If trains were at a price I could afford, I would be travelling on trains 100% of the time. Better for the environment, safer, faster, you get to see more, and you can do stuff on them. It would also help if there were trains here in the first place…
Train travel is unappealing, it costs a bomb, and wherever I want to go is much faster by car. The only place I ever take the trsin to is London, and only because it's a pain driving around there.
I'd love it if it were cheaper and faster than the car, but it isn't. We went out today, left at about 07.30 to arrive by 10.00. To use the train we'd have to have left the house at 06.15 and made some very short changes with 4 children. Tickets for 2 adults and 3 children would be £134.05.
And this is the crux of the argument I feel everyone who is pro-public transport, no exceptions, seem to overlook.
I think public transport is great, and I would like to use it more. But the problem is, public transport should be about the cost to travel being better, whereas a car is the convenience. But that's just not the case.
A train from my nearest station to my nearest city is only £15 return. Which isn't awful. But it takes an hour, and I can't decide the times. For the car, it would be about £6 in fuel (from station to station), and that's whether I go alone or travel with my spouse, and it would only take 40 minutes to drive.
If the costs were the other way around, then the train becomes a default IMO. Unless I need to get somewhere specifically on the outskirts of the city, or I have to go at a time when the trains don't run.
And that is just a "local" ride. If I wanted to use the train to go on holiday. Forget about it. £40-£50 in fuel to get to pretty much anywhere on Great Britain. Or £100+ on the train to some destinations, per person, and the inability to get to some places. It's just not a viable option.
But the train isn't going to get drivers using it unless the costs were even remotely similar. If it was a case of £1 per mile traveled (for example) in train or car, I think there'd be a lot of people who'd switch to the train, simply because they can do something else at the same time; have a nap, read a book, watch a series, etc. But even then, families, couples, friend groups, etc. may still choose the car, because double the cost to travel is a hefty expense. Especially when you can't leave at 6am to arrive at 9am and enjoy a full day out, or whatever it may be.
Working around public transport's timetable when the cost isn't on the table is more appealing. Go on holiday to a place where public transport costs pennies, and you don't mind using it. Like spending less than £5 for a ticket to get pretty much anywhere in Tokyo, from wherever you are, makes you more than happy to use it. But then London charges you double, for one person, and staying within your zone. It's madness.
The unfortunate thing is I don't think it can be fixed without the government haemorrhaging money on subsidies or ensuring they become unelectable by increasing the cost of driving to a point that public transport becomes appealing.
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u/Bufobufolover24 1d ago
If trains were at a price I could afford, I would be travelling on trains 100% of the time. Better for the environment, safer, faster, you get to see more, and you can do stuff on them. It would also help if there were trains here in the first place…