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Govt wants to dissuade car usage...

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
The government wants to dissuade car users and to persuade drivers to get out from behind the wheel and use public transport. However, public transport prices go up year after year, and the quality of the journeys don't seem to get any better. Does anyone here have a transport system in their town/city that actually 'works'?

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Whirlpool wrote: »
    The government wants to dissuade car users and to persuade drivers to get out from behind the wheel and use public transport. However, public transport prices go up year after year, and the quality of the journeys don't seem to get any better. Does anyone here have a transport system in their town/city that actually 'works'?

    I live in North London and the public transport here is easier than trying to drive and park as there is v little parking spaces. Buses are frequent, there is tube, the London overground and National rail. So yes.
  • SkiveSkive Posts: 15,282 Skive's The Limit
    We have a bus every two hours that will take us to town at a cost of over £6 return. Yhe nearest train station is 6 miles away.
    I drive a lotus which isnt to bad for fuel but the Nissan Navara pickup i bought the missus last year is a bit thirsty.

    I dint buy these motors and pay for insurance so that we can take a bus yhat never comes and costs a small fortune.
    Weekender Offender 
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    We have a regular bus service but like Skive I already pay insurance etc I'm not gonna spend even more on public transport. Besides I have a ford econetic which does 60mpg at its worst, so fuel never really amounts to much.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Randomgirl wrote: »
    I live in North London and the public transport here is easier than trying to drive and park as there is v little parking spaces. Buses are frequent, there is tube, the London overground and National rail. So yes.

    Very interesting. I live in London too (East) but I find that the tubes are pedantic and overpriced - not to mention having to smell the other person's breath in front of me if I want to travel to work in the morning. The Jubilee Line always has something wrong with it and travelling by bus is useless as the traffic is so bad. At least by car (I don't drive) one can have a comfortable drive, and taker detours if traffic is bad on a particular route. A day's travel into zone 1 can cost £7-£8; that's 3-4 days worth of travel from Stratford to Palmers Green in a '10 VW Polo - simply crazy.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I don't own a car and have always relied on trains, buses, my bicycle and good old shanks' pony. I find them to be good value when doing the odd trip, like I am where by car ownership would cost way more than I pay out to travel. However, I think if I relied on public transport daily (and less on my bike and feet) I would find it to be rather expensive.

    The buses in my town are half decent though.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Whirlpool wrote: »
    Very interesting. I live in London too (East) but I find that the tubes are pedantic and overpriced - not to mention having to smell the other person's breath in front of me if I want to travel to work in the morning. The Jubilee Line always has something wrong with it and travelling by bus is useless as the traffic is so bad. At least by car (I don't drive) one can have a comfortable drive, and taker detours if traffic is bad on a particular route. A day's travel into zone 1 can cost £7-£8; that's 3-4 days worth of travel from Stratford to Palmers Green in a '10 VW Polo - simply crazy.

    Well the DVLA took my license so I don't have much choice. I do sometimes get taxi's though but only if I'm not feeling well. I have a freedom pass for medical reasons so I don't pay for zones 1-6 on public transport.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Of course, for those who don't drive it's a different matter. I am not allowed to drive either but if my husband decided to rely on PT and leave the car at home or stop driving, we'd be screwed financially.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    What I find interesting is that they bang on about cutting car use, yet when you're on job seekers and have a car they expect you to apply for jobs up to 2 hours away that would cost you more in fuel than your wages would be. In my old job a quarter of my wages just went on petrol to get there and back each week, but it was a half hour drive or a 3 hour bus route taking 3 different buses that would cost more in fares. I was in London recently and I loved how easy it is to get about - I think Londoners take the tube for granted but I do think it's over priced.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Same as skive, it's 8 miles into town and the nearest train station, £6 bus return for a 45 minute journey I can do in 20, and that's without speeding. Also buses occasionally get cancelled when the tide covers the causeway and the buses wouldn't be able to get back forever.

    Have only been to London a handful of times, but loved the tube system, found it easy and reliable, though a bit expensive and wouldn't fancy doing it in rush hour.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I used to live up North and the buses were once every 20 minutes into the city centre - a train every 15 mins. However, the train was reasonably priced and I could use my YP railcard and it was always reliable. Here in London, yes most of the time I can get about well and the tube runs ok, but even with a YP railcard it's still expensive and for a lot of journeys you can get off a few stops away from your destination and walk and it'd take you the same amount of time.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Whirlpool wrote: »
    Very interesting. I live in London too (East) but I find that the tubes are pedantic and overpriced - not to mention having to smell the other person's breath in front of me if I want to travel to work in the morning. The Jubilee Line always has something wrong with it and travelling by bus is useless as the traffic is so bad. At least by car (I don't drive) one can have a comfortable drive, and taker detours if traffic is bad on a particular route. A day's travel into zone 1 can cost £7-£8; that's 3-4 days worth of travel from Stratford to Palmers Green in a '10 VW Polo - simply crazy.

