Public Transport

Quite agree that we can't be expected to do the right thing & use public transport until it is more available & efficient.   Tried to join in with calls made to Government over 20 years ago on this subject, before we were even aware of carbon footprints, etc., to improve the services & get people off the roads before they became even more congested: now the roads are even worse. (Train tickets are bordering on ridiculous sums now to get from A to B, when they should be cheaper to encourage train use, especially on long journeys)

Hi KatTai

I hate public transport! just thought I would get to that bit first!

Public transport was the reason I gave up working in London and decided to work locally.  Not an easy decision to make as obviously you earn more in the cities then you do near home and up until 5 years ago I had always commuted to London which is about 25 years worth of travelling by bus and train.  My commute was about 2 hours each way or should have been if everything ran to plan.

It was one particular day that changed my mind completely when I thought "Jeez there has got to be more to life than this".  I spent about 4 hours getting into work.  Had to work late to make up the time and then spent another 4 hours getting home which was about 1am in the morning.  Then up again at 5am to go back to work.  I earn much less now but I am so much more happier than I was.

I found also the inflation of transport costs was an added incentive - how dare they raise the fares when the service was so abysmal which wasn't a one off day of delays it happened on a regular basis - soul destroying.

Kezmo - your commute sounded horrendous!

I agree totally about the public transport thing. The service is too poor and the cost is too high. If we ever go down to London (for example) we will always take the car as not only does it go door-to-door at a convenient time, it costs less for the petrol than for a train ticket for us both one way! This is no way to encourage people to use public transport. At home, we try and walk or cycle for shorter journeys but to do our supermarket shopping we would have to either walk 3/4 of a mile to the nearest bus stop or 1/2 mile to the train station (one stop every 2 hours) and then a mile at the other end - not really an option with heavy shopping bags (ditto taking the bicycles!). We can't shop locally because over the years the village where we live has lost its grocers, post office and butchers (even though the population here has increased fourfold). Which leads me to think that all these problems are connected...

I certainly agree about the train fares!  When going on holiday we looked at getting a train to Gatwick for our flight but the cost was far too high!  Instead we saved over £70 each taking a flight from Edinburgh - something that I find rediculous.  It shouldn't be considerably cheaper to fly than to take the train - it doesn't make any ounce of sense for it to be that way and it should be the other way round - trains should be cheaper than planes.  Until things change and the price of train fares falls dramatically, I can't see people being encouraged to use them more.  It is like throwing money away and most ordinary people don't have money to waste. 

I used to travel to and from university on the train - not a problem, the station was next to where I stayed and I got picked up at the main station most times, except on one occassion when I had to get a train home.  I had an hour and a half wait for the train to my next station, and when I got there there was NO train back to the town where I lived, and this was only at about 4pm.  Instead I had to call to be picked up!  I was stuck at a station with nothing at all, even the waiting room was closed up!

Hi,

news item the other day -  Britains First £1000 rail ticket  - Cornwall to Scotland  - has been found!

I use buses  and trains a lot when abroad- they run often, cheap and clean-  BUT I think they are all State funded not privately owned corporations.

Is this too political a comment chaps ?

:))

S

Hi Cartimandua and KatTai

To be honest I don't know about the local buses as such as I don't use them.  I can only comment on the train service. I do wholeheartedly agree that the UK has one of the worst reputations within europe.  We are forced to pay exhorbitant prices for a service which, according to laws of acceptable conditions for animal transport, wouldn't be fit to take live stock.  If you have ever gone on the Central Line during the rush hour you will know what I mean.  I have many bad memories of the underground.

I worked out one day that  I could travel to France, Hook of Holland, Edinburgh or Glasgow for less money than I paid to get to London and would receive a better service and less time- this also included planes and a ferry crossing!!

I also can't believe in this day and age, there are those that have to drive by car or other means to get to the nearest public transport point, it's absolutely ridiculous.

seymouraves said:

 

I use buses  and trains a lot when abroad- they run often, cheap and clean-  BUT I think they are all State funded not privately owned corporations.

 

Hi Seymouraves

We went to Italy last year and all our travelling was done by public transport.  We used the train everyday and covered much of where we wanted to go for just 4 euros a day, this also included buses both of which were on time.  If we had done the same in the UK it would have cost us a small fortune and everywhere we went we would have got there much later!

I agree, we are going to a concert in Glasgow on Tuesday night and priced up train fares plus a taxi to and from station as there are no buses, it comes to nearly £30.00 all in I reckon on around £7.00 by car for fuel, and would take around half the time.

Dave

We recently moved from a village not far from Welshpool  where we had lived for many years - we had several bus stops scattered around the area but no buses - a sign of the times?   We did have a postbus which meant you got in a post office large red mail van and got to town that way but it could be a long journey as you had to go around all the villages.   My mum used to live 15 mins from us and it took well over an hour to get near to us and I picked her up in my car for the last 2 miles.  

Each time my husband tried commuting to London by train it was awful and I would be waiting for hours in the car park at night and no sign of him - being an unmanned station it was hard to find out what was going on - very often he would be asked to get out at Shrewsbury to make room for people who needed to get on to travel much further up the coast.  I would either go and pick him up or he would get a taxi home.

I think before using my car but would not rely on any other form of transport at the present time - maybe things will improve one day.

seymouraves said:

 

Hi,

 

news item the other day -  Britains First £1000 rail ticket  - Cornwall to Scotland  - has been found!

I use buses  and trains a lot when abroad- they run often, cheap and clean-  BUT I think they are all State funded not privately owned corporations.

 

Is this too political a comment chaps ?

:))

 

S

No, I don't think it is too political and I completely agree.  I was in Belgium two years ago and the public transport system was fantastic.  One evening we took the train from Gent to Brussels, spent a couple of hours in Brussels and got the train back.  No hassle, no delays and the trains were clean and well-kept.  I wouldn't even attempt to rely on trains here to go out for an evening and get back and was surprised when my OH suggested going to Brussels for the evening, but he had been there a few times and knew that it was easy to do.  I can't imagine what someone from Belgium would think if they came over here expecting the same from our public transport system!