Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be shocked at the price of public transport?

51 replies

TooManyButtons · 03/03/2011 10:16

I needed to go to town this morning. With the ridiculous cost of petrol, I thought I'd try the bus instead. I live on a main bus route, 6 miles from town.

A return to town cost me £4.80 Shock. £4.80 to travel a total of 12 miles, coupled with a 10 minute wait at a freezing cold bus stop. And what is usually a 15 minute journey took 35 minutes.

I'm at uni in a city 25 miles away. To get there would take 2 buses and a train journey, and take over 2 hours, whereas I can drive there in 40 minutes, and the parking is free.

I'm all for public transport, but why would I want to pay more/take longer when I can travel in my warm, comfortable car?

OP posts:
KirstyJC · 03/03/2011 11:10

I think if you live in the countryside anywhere, then you need a car - it's that simple! Sad

We live in a village with a good bus link, yet once at DH's work as a green/eco day, they had someone in all day to check employees' journeys and find out how they could do it on public transport.

Turns out that his trip, which includes dropping at least 1 (sometimes2) children at childcare en route to work, would take him 2 and a half hours if he did it by bus!Shock (It takes up to 40 mins by car). It would also cost him 2 monthly bus passes - approx £150pcm total, and involve 3 buses each way.

Guess who still drives to work!

TotemPole · 03/03/2011 11:17

You can also do the weekend first on some trains/tickets. It's an extra £25 per person, but it's worth it if you're travelling at the busy times.

Socy · 03/03/2011 11:18

Friends and family railcards are brill - I'm taking me & three DC (one an adult) to my parents for under £100 return via London, so we get to spend 2 half days in London too - petrol costs (I run an average size car) would be at least £70 plus the other costs of running the car so it is well worth it, would have been even cheaper if I'd got around to booking sooner.

Bus fares are ridiculous though - ours only runs every 2 hours and is usually empty - surely it would just make more sense to put the price down and run more frequently to attract more passengers?

kitchensync · 03/03/2011 11:23

It is ridiculous where i live we live about three stops (close together) from the nearest town. It costs 4.50 for a return. If I take the kids as well it is even more. So people have started to walk into town from the villages along roads with no pavement in the rain with pushchairs Hmm

TotorosOcarina · 03/03/2011 11:24

I agree,

We don't drive and it costs DH and me over £10 to go to the shops!

and then the buses are FILTHY, smelly, manky windows, rubbish filled. Angry

buttercupsunshine · 03/03/2011 11:32

Most parts of the UK away from the urban centres have overpriced and badly planned public transport. I grew up in London and have never needed a car. All buses are free for under-18s and for adults it's only £1.30 for a single bus fare anywhere, or £4 for the day. I'm always shocked at prices when I visit other towns and have to pay for the DCs and myself - it can add up to quite a bit for even a short journey.

Abcinthia · 03/03/2011 11:32

When I go visit DP at his university, I have to get the bus. I have to get a single from where I live to Heathrow which costs £7.20 and ok it is a long journey. But a single from Heathrow to his university costs just £3.30.

I could understand it if the second journey was shorter but both bus journeys take roughly the same time and are a similar distance Confused

I toyed with the idea of a train but it was more expensive. I also toyed with getting a bus to Slough and then to Surrey but it was a similar cost and not much quicker.

kreecherlivesupstairs · 03/03/2011 11:50

I am seriously worried by these posts. DD and I will be moving back to England in the summer.
We won't have a car which will be a first for me since I passed my test nearly 30 years ago.
Best we get saving now.

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 03/03/2011 11:50

oo Totem - I didn't know that!

lesley33 · 03/03/2011 11:53

We pay £1.60 for an adult single or £3.20 for all day ticket. Covers a radius of about 6 miles from the city centre.

I think bus fares are too high but I know what it costs. IME people who normally use cars have no idea of the cost of bus fares and assume it is cheap. They are always shocked when they find out the cost.

lesley33 · 03/03/2011 11:56

Totem Yes you can get bus passes for a month and more. But working part time it is atually cheaper for me to pay £3.20 a day for a daily bus pass than buy a monthly bus pass.

Abcinthia · 03/03/2011 11:58

An inner day ticket where I live is £3.50 (but I think it's gone up and it is vague as to where exactly you can go) and an outer day ticket is £5.50 (and again it is vague as to when the outer ticket starts/stops).

I've tried asking the bus drivers but they just sulkily tell me "I dunno" or "it's valid in areas where it's valid".

