The commute... it seems to symbolise my life. It doesn't matter where I've been, or what I've done, I've always had to commute.
I now commute by car around an hour, twice daily, sometimes 2 if traffic is bad, and I find it a most stressful experience.
Previously, I commuted by train which also was a mixed bag of adventures.
But what drives my decision making on transport is more or less a price & time combination.
The cheapest form of transport, would be Bike. But there's no way I can cycle that distance, so it's out!
Second cheapest would be bus, but it would mean changing about 70 times, and would take half a week to get to work, so, that's out too.
The next contenders would be Train / Car, and this is where my head fries.
Each week, I spend around £60 is diesel, and I've long stopped paying for parking. My office is about 100m from a train station, my home, equally, 300m from a train station - so why don't I take the train? Simply, it comes to price alone.
This morning (Fri 5 Dec 14) I heard on the radio about the train fair increase being the lowest for sometime, matching inflation...
That's awesome... but, it would still cost me £93 a week to get to work by train.
I don't have a particularly economical car. It's an average car, there are more economical vehicles out there, but clearly, for a saving of £33 a week, £1716 a year, the car is a no brainer.
How logical it would be for the rail operators, to calculate the differing costs of travel, and ensure trains are the most cost effective option on all routes. It would increase passengers, which I think would increase revenue in fairs, and incidental purchases from on train resources as well as station side resources, and would lower the traffic on the roads. Surely, this is a good thing!
But, in my case, they have priced themselves out of the market.
The Solution? Buy an annual ticket for only £3800. Or perhaps go monthly on the ticket. Both still work out more expensive that the fuel used in the car & maintenance etc. And even if it did work out cheaper, who wants to blow a few grand on a ticket?
Well, that's what we do for one member of staff so he can get to work (£1560 p/a on rail travel)
Next contender is flying... now if only they could make that cheaper...!
