Had to take the bus today, only a mile and was fleeced for £2.30.
Is this normal?
I can count the number of bus journeys I’ve had on one finger in the last ten years and I though it was a bit spendy back then but compared to todays highway robbery it was fairly reasonable.

A mile and you took the bus, have you no legs?

And yes they’re expensive which is why I always walk into town.

Public transport is expensive full stop.

Thats why people use cars!

From the stop opposite (by the pub) into town? Had to for safety reasons otherwise you’d have got mown over walking?

The cost of public transport in the UK is a national disgrace. Should be not for profit and subsidised. Costs me three times as much to catch train to sheffield with family as it does to drive.
As for buses into Leeds….well I think the bus fare is the reason that everyone on the bus can only afford crap tracksuits and/or leggings.

Public tranmsport is for people who can afford to be driven around.

there are usually lots of tickets offering discounts or unlimited travel all day, like Mega rider on stagecoach.

I have a free bus pass 🙂

Depends on how far you’re going I suppose – it’s often a flat fare. It was probably £2.30 if you went 5 miles.

Public transport is expensive full stop.

Thats why people use cars!

Yep, if I were to travel into the city centre with my 3 children it would cost over £10.
In the car it is only a 10minute journey and doesn’t cost me that much.

Also if you sit on the bus and it is busy and somebody starts chewing gum or eating something I cannot stand it , so that puts me off too.

You want to try taking the train instead. The bus fare will suddenly seem reasonable.

Agreed public transport is far too expensive, but people always seem to forget about the cost of insurance, MOT, tax, Maintenance, parking and just think about the cost of fuel when comparing the cost to taking the car.

You want to try taking the train instead

Very few trains will take you the arduous one mile in to town, though.

Then there’s taxis.

Took the taxi from ASDA to my other half’s flat in London the other day (we were laden with bags). 1.1 miles according to Google Maps. £5.50.

@ Drac

Where I live has no pavement for about 1/2 the journey.
It’s quite a busy road to our destination as Deluded will confirm.
I had one reception age child and one nursery age child.
My daughter is entitled to a school bus for this reason, even though the school is halfway along this route.

I would quite happily walk and have done on my weary way back from the pub before but there’s no way I’m walking two small children along the edge of a busy country road with no pavement.

@ cougar
Also caught the train today and that was far more pleasing on the wallet than the bus.

Agreed public transport is far too expensive, but people always seem to forget about the cost of insurance, MOT, tax, Maintenance, parking and just think about the cost of fuel when comparing the cost to taking the car.

Valid point, but if you’ve already paid for all of those, as the vast majority will have, it’s a no brainer to take the car! Unfortunately

Thats why people use cars!

I’ve heard some losers travel by bike

I appreciate that it’s not really relevant to anything but,

What on earth is “reception age”?

4

Gotcha.

Never use a long word when a diminutive one will suffice. (-:

You need to look at real comparisons using the real cost of driving remember thats around double the cost of petrol – public transport is almost always significantly cheaper per mile for one person as well as being faster and more pleasant.

Edinburgh £1.40 for any distance. Thats less that the return cost of driving into town let alone parking.

Edinburgh / Glasgow return by train £12 return for a 90 mile return journey. Hard to drive that for £12 in petrol let alone other costs including parking

Of course we do have the advnatage of not having priovatised services in the same way as in England but even so

Job agency contacted me today about a job, did a bit of research and it is a bit far to ride everyday, 22miles. I don’t really like driving so rather not drive that everyday either, so i thought i would have a look at the train.

£17return!!

I mean what incentive is there to leave the car behind when the train is going to cost twice the petrol and then i still have to pay the fixed costs on the car!!!!

We looked at travelling by bus or train into Leeds instead of using the car and the journey time increased to just over 2 hours for an 8 mile journey for an extra £140 a year. Public transport outside London is a complete joke

Edinburgh / Glasgow return by train £12 return for a 90 mile return journey.

Train prices are all over the place. Getting from Preston to Accrington (which is less than half that distance) costs me £14 return.

