i might be working in lichfield, nice 30 min train commute, stations are 400 yards from home and office. thought that would be much better than crowding the roads.

£19 return, so £95 a week……

Oh let me think, on second thoughts I'll stick with £30 worth of petrol…

FFS

£30 petrol + servicing + depreciation + insurance + tax + repairs + tyres.

Greater or less than £95 now?

still less

not sitting beside ipod stealing smelly people…. priceless 🙂

Dont forget the parking fee!

Space on my drive city centreish!

You car will cost more than you think – it always does. Sitting down drinking a coffee reading the paper or cursing in traffic in a car?

cheers, but parking on site rich, however I might have to sneak off for afternoon beers, i mean rides. would be rude not to.

TJ, that's what I was hoping for, but everything has a price.

Are there cheaper tickets available- season tickets etc?

Most of the costs of motoring are there whether you use it or leave it on the drive, so not using it is a false economy.

You car will cost more than you think – it always does. Sitting down drinking a coffee reading the paper or cursing in traffic in a car?

If you have to factor in all the extra car costs, the cost of coffee and a paper on the train makes it even more expensive, better driving and getting a free coffee at work and reading the news on the internet!

£19 return for a 30 minute journey?

Where the hell are you going from Lichfield?

Bit of a lottery this one, prices for public transport seem a bit random – my commute if I do it on public transport is £7 return for 18 miles each way, which works out at about 19p a mile, which I bet would be significantly less than driving it in the rush hour (and I get to sit on a comfy coach with big seats and read or check the internet or whatever.)

Have you checked season tickets etc. – in some places they only save you 10% or so, but sometimes they can save you tons (like on some journeys it can be something like 50-60% off compared to doing a daily commute if you get a yearly season)

Joe

I'm 1 hour from London, £27.50 pd before 9am – its only 40miles. Plus either going/return to the station and cuppa/paper works out at £35 pd.

I can m/c quicker, because home to central London office is really nearer 2 hours, as opposed to 1 hour – and a damn site cheaper (30ppm = £24).

Me and the other half, travelling 3 miles into Huddersfield, would pay £7.20 return on the bus, car with 2 hours parking in Tesco is way cheaper. If I go on the bus I still have to pay depreciation, tax, insurance etc on the car so petrol and a little wear and tear are the only costs and will be less than the bus fares.

Agree that PT is a pain in the arse. I find the timing of local buses useless, and that routes are not logical, but stupidly meandering that means the trip takes twice as long as it needs to.

I had my driving licence revoked last year, and found out how shoite it can be just trying to get into the local town. Since got a disbaled persons travel pass, that helps sushion the cost and oddly enough I try and use PT a bit more now.

The only time I ever use public transport is when I go up to the Cycle Show. Costs around £21.50, On National Express, used to be £19 return. I use roughly half a tank of diesel for the 200 mile round trip, which is about £22-3, plus a day's parking in King's Mall, Hammersmith is around £10-12, then there's the £3-4 for the Tube with my Oyster. No contest, there.

Wow these are expensive – I go 32 miles each way with Northern Rail for £7.40 return.

I could go anywhere in what used to be called merseyside,cheshire,lancashire, by bus, train and Ferry for 4.50 all day, after 9,30am.

Then i bought a car and a bike.

X number of seats on trains, Y passengers who'd travel. X > Y by a great deal, so when X cannot be increased, up the prices until X = Y.

That makes absolutely no sense molgrips… 😕

imo similar or slightly cheapear costs aren't any use for getting people out of cars and onto the trains – public transport needs to be significantly cheaper to outweigh the benefits of travelling exactly when you want, where you want and on a guaranteed seat.

Yeah it does. There's limited capacity on the rail network, right? In most cases, it's at capacity so they can't put on any more trains. So there's only so many people that can travel, but MORE people than that actually want to. So the only option is to raise the prices until enough people are put off that demand is equal to supply.

