Off on hols this week and thinking we will have a day trip to York as I've never been "lets have a look and see how much a train would be, might be some special offers" I said to the Mrs.

Anyway – cheapest ticket combination I could find is £80 for two. Now thats quite alot IMO for a day out. I could do a return trip in my car for about £25 of diesel (yes other costs like parking and miles on car etc) but still considerably cheaper than 80 bloomin quid.

Anyway rant over.

They are hardly persuading me to go down the green route here.

all public transport is getting dearer its not alot more now to go in a cab over the bus with the bus fare being £2 but the comfort and the fact that the cab picks you up from your door far outweighs it.

Of course it all depends how far you are travelling for you £80!!

It only costs £4.10 for the 16 mile return trip into Derby from my village!

I get the train every day for work and thats not so bad price wise… mybe Im just being mean but I thought Id pick up a bargain ride outside of the commuting hours but not this time.

Next time I will have to book a year ahead to get the £6.50 offers on the east coast site.

Alnmouth to your BTW.

17.50 singles are available tomorrow – slightly cheaper. Alnmouth to york I am assuming. Book a week ahead and £13.50 singles are available

Even at £80 for two thats only 32p per mile!

If you can get them at TJ's prices its a bargain! Its is rather annoying that you have to be 'in the know' though about how timetables work to get the best rates.

I've just had to renew my annual Season ticket – £3000+ for a journey of about 45 miles or so…

The only bonus of being a 'gold card' holder is that any other tickets I buy are at a discount (subject to the usual network restrictions – peak hours, availability etc).

As ever, once you've accepted the up-front costs of running a car it is hard to justify the cost of train fares for individual journeys.

Of course, for your £80 on a good day, you'll get a smooth, fast run which will deposit you right in the centre of York, and you'll be at liberty to have a drink or five before you set off home.

🙂

I've been using public transport for the last fortnight and it's useless.

I got the megabus up here which broke down, was late, smelt of piss and was meant to take 5 1/2 hours for a 4 hour journey.

I've got the train every day to and from work- petrol in my car was £40 a week, a train is almost double at £70- and that's a very much reduced week pass. It's mean to be £100! Journey time is also up to 1hr 45 including a 15 minute bike ride- the same as the car and a 45 minute ride. And I've already had to write a letter of complaint about the staff. And it's been late 3 times! A train back to Yorkshire is £50 in advance- a tenner more than driving. It's £80 on the day.

Also I was without my bike for the first 2 days and had to pay £2.80 for one 6 mile journey and £3.50 for a 7 mile one on the bus! It's 78p in the car.

I don't understand why on earth anyone would use public transport. It's expensive, unreliable, doesn't drop you where you need to be and is generally a waste of time. As soon as you get more than one person in your car it's cheaper for almost any train journey, and often it's cheaper if you're on your own.

If they want people to be green they seriously need to sort out their prices- it use to be that a 7 mile journey only cost me 80p on the bus. That was only about 7 years ago.

I use public transport a lot and find it cheaper and more convenient than a car – and often quicker. Its almost never cheaper on your own in a car than by train. I find it totally reliable and really have no issues at all. I recently did a journey to one of the most remote corners of Scotland ( morven) Bus, train, train, ferry, bus, ferry. All on time, cost reasonable. I didn't want a return trip so wanted to use public transport. Its also more relaxing.

spokes – you forget the rest of your car costs – you can double the petrol cost to get the total cost

Cars use is heavily subsidised by the taxpayer tho – what needs to happen is for this subsidy to end.

Try Edinburgh to London in 4 hrs driving?

Sure the train is quicker to London, but hundreds of pounds. It's so cheap to drive that we drove to france this year- split between 3 of us it was about half the price of an easyjet flight.

My car would cost about £400, plus £100 a year for tax and the last two MOTS cost £150. No other work done. If I had to commute as I am doing daily at the minute, including a few weeks holiday, the car would have saved me £1000 a year (that's all upfront costs in a single year- imagine spreading that out. It makes a more expensive car very easy to justify).