From Preston to London can be anywhere from ~£20 to well over a hundred one way, depending on time of day / phase of the moon / whatever other ephemeral criteria they use to set prices.

A first-class upgrade on said journey is an extra 15 quid on Saturday / Sunday. On Friday, it’s about £130.

what are you doing on an omnibus? Have you failed in life?

It really depends on where you are and what the offers are. On a weekend you can pick up a group day return (two adults, two kids) for four quid, which runs to about 5 am the next day. The bus stops outside my gaff and in the centre of town. On the otherhand, you can easily spend north of seven quid parking for a few hours. And you can have a beer if you fancy one… Or go shopping, come home, go on the lash, avoid having to pay for a taxi etc.

The flipside is that when I lived in Sheffield, the buses were bloody dear…

To take family of five 6 miles and back would cost me 5 x £4.20 on the bus.

£21.

In the car, it would cost me £4.00 to park and 2 or 3 pounds in petrol.

…and I can go when I want, come back when I want, and travel right back to my front door, with no bus nutters, no swearing, no chance of violence and with the radio on the station that I want, rather than the tinny hiss of someones earphones.

It’s not hard to see the advantage.

Edinburgh £1.40 for any distance. Thats less that the return cost of driving into town let alone parking.

Edinburgh / Glasgow return by train £12 return for a 90 mile return journey. Hard to drive that for £12 in petrol let alone other costs including parking

Of course we do have the advnatage of not having priovatised services in the same way as in England but even so

scotrail is a privitised service, as is stagecoach and citilink coaches, but get huge subsidies from the government and the local councils.

Thats right – they are not privatised services in the same way as in England – and the edinburgh buses still belong to the council in effect as do some of the trains

West Yorkshire is bringing METRO back under control…hopefully that will help transport costs in a large part of Yorkshire.

Our local bus company (preston) does family day tickets which are a bit cheaper.

the trains are owned by rosco,s rented out and run by scotrail ,or to the local transport executive, and run on tracks owned by network rail,except for the little orange ones that run underground.

so basicly privatised.Just like in england

All Bristol buses are horrendously expensive.

I travel about 15 miles a day, each way, on the bus. I get a 10-trip ticket, works out at £2.20 each way. I calculate driving costs 30p per mile (and yes, you have to include the cost of the tax, insurance etc. because you don’t get that for free and I don’t agree with the reasoning that they’re fixed costs) hence about £4.50 each way. Plus I don’t get free parking so that’s £5 per day.

Realistically, driving would cost me £14 per day – at best, if I could get free parking and ignored the running costs, it would cost £5 in fuel. Bus costs £4.40 per day. Cracking value if you ask me.

And I do cycle it sometimes, before you ask. It allowed me to justify a +1 for the collection.

TJ, do you really want to go down the line of discussing public transport costs in Edinburgh?

really?

http://www.edinburghtramfacts.com/

No project – it is not the same at all due to the involvement of the passenger transport execs and the fact that the councils still own the busses. As well as the trains not being a fragmented service. Thus the councils are able to run a sensible integrated service

By taking this path we have avoided the worst nonsense of the privatised railways and buses

and more pleasant.

Hahahahahahahahahaha.

Ohh that’s funny, good one, I like your style.

Now stop please, you’re killing me, my sides are splitting.

I get seven days bus travel for £22.50, use it for work which is about a 35 mile round trip

They run between St Ives and Cambridge on a dedicated guided busway with a bus every 7 or 8 minutes, buses have air con, free wi-fi and leather seats.

Excellent value and would be mad to drive (can’t anymore for health reasons, so bit of a moot point anyway)

Edinburgh bus service is pretty much superb. Affordable, clean and frequent on the most-used services. For £1.40 you can go right across town, or round and round it as many times as you want.

MF – You mean you don’t like to have a cup off coffee and relax in a comfy seat while reading the paper? Free wi fi, quiet. relaxing. i even snooze some of the time.

Far more pleasant than driving in either the cities or the motorway

TJ, do you really want to go down the line of discussing public transport costs in Edinburgh?

He seems to, “£1.40 for any distance” apparently.

HTH……..I don’t think TJ can/wants to see your posts Z-11.