To think public transport is appalling?

[RaggleTaggleTick]

DH is home half an hour late again today, his train was delayed again, it happened most of last week too and throws our evening bath/bed routine for DC off. I'm sick of it, the amount we pay in travel costs is extortionate and trains are just so unreliable . The bus costs even more and the journey takes 3 times as long..... AIBU to think public transport in the UK is appalling and expensive?

oh my dh is usually home after bedtime

Can't you do it by yourself?

Some public transport especially trains seem rubbish but it's a bit much to say all of it

Our local bus service is fab - a bus into town every 10 minutes

Change the routine by 30 minutes.

Our local train service is OK - every 15 mins. obviously you can get delays but they usually happen for a very good reason usually around safety.

Change the routine by 30 minutes.

Easier said than done. He's only just got home, he's usually home by 7, getting in at 7:30 makes a big difference.

2, 4 and 7

Brace yourself raggle, you're about to lectured on how you shouldn't need DH at bedtime etc etc...

It's delays going into work that are the worst, just sat one day for nearly an hour waiting, had to belt it to work and just about opened the shop I run on time.

I just don't get how they can be delayed so often and for so long...?

I think YABU, but it does very much depend on where you live what kind of service you get.

I commute 30miles into Edinburgh to work, it takes about 25mins, in the morning I have trains every 11-15mins and every half hour in the evening. My train is only ever 2-3 minutes late and have never had huge disruption in the last year (touch wood). However, it is very expensive and costs me around £12 per day. I realise for some London commuters this isn't much but it is about a fifth of my salary (part-time). And I usually always get a seat.

But I know down south disruption and overcrowding can be bad on certain lines. I'm very lucky to live on a reliable commuter line. I would never contemplate the bus either (yuck). And it would be far more expensive for me to drive once factoring in petrol, parking and wear and tear on the car. I'm very grateful to be served by such an efficient train service.

(Now that I have posted this my trains will be constantly late and I'll never get a seat).

PS - my DP works back shift very night and finishes at 11pm, I always do bedtime by myself.

I wonder why rail services are better in some regions than others, what are they right that others are doing wrong?

For several years DH and I commuted, on the train, in opposite directions, one to Brum and one to Worcester.

We concluded they had a dartboard with excuses instead of numbers, we got so many different ones.

Now we have a totally different problem, we just don't have any public transport. Well there is a bus 1/2 a mile away on Thursdays.

Public transport is a lot lot worse where I'm from. 2-3 smelly hours for a 10 mile journey kind of thing. I'm very grateful for excellent public transport in the UK.

Is it First Capital Connect? They are shit!

I used to live in Japan and the public transport was amazing, really cheap and incredibly efficient. Also lived in Bangkok for a while and the sky train in is great.

It is appalling esp in rural areas which contributes to people who can't really afford to run a car running one badly (like with no MOT or tax or insurance) & elderly folk keeping driving after they ought to have stopped. Well done Beeching - you started it.

I'm guessing you are down south somewhere? As someone has already said the trains up here are pretty good. It probably helps that all the trains in the country are run by the same company.

my neighbour gets a monthly bus pass, there are busses every 10 minutes and she can get around two towns with the one pass.

But the cost is £44 per month, now I have a second hand car already paid for and my running costs with vehicle emissions tax, insurance, fuel and MOT servicing come to £50. So she hasn't had to pay out money for a car but her costs are only £6 cheaper.

Then the bus takes 30 minutes to get her to work, this is a trip of under 3 miles - which I could walk in 45 minutes and cycle on cycle paths and canal path in 15 - 20 minutes for free.

DD1 doesn't use the bus as they don't start early enough for her to get to work....

I am not sure it is worth the cost.

I pay £140 ish per term for the local scholar bus pass for dd2 and she travels on two busses to go approximately 3 miles.

Public transport around here is relatively cheap and excellent. We have 15 bus routes going within a 2 minute walk of our house, plus 4 rail stations within 10 minutes walk and a Tube/Overground station 15 minutes walk.

Yes, we are in London!

My DH's train is almost never late. It really does run like clockwork.

I use the Wales to London train at least once a week and have only been delayed once.

They are however ridiculously expensive and far far too packed until swindon, people are always standing in the aisles every journey, they know this so why not put more carriages on? ?

YANBU! My friend who commutes from Rugby to Birmingham every day is always late in the evenings or in the mornings because of delays.
Disgraceful considering the cost of a travel pass if you ask me.

Yes we're in the South West.

My dh commutes with First Great Western. They are shit and he is late most days. He also has huge problems with his bike which has a reserved space on his train. They let too many bikes on before his stop so the guards room is full when they get to him and tell him he can't put his bike on even though he has reserved a space. He puts it on anyway! They are fuckwits.

Pizzaqueen I commute 30miles into Edinburgh to work, it takes about 25mins, in the morning I have trains every 11-15mins and every half hour in the evening. My train is only ever 2-3 minutes late and have never had huge disruption in the last year (touch wood). However, it is very expensive and costs me around £12 per day. I realise for some London commuters this isn't much but it is about a fifth of my salary (part-time). And I usually always get a seat

You are lucky. I used to live 8 miles from Edinburgh City Centre (in a large town in Midlothian) and it used to take me 1 hour 30 minutes there and the same again back each day by bus. There was no train. Or at least there was a massive traffic jam to get to the railways station park and ride. The bus would take an hour to travel 8 miles, stopping at every stop and getting stuck at traffic lights. The rest of the hour and a half would be comprised of 15 minutes walk to the nearest bus stop and 15 minutes walk to my destination, as the busses only go along Princes Street/Shandwick Place and not to your destination. That was if I could circumnavigate my way round the tramworks and not get stuck on the wrong side of the street!

It was unbelievably awful doing that every day, and I resigned after I got pneumonia one winter. There was supposed to be another bus which stopped in the West End, but it was so unreliable, I think I tried to get it maybe 8 times and it didn't turn up 5 of those times, and was never once on time!