The trouble round here is the peak fares. Off-peak is still suprisingly ok in the south west (price per mile, compared to our recent experiences on network southeast). In fact in the summer when the traffic is silly, Cornwall on the train (and the train still goes to pretty much every remotely good-sized town barring padstein, wadebridge, helston and launceston) then the train is way cheaper for one person than the fuel in your car and cos of all the emmets on the roads, usually faster too. Devon is another story though. Terribly poorly served by trains imho.
OT, but my favourite recent discovery is the Stagecoach ‘explorer’ bus ticket where you get to go all over Devon on stagecoach buses (long/rural and exeter/torbay urban routes alike) for £7.50 a day or £22 a week. As such it is longer in time than the train, but ludicrously cheap per mile and with no peak/off-peak times at all. What does even a zone 1/2 day or weekly travelcard cost on TFL these days?
As such this week I have done plymouth to exeter uni return (4 buses and 95 miles all in) for a third what it would cost on the train for the times i needed to travel, and not including £3.50 for buses to and from plymouth railway station in the first place.