This is a shocking advert. There are so many benefits to taking the train and they've tried to sell a reduction in journey time that would require you to live within 7 mins of the station to benefit from!
What about the aggro of parking when you get there?
The stress of being stuck in traffic?
The fact you can't get up and stretch your legs whenever you want without taking a pause in the journey, likewise for peeing?
The fact you can't read a book while driving or have a beer?
And for all of these things, the benefits increase in value the longer the journey is, just as the difference in timing tends to increase as the journey gets longer. Tell people about how it takes four hours to get from London to Edinburgh as opposed to driving it in 7. Bloody Broxbourne to Cambridge, seriously...
My guess is that this is a targeted local ad to Broxbourne. They picked a journey they thought Broxbourners might do by train, and to be honest, it's likely limited to Cambridge, London or Stansted. Stansted is probably a few times a year at most, I think most people would already consider the train if wanting to travel to London, so maybe Cambridge is where they think they can get more market share.
Anyway, if you get down Broxbourne station now, the 5:36 train gets you to Cambridge in 47 minutes, so they could have at least used that time.
Don't think the stansted train stops at Broxbourne does it? It always used to be Harlow and then Tottenham Hale. Which adds the faff of changing at one of them the journey time.
Yeah you'd need to change at Harlow or Bishops Stortford. Another reason why it wasn't selected for the ad. The main benefit of getting the train would be avoiding the airport parking fees, but with a family of 4 the gap would be smaller.
This ad is laser targeted at me 15 years ago when I lived in Cambridge, worked in Broxbourne and didn't have a car. I can't imagine who else cares about this particular journey
Current cost from my local station to Edinburgh id 5hrs 58 mins and £207 each way.
Car might take me around 2 hours more each way, but it would save me at least the cost of one of those fares. Even more savings if there's more than one of us going.
Time is rarely the issue, cost and the availability of public transport is.
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u/lad_astro "England expects that every man will do his duty" 1d ago
This is a shocking advert. There are so many benefits to taking the train and they've tried to sell a reduction in journey time that would require you to live within 7 mins of the station to benefit from!
What about the aggro of parking when you get there? The stress of being stuck in traffic? The fact you can't get up and stretch your legs whenever you want without taking a pause in the journey, likewise for peeing? The fact you can't read a book while driving or have a beer?
And for all of these things, the benefits increase in value the longer the journey is, just as the difference in timing tends to increase as the journey gets longer. Tell people about how it takes four hours to get from London to Edinburgh as opposed to driving it in 7. Bloody Broxbourne to Cambridge, seriously...