Use public transport

tdmer

Here's a mad thought - use public transport. I sometimes visit the Outlaws in London. My car's a bit of a gas guzzler, it does about 40mpg on a good day, so it costs me about £200 in fuel to get to London, so ignoring the depreciation, the cost of tires, servicing, insurance, VED and anything else, the government is getting about £100 in tax off me for the pleasure. Also need to ignore the £30 or so I'll spend on lunch or whatever in some service station so I can stretch my legs for a bit on a 9-10 hour journey.

I've just checked, I can get a return train ticket from Edinburgh to London for less than £90 if I plan ahead, so me and the other half could take the train for less than my fuel costs, with the benefit that we could wander about the train whenever we felt like it.

Or I could take the bus and get to London for less than £30 return. OK it takes 9-10 hours on the buss, but that's how long the car takes and if I feel like a kip on the way down I can have one without visiting the local scenery.

born_again

Well you could, so long as it is a planned trip. But what then happens if train/bus is not running? 
Have you factored in getting from train/bus station to their house?

I once costed out using public transport to get to work 15 miles each way. Aside from the extra hours it took & no busses on a weekend to get to work. It was cheaper to use car, just. 

kempiejon

I wouldn't relish having to travel from Scotland to London car or bus.
What about all the people on public transport, their smells, noises, proximity. Argh the humanity.
However public transport beats personal transport as you can do more than just drive like drinking, sleeping and reading.

FlorayG

That's fine for people who HAVE public transport easily available. It's so far to my nearest train station that by the time I've got there I may as well drive the rest of the way if it's less than 150 miles

elsien

Any train journey, I do involves a 15 minute walk to the station, then the connecting train to the main town which takes 50 minutes, then however long I need to wait for the connection before the journey proper starts. 

The last couple times I’ve used a train, it’s been delayed or cancelled. 

And if I’m going to the main town with someone, it’s cheaper to drive park than it is to pay for two return train tickets.
Buses? Pretty much non-existent where I am. There isn’t a direct one  anymore out of town, and buses tend not to run on an evening or Sundays.

Public transport works well for some people, primarily those who live in cities.
I use it occasionally. I would not rely on it for anything important. 

sammyjammy

We had just this conversation yesterday with a couple of people that travel a fair way to work (the conversation was around remote working), both these people drive as the cost/time/reliability of trains makes it a non option even given the extortionate parking fees.

Something needs to change if they want people to seriously consider making the move.  I took a train from Birmingham to Sheffield yesterday ,delayed 30 minutes due to train in front, jam packed full of people, had to stand all the way.

Mildly_Miffed

Since when did 40mpg become "gas guzzler"?

At 40mpg, and £1.40/litre, £200 will get you 1,270 miles. It's 412 miles from Edinburgh to London, so about £130 in fuel.

If I look on TheTrainLine, it's about £120 for one person return trip from Edinburgh to London in about a month's time, overnight in London - non-changeable, non-refundable - so £240 for the pair of you.

I dunno about you, but £240 does not look like less than £130 to me. 

If I decide I want to go tomorrow, it's £170 each.

The coach is £40/head, so £80 for the pair of you - yes, a saving of £50. But, honestly, I'd pay that premium not to have a 21.5hr return trip on a coach. The only <10hr coaches are overnight.

In other news: "UK rail system is expensive". Hold the front page.

You could do it by plane for £70/head, according to Expedia.

MX5huggy

Public transport is great, but now tell me what the cost of that train ticket is tomorrow or god forbid you decided to just turn up and get on the next train. 

EssexExile

Trains are fine if the places you are going from and to have railway stations, and if you know well ahead that you want to go, and that you don't want to take anything big or heavy, and you know exactly what times you want to travel there and back, and you travel alone and you don't want to travel about much while away.

CliveOfIndia

Public transport can be great if it's available and reliable.  Over the years I've visited London a few times with work, and was impressed at the underground system.  A train every two minutes and they run from very early early morning to very late at night.

Compare that with where I live now.  A rural area, buses into town are expensive, infrequent and very unreliable.  Many, many times my older kids have been late for work because the bus simply didn't turn up.  And as for trying to get a bus on a Sunday or after about 8:00pm, forget it.

If I want to get a train, it's a 15-mile drive to the nearest station, then I've got to pay for parking, and the trains are very expensive, and are often cancelled.  For pretty must most journeys for me it's cheaper and a lot more convenient to drive.

But in general, there's another consideration - how many people are making the journey?  For one person it can be cheaper to get a train (especially for longer journeys).  In fact, when I visit relatives at the other end of the UK, it's cheaper to fly than it is to drive.

But if there's 3 or 4 of you, a car can work out cheaper in some instances.  The cost of getting the car from A to B is fixed, it makes no difference how many people are in it - so the "cost per person" can work out quite a bit cheaper.

In my example of flying vs driving, flying is cheaper if there's just one person, it's about evens for 2 people (purely looking at cost, ignoring the difference in time it takes), but the car is a lot cheaper when there's 3 or 4 of us.

Arunmor

I think the OP has had a GenZ damascene moment and realised there is such a thing a public transport. 

I'm of the generation that thought 30mpg was was wishful thinking.....lol