To not understand why the fuel situation is so bad in the SE when they have better public transport than the rest of the country and shorter distances

[3dame]

Where we live public transport is woefully bad, non existent in many places and expensive.Bigger county too than most SE counties.

Where did you live exactly in the SE?
I live in a village on the edge of a town and the public transport is woeful. Buses run by Stagecoach who were having loads of problems even before this petrol ‘crisis’ with lots of routes late/cancelled/slimmed down - reports of school children not getting to school on a regular basis when the bus either doesn’t turn up or they send a single decker etc (think they’re merging with another company soon as they’re about to go pfft otherwise). Some of the villages on the outskirts of the nearest city don’t have a service at all and the village my friend lives in has a ‘last bus’ from the city to the village, on a Saturday, at 5.25pm! It’s ridiculous.

Because it is over populated.

People are panic buying.....its not logical

A lot of people, a lot of cars, and a lot of people
Living rurally with poor transport who work in the towns or cities. Brighton for eg is surrounded by countryside has major hospitals and businesses and a lot of people who work in them live in the surrounding villages.

We have 1 bus every 3 hours. That goes no where near where I work. Or near a station. I now have 50 miles left and school is 23 miles away. So I can do Monday and then it's back to home schooling.

I reckon it's because the South East have turned on Boris and this Conversative government so there is less to lose if they're pissed off. Much of London/outskirts is Labour or Lib Dems and like Amersham are turning away from the Boris type of conversativism. Boris and chums need to keep the North sweet to keep seats, and Scotland sweet to stop this independence talk.

Public transport is dire here
To get to my work takes about 40mins driving
To get there via public transport I am looking at at least 2.5 hrs just one way with multiple changes of buses and trains

High density, maybe fewer stations per head (could be totally wrong about that). I'm in London and 2 of our 5 nearest petrol stations have shut down in the past few years to the point we often have to make a detour from anywhere we're going to find a petrol station as we don't go past one on our most common routes.

Does it pull in all the type A personalities from other UK regions and further afield?

Seriously though it's population density isn't it?

Higher population density. More people all trying to get fuel in a condensed area.

Outside London public transport often isn't actually particularly good.

But isn't there something ridiculous like 22 million people in Greater London alone? The SE is saturated with people.

18 million people live in London & SE.

I think there is a huge difference between public transport provision in London and the rest of the SE. Everything centres around London so, as an example, getting between 2 towns in Hertfordshire which are 10 miles apart involves going in to London on the train, using the tube to get to a different mainline station then coming back out on a different line. Or 15 minutes in a car.....

Well I do wonder why it is such a crisis when the buses are still empty? I only recently got a car and managed before that with a child on the bus.
(I am in the south east). So I think OP has a point.

We’re in top of each other here in the SE. Yes, there are rural areas, but if you live in a town or city it’s like sardines.
Bloody love going up NE where mil lives as there’s hardly any traffic. That’s why she moved away.
My dds buses have had to take detours because the petrol stations are causing traffic problems atm and clogging up roads.

High population density.

@NOTANUM

I reckon it's because the South East have turned on Boris and this Conversative government so there is less to lose if they're pissed off. Much of London/outskirts is Labour or Lib Dems and like Amersham are turning away from the Boris type of conversativism. Boris and chums need to keep the North sweet to keep seats, and Scotland sweet to stop this independence talk.

I really really hope that the SE has turned on Boris and the Tories!

I think it's because of high population density, I can't take public transport to work (like a lot of people) but I've heard there is a massive shortage of bus drivers too and a lot of services are not back to usual Cos of Covid - I think lots of services have been quietly dropped....

I'm SE. I had no fuel the other day so had to get public transport to work. My usual 25 minute journey turned in to a 70 minute one and cost me £30!

Just because we have more public transport doesn't mean it's efficient or affordable!

In terms of the lack of fuel, yes, higher population density doesn't help but in some areas there is definitely a higher amount of greed and entitlement I find. The selfishness I've witnessed in the last week has been staggering.

Doesn’t matter how many buses an hour there are if you use your car/van for work.
Do people outside of London think our builders/plumbers/decorators/window cleaners/caters/driving instructors go from job to job using public transport?

London is great for going in and out of the centre but try to do my DS' school run (6 ish miles) on a train (impossible as I can't get the pram up the stairs) or the bus (impossible as the bus doesn't link up with that area) and you're screwed.

That s all I really need the car for on a weekly basis though tbh

The South East, as a region , is very densely populated. However, there are many rural areas that are almost untouched by public transport.

I live in a densely populated area yet I have no buses after around 6pm.
The nearest train station is about 2.5 miles away but doesn't serve where we need to go.

We'd need a couple of changes , say , to get to our local hospital plus a 30+ minute walk.

Yes we are able to walk but many , particularly older and infirm folk, are not able to make those journeys.

It’s very odd - my sister is in west London. They have 6 petroleum stations near them and they’ve all been empty since last weekend. Sainsbury’s would normally have a delivery every day and hasn’t had one in 5 days apparently.

I’m up north and it’s fine here - the stations are slightly busier than usual and a few pumps capped off but you can get fuel no problem.

Err population density.

Plus outside London public transport is woeful

Overcrowded towns and cities means that the police closed some petrol stations because the queuing was causing gridlock on nearby roads. That could be a factor.

I'm in Essex and our public transport is shit. I work 20 miles away- it takes me 40 minutes by car but would be nearly 2 hours on public transport. My DH works 4.2 miles away but there's no public transport route really- he'd have to walk 2 miles then two buses. I have diesel and haven't really had a problem finding any but my DH is on his last 30 miles of petrol and hasn't been able to fill up since last Thursday.

There are a lot of people here panic buying but also now a lot of people who are genuinely low.