Where is The Green Party?

Mr_Singleton

Just reading latest issue of AutoCar.

Has an article about a Porsche sports car and a little town car on a trip to from south to north Wales.

The city car did the trip 50 minutes quicker than the train and was 325% cheaper. The high powered Porsche was 1 hour quicker and 60% cheaper than the train.

..... and The Green Party reckon we should all be taking public transport!

Norman_Castle

Do you think Autocar might be biased? South to north Wales would suit a car rather than public transport.

Voyager2002

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Just reading latest issue of AutoCar.

Has an article about a Porsche sports car and a little town car on a trip to from south to north Wales.

The city car did the trip 50 minutes quicker than the train and was 325% cheaper. The high powered Porsche was 1 hour quicker and 60% cheaper than the train.

..... and The Green Party reckon we should all be taking public transport!

How do they calculate the cost comparison?

If you hire a Porsche for the day then that alone would cost more than any number of train tickets. If you buy a Porsche then you need to consider finance costs on a significant capital sum, or at least the income you might have earned from investing that sum in the stock market. Again, the daily cost is likely to exceed that of virtually any train ride. Not to mention depreciation (if you buy a brand new Porsche, drive it across Wales and then try to sell it the next day you will lose about as much as the cost of hiring an entire train!), maintenance and insurance.

Again, if you are the kind of person who might buy a Porsche then the value of your time is extremely high. You could work on the train, but not while at the wheel, so the value of the lost work time would probably be far more significant than the ticket price.

Pennywise

There are so many trips that are quicker and cheaper by car all over the country. Public transport only really works well in the more densely populated areas.

I regularly travel between two Northern cities. Both are on main lines, but the train takes an hour longer and costs far more than fuel. Not to mention having to change trains twice and most of the journey being on cold, drafty Pacer trains with no facilities. You really just wouldn't take the train if you had a car parked in your drive - you'd be crazy.

I used to commute 20 miles up the road to the next town for my first job. A 20 minute car drive, but over 2 hours on the train with 2 changes. My next job was an hour away by car but took 3 hours by train.

Once you get into the less populated areas, say, Wales, Northern England etc., then trains are pretty much unusable unless you happen to live on a main commuter route into a city.

Oakdene

Oh please!!

I live in West Wales & I can drive to Aberystwyth (which is 65 miles away) in about 85 mins. However the train journey from my town to Aber takes 7 hours & 57 minutes & costs over £30 for a single! Because I have to go all the way from West Wales into England, change train & then come back into Wales towards Mid Wales.

Little bit of bias there....

Mr_Singleton

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Do you think Autocar might be biased? South to north Wales would suit a car rather than public transport.

Your being somewhat ambiguous with your answer there but fear not I've rephrased for you....

"How dare anyone wants to go from Chepstow to Bangor"

giraffe69

Perhaps for a sensible comparison to be made other journeys might be included in a comparison but perhaps you prefer a small and fairly silly example to make a post or two about. Previous posts would suggest this.

Mr_Singleton

Pennywise wrote: »

Public transport only really works well in the more densely populated areas.

Not really... take a look at London TFL got its knickers in a twist a year or two back when a newspaper highlighted the cost of comuting in various European cities. London was something like 3 times the cost of Paris for example. TFL was complaing that a zone 6 comute wasn't typical or in other words screw the 100k+ for whom this is a daily reality.

Last year a friend handed back her Oyster card and got a PCP car deal on a small city car. Total cost over 5 year is less than £5000 + running costs. Her TravelCard over the same period at todays prices would cost nearly £12000 that doesn't include the mandatory TFL yearly price increases.

Now add the massive convenience of a car plus 40 odd minutes less commuting time and again I'll ask "Where is The Green Party?"

elverson

For an equally extreme example, I can cycle from home to work in rush hour in 50 minutes (for marginal cost), take the train in 45 minutes, or drive the same route which would take 90 minutes, plus £13 Congestion Charge, plus at least £10 daily parking.

Mr_Singleton

giraffe69 wrote: »

Perhaps for a sensible comparison to be made other journeys might be included in a comparison but perhaps you prefer a small and fairly silly examples.

Ok suggest 2 points and we'll see!

Just did London to Taunton and again the train is still way more expensive. Have more than 1 person in the car and the train just gets silly expensive!

worried_jim

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Just reading latest issue of AutoCar.

Has an article about a Porsche sports car and a little town car on a trip to from south to north Wales.

The city car did the trip 50 minutes quicker than the train and was 325% cheaper. The high powered Porsche was 1 hour quicker and 60% cheaper than the train.

..... and The Green Party reckon we should all be taking public transport!

I would take the Porsche over public transportation every time.