Yeah great info.

bluenordic · 03/03/2011 12:14

Minimum single fare (no returns sold) is £2.50 on the Isle of Wight

BlackBag · 03/03/2011 12:48

My retired parents and their friends use the buses all the time. In to town, when it's raining, on holiday just for a day out, they all leave their lovely mostly two year old cars at home.

And thats because it's free with their free bus passes.

It's good for the environmet and not having more cars competing for road space but I feel that as a family we're squeezed with tax, benefit cuts, sure start having to justify everything, University fees going up and my Tory voting parents are not seeing any changes what so ever and rubbing my nose in it everytime they visit.

MrsH75 · 03/03/2011 13:21

On the Isle of Wight visiting my parents, we decided to get the bus into town one day as it's a pleasant run and nice to leave the car at home. It's free for my mum as a pensioner but was £4.80 each way for me to go about 5/6 miles!

And don't get me started on the ferry prices in summer holidays - or at any time TBF. Good job we like the place so much :)

Even with petrol prices being as they are and the cost of parking public transport isn't always the cheap option. Also you have to factor in the inconvenience.

TotemPole · 03/03/2011 13:27

Baroque, we use the GNER East Coast line(I think it's now run by national express). It's on weekends and some bank holidays.

There's more space, the carriages are less crowded, and you get coffee brought round.

Usually I pay the extra coming back down. If a train's come from Scotland, by the time it gets to Darlington it's very very busy in standard.

lesley, if you're paying £3.20 a day a few days a week, that probably still works out cheaper than running a car.

TorcherQueenie · 03/03/2011 14:19

An all day ticket here is £3.20 and covers pretty much most of Nottingham and the trams for that matter. Then on weekends and school holidays a Family all day ticket is £4 for up to 2 adults and 2 kids.

We're really lucky here that public transport is so cheap and reliable.

PaisleyLeaf · 03/03/2011 14:31

yanbu I don't often use it. But recently 4 of us paid £2 each to go a few stops in Brighton - should have got a cab!

BertieBotts · 03/03/2011 14:44

I found when we went to the Isle of Wight that the bus prices were extortionate but the service very good.

I have a bus pass which I use to get to uni - cost me £210 for the 3 terms including easter & christmas vacations, but not summer. I can use it around the local towns too. It works out cheaper but still it's ridiculous when you pay as you go.

It's a monopoly here with stagecoach. The only other bus service is a travel west midlands one which operates mainly in Coventry in and around the city centre. It seems to be a lot cheaper in cities.

To compare, a single from here to Coventry on travel WM buses is about £1.80. On stagecoach it is similar to get to coventry - but a single using stagecoach to get to the nearest town (about a quarter of the distance) is over £3. So they are competing where they need to and inflating prices everywhere else, because they can, there is no other service so people have to pay for this one.

BertieBotts · 03/03/2011 14:48

And the trains are ridiculous. I looked recently at catching a train from Leamington Spa to Birmingham - about a 30 mile drive. It would have cost £8. Then I looked at Coventry to Birmingham - a 25 mile drive. This costs £2.90. Neither journey has any changes. It doesn't make sense!

BuzzLiteBeer · 03/03/2011 15:19

Thank Thatcher if you don't like it!

TabithaTwitchet · 03/03/2011 15:33

Where we used to live it also cost £4.80 return to nearest shopping centre a fifteen minute drive away. I could stomach the high prices if they came with a similarly high level of service. But th service was appalling, the buses were always late, overcrowded, strewn with litter, and often just didnt turn up at all. I must have wasted hours and hours huddled at the stop wondering if the bus would ever come. And then explain why I was late for work again, when if the bus had come when timetabled I would have been 45 mins early!

Barbieissick · 03/03/2011 15:40

oh yes 2 years ago I caught the bus when I had to take DD to the childrens hospital in Bristol.

For me and a 6yo to do 8 miles into Bristol and home again cost me £11.80 Shock

That was 2 years ago - so I dread to think what it would be now. It also took 50 minutes instead of 15.

kirrinIsland · 03/03/2011 15:47

From my village into the city centre by train costs £3.10 - and takes five minutes.

Islandlady · 03/03/2011 16:43

Bluenordic what buses do you get is it the Wight Bus, Vectis charge a min of £3.50 for a single fare, £4.50 from Ryde to Newport (£5.00 single for IOW festival goers and the site is actually outside of Newport)

A daily costs £10 and a weekly costs £22.00

I am having an argument with Vectis at the mo and have pointed out to them that a person on min wage has to work more than 1/2 a day before tax just to be able to afford to get a weekly bus pass.

Vectis are owned by the go ahead group and charge a min fare of 90p on the mainland for a single fare.

they are a bunch of thieves