Trying to go 'green' and travel by rail:

legrandefromage

Bin Monkey
BoTM Winner
PoTM Winner
GT Fan
Feedback
View
Spent the new year oop north in Durham, 392 miles round trip door to door, no driving once we got there.

Cost of diesel: £24 pound at 94.9 p per litre. Averaging 53 ~ 56.2 miles per gallon. Two people traveling plus our crap.

Wondered what it would cost by train:

http://nationalrail.co.uk/

'Anytime' return fair via whatever GNER is these days:

£205 per person.

Taxi from Alconbury to Huntingdon station: £9

Two return tickets to Durham £410

Taxi to Belmont (nr. Durahm) est £5

Taxi from Belmont to Durham ( inc headache) est £5
Taxi from Huntingdon to Alconbury £9

Total £438 :shock:

It seems like they dont want us to travel - even buying 4x single tickets at £91 each is still way too expensive compared to driving.

No wonder people still use their cars.
 
Yes, but you aren't factoring other costs on the car - and try the booked tickets. Open tickets are always expensive, pre-booked is much cheaper.
 
:roll:

Actual costs if we decided to go by train that day.

'other car costs' - minimal

My point was: How it is still too expensive to use the trains for long journies compared to the car.

Even if we had pre-booked - (got it down to about £45 each one way), its still cheaper to drive.
 
I do understand your original point and yes it is daft.

But people habitually assume car costs are the fuel and nothing else. It was after I worked out the true costs of our second car (tax, insurance, fuel, depreciation, servicing) that I worked out it cost me around 65p per mile to drive the thing. So I sold it.

Of course the more mile you drive per year the less it is, but even so with a service interval of say 10k miles then a 500 mile trip is several pounds extra as a slice of a service bill.
 
You forgot to mention that the door to door journey is also quicker by car, plus you actually get a seat, and get to choose the music.
 
Know what you mean... We've got to go up to London at the weekend (2 of us). I'll be driving most of the way - far enough to park within walking distance of a tube station. The diesel'll be £10, or £15 maybe if we take her car. The train ticket just for me would be £35+, & as far as I can tell would be no cheaper if I booked it a month in advance (which I couldn't have done anyway). I think the tube travelcard is slightly (as in about £2) more as I'll park further out than I'd get a train to, but the costs are still so different as to be a joke!

According to my quick calculations, my car costs me around about 11p a mile... :)
 
And to put things in perspective, a friend of mine found a deal to go skiing in Whistler for a week all inclusive (flights as well!!) for about £380 recently.... :shock:
 
Transport is eff-yoo-kayed, basically- too much traffic on the roads, but the alternatives aren't cheap enough/convenient enough.

Ban all forms of transport aside from Old Bikes and Space Hoppers- that'll sort it.
 
Ziggy":31fb5ktm said:
According to my quick calculations, my car costs me around about 11p a mile... :)

Short of buying a £600 diesel fiesta, driving it into the ground and not servicing or taxing it I don't know how you can do it!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top