    Personally, my experience suggests that Londoners don't know how good they actually have it, when it comes to public transport.

    For me to get to my office I have one bus every 30 minutes from near my home, then I need to change buses (this one every 15 minutes)... at the end of the journey is a 20 minute walk. By the time I'd reach my office would take me about 90 minutes, with no traffic.

    Of I can get there in 15 minutes by car.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Personally, my experience suggests that Londoners don't know how good they actually have it, when it comes to public transport.

    :yes:

    you get used to it, so you whinge (that's what I did!) but it's really good.

    I'm lucky that there's a bus every 30 mins to work, but it takes a good 2 hours to get there (20 miles, 35 mins by car) and is hopelessly unreliable. It makes it very hard to work late or do evening events because of the travel time.

    The town I'm in is pretty well-connected on the train, too, but it's commuter-belt so it's pricey. To get to my regular hospital appointments by train will cost £15 each time (the bus there is only once every 2 hours, presumably in order not to starve the train companies of custom...)

    Having said all that, I can't drive for medical reasons and I get around pretty well.
  • SkiveSkive Posts: 15,282 Skive's The Limit
    Bys wankers.

    Seriously though, o dont have a problem with public transport. Quite like train journeys but not enough to ride them for the fun of it alone.
    Weekender Offender 
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    My ex has the car because she lives in the sort of village that has one bus a week. I honestly don't miss it at all.

    I take the bus and the train to work. It's about 45 minutes in the car to do the 25 miles, it's about 60 minutes by combination of bus and train and walking. I have a bus to town every 10 minutes and there are four trains an hour between the two stations I use. It is expensive though, because I have to buy bus and train tickets separately, though when you factor in the maintenance costs of a car as well as the petrol there's not much in it.

    Anyone who says public transport in London is overpriced or difficult to use is an idiot. On Oyster a Z1-4 tube single is all of £2.70 and a bus Oyster single is £1.40. If you live in London and you don't have an Oyster then you're a tool.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    However compare transport costs to the costs of public transport in Beijing - a city journey on their underground system costs about 20p, their bus system 10p, and even less if you use their oyster card system. Fine, their overall costs of living are less than a Londoner's, but not by that difference: £2.70 to 20p...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The government can just fuck off if they think I'm going to use my car less. I don't make unnecessary journeys but public transport around here is a joke - overpriced and totally unreliable. They're already trying to price us out with petrol costs, car tax as well as insurance costs.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Public transport can work, it should work, it makes sense for it to work. The reason it doesn't in the UK is because the country is run by cartels of profiteers. I know I sound like a ranting lefty but it's true. Set up an independent, local, reliable bus route and arriva will run their buses 2 minutes earlier than yours, in some cases parking in bus stops to block you in, and carry on doing that until you go broke.

    As with all other public goods in this country though, we privatise the fuck out of them so some powerful people can skim some more off the top. Using a stick of taxation to make cars less attractive won't work because it just means poor people are better off selling their car and giving up their job, and that rich people have to have one less £300 meal a year. Probably get the tax wrote down as an expense anyway.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Purple_roo wrote: »
    However compare transport costs to the costs of public transport in Beijing - a city journey on their underground system costs about 20p, their bus system 10p, and even less if you use their oyster card system. Fine, their overall costs of living are less than a Londoner's, but not by that difference: £2.70 to 20p...

    But that's an ideological thing. The Chinese seem to think that mass transit systems are an important state asset, but Bonkers Boris and the rest of the Tory filth think that public transport is something to be privatised and turned into a profit-making opportunity for their fat cat mates in big business.

    Look at Stagecoach plc, for instance. They sued the government for £140m in "revenue support" for their two train franchises because fewer people used the train than they expected. They then paid their shareholders a total of £1bn in dividends over the last five years, including £70m to Brian Souter and another £70m to his sister. Souter, a whackjob Christian nutter, then used his money to bankroll anti-gay political campaigning.
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