very close to my house I drove to a station much further away to make better use of late night trains. I live IMO 'relatively close' to London, close enough in time for theatre or meals out and to be home before might clubs close, but transport to the provinces doesn't recognise this. When I lived near where you are, for example, I drive to London for nights out regularly (weekly or so).
I still prefer to have a car when I lived in London for going out.......you don't always want to go out on 'easy' night bus lines, within london or pay out for a taxi all the time.Do you know anyone who's bereaved? Point them to https://www.AtaLoss.org which does for bereavement support what MSE does for financial services, providing links to support organisations relevant to the circumstances of the loss & the local area. (Link permitted by forum team)
Tyre performance in the wet deteriorates rapidly below about 3mm tread - change yours when they get dangerous, not just when they are nearly illegal (1.6mm).
Oh, and wear your seatbelt. My kids are only alive because they were wearing theirs when somebody else was driving in wet weather with worn tyres.0 -
That recent trip to meet up with you and the other NP was the only time I've gone to London just for a night out since I've lived here. We used to do it quite a lot when we lived in Oxford, but that was Before Children. We used to go on the Oxford Tube bus from Headington to Marble Arch, and it was straightforward and reliable.
Oxford tube IS reliable and fantastic. Certainly i remember a problem making a night bus from caused problems in the past when we didn't book a room at dh's college (probably booked too late) but came home after an event or something. Cannot remember why that was. But London to Oxford for supper or a night out SHOULD be easy. In a car I wouldn't even have thought about not accepting or extending that invitation ..0 -
We used to go on the Oxford Tube bus from Headington to Marble Arch, and it was straightforward and reliable.
In the interest of balance it should be pointed out that there is another service available between those two points which is just as straightforward and reliable (and has been in operation for many years longer than the Tube) 'In nature, there are neither rewards nor punishments - there are Consequences.'0 -
In the interest of balance it should be pointed out that there is another service available between those two points which is just as straightforward and reliable (and has been in operation for many years longer than the Tube)
Yes and sometimes we used to take it, probably more often than the Tube, actually, but it all happened in the 1990s, and I couldn't remember the name of the other service.
Do you know anyone who's bereaved? Point them to https://www.AtaLoss.org which does for bereavement support what MSE does for financial services, providing links to support organisations relevant to the circumstances of the loss & the local area. (Link permitted by forum team)
Tyre performance in the wet deteriorates rapidly below about 3mm tread - change yours when they get dangerous, not just when they are nearly illegal (1.6mm).
Oh, and wear your seatbelt. My kids are only alive because they were wearing theirs when somebody else was driving in wet weather with worn tyres.0 -
Yes and sometimes we used to take it, probably more often than the Tube, actually, but it all happened in the 1990s, and I couldn't remember the name of the other service.
I don't remeber it. Oxford tube os like 'Hoover ' though, innit? There was megabus for a pound if booked fifty years in advance or something......0 -
The big travesty of it all is that us retired boomers, living at a tube station but outside London, don't get a free tube pass.
Every time Mrs LM and I go into town for the theatre and a nice restaurant, we have to get out the oyster card and pay for it ourselves......
I suspect there is a way I could get there on the bus using my free bus pass, but it would take a lifetime. Made worse by the fact that a lot of these old pensioners (older than I) take so long to get on and off the bus. Should make them pay extra!0 -
I don't live in London but worked there for all my working life and due to the nature of my job I drove and the time it can take to travel short distances is terrible. Public transport is good if overcrowded in London.
I was unable to drive for a year and do agree that Public transport can be very bad outside London where I am the buses stop at 7pm.
I used to live 9 miles away from my office when I lived and worked in NW London.
My tube journeys were either a short walk with a long journey and longish walk, or a long walk with a short journey and a medium walk.
Or driving, which was the most convenient but once took me two hours door to door.
My innate laziness never really discovered a preferred option.0
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