When I commuted in Manchester, the return ticket in the morning was something like £4.60, and a return bought in the evening (ie going to the pub in town) was 60p! Lots of people want to travel in rush hour, so demand is high, but in the evening the trains are empty so prices are lowered to stimulate demand.

Sorry, but I don't believe you.

Birmingham to Lichfield = £6.30 return (around 35-40 mins) £23 for a week
Stone (staffs) to Lichfield = £14.00 return (28 to 36 mins) £44 for a week
Rugby to Lichfield = £10.40 return (32 to 38 mins) £45 for a week

All journeys in the peak (0830 and 1730), fares from National Rail Enquiries.

Cheap I reckon.

djglover – Member
£30 petrol + servicing + depreciation + insurance + tax + repairs + tyres.
Greater or less than £95 now?
POSTED 1 HOUR AGO # REPORT-POST

assuming he still needs a car anyway, some of those are fixed costs so cannot be included…

No one NEEDS a car

I'm 1 hour from London, £27.50 pd before 9am – its only 40miles. Plus either going/return to the station and cuppa/paper works out at £35 pd.

that's a very expensive cuppa and paper!

season tickets are quite a significant discount (dependent upon the line). Peak return, bought on the day for my journey would be about £24. As part of an annual season ticket it works out at approx £16 a day. The other (slight) bonus is that as a 'Gold Card' holder all other train journeys are usually discounted – a pre-booked return from Exeter to London costs me something silly like £18…

Just like no-one needs a bike or a television or a house or clothes. Silly thing to say.

blob on a stick, how many days in your week?

edit, is the weekly price for a weekly pass?

Yeah it does. There's limited capacity on the rail network, right? In most cases, it's at capacity so they can't put on any more trains. So there's only so many people that can travel, but MORE people than that actually want to. So the only option is to raise the prices until enough people are put off that demand is equal to supply.

The amusing thing is that transport types call this "demand management"…

Surely you can buy a weekly or manthly ticket which will be far less?

blob, i'm in Stone, time i need to travel, £19 is the cheapest return I can find

mastiles_fanylion – Member

Just like no-one needs a bike or a television or a house or clothes. Silly thing to say.

Errrmm – everyone needs shelter and clothing and food. No one needs a car – it is always a choice to have the lifestyle where you "need" a car.

You need to learn the difference between want and need

The amusing thing is that transport types call this "demand management"…

Well yeah, because supply's fixed more or less. I mean increasing network capacity is mostly prohibitively expensive, is it not?

Personally I'd use govt money to put in more train lines, but that's just me 🙂 And probably TJ.

EDIT: If the govt had any money these days.

I don't need a bike, a television or a car. Pretty much do need a house and clothes, although I've seen tramps without them.

I do have a car, but when I find the motivation It can go for weeks without use. Shopping can be delivered and commuting can be done on a bike or train

As per TJ You need to learn the difference between want and need!

You need to have another look at the prices. For rush hour times for 9-5 working its 14 return from what I can see – arrriving just before 9 and leaving at 5

As per TJ You need to learn the difference between want and need!

Christ almighty you are worse than me!

Are we only morally allowed to want the bare essentials? Anyway this is about public transport, why is this thread the second today to be hijacked for the same philosophical purtiannical purpose?

Its OK, I send an enormous amount to landfill to make up for my otherwise meagre existence 😉

TribalChief: I still can't find anything more expensive than £15.80, but my main point is that a 7-day LM travel card is £44, (£51 less than you quoted). If you were working for a month at the same location, you'd get a monthly card for £169 (£210 less than you quoted).

Still cheap.

You will find that a weekly ticket works out less, around £75 I'm betting. a monthly and yearly less again. Its because the price of season tickets are regulated but regular tickets are not.

I would say the £30 a month for the car is a little optimistic to say the least

Molgrips – you miss the point. You can want whatever you do want – its just wrong to say you need a car – it is always a choice unlike food or shelter.

No one said you cannot have a car – just be clear it is not s nessesity but a luxury