To think it's no wonder people use cars so much?

[Parapapampam]

I work in a large city, always try and commute by train, this week, no strikes past 4 days on this line, my train home has been cancelled every single day, tomorrow there are strikes.

Different excuse every time, driver's seat broken, bad weather, staff shortage, or no reason given at all, the train just disappears off the board as if it never existed.

Tonight, my train, and the three after all cancelled, I imagine the later ones will be too (flooded tracks aren't suddenly going to clear whilst still pissing it down with rain).

So, I'm going to have to fork out £35 on an Uber.

This is not abnormal, happens at least twice a week, and the government wonder why people drive rather than use public transport.

So

YABU - keep using the shit trains, it's better for the environment and you can do work, read a book whilst on the train and don't have to worry about parking

YANBU - Start driving to work clogging up the roads (electric car) but get home before 8pm every night and save the £35 uber fee which is clogging up the roads anyway

I could take the train but it’s THREE trains and IF they connect it’s about 1.5 hours door to door. Or I can drive the 20 miles (40 minutes door to door). And we live in the ‘well connected’ south east.

YANBU they don’t fund or set up public transport properly and then complain we drive too much. We can’t win

@Parapapampam

I would do both start to learn to drive in the meantime carry on the trains 🚆 service with the hazzle inconvenience of that,

On Google Internet there are warning alerts that in the run up to Christmas time on specific dates expert to see train strikes for more pay happening ect.

YANBU I really don't understand why public transport is so poor in the UK (outside London that is)

I have taken 6 trains today. All delayed including the one I had to get off because it had a communication failure.

The infrastructure just isn’t set up for it. Even London can be a nightmare some days and that has loads of alternatives, you’ve got no chance if you live in a rural village with one bus an hour to the train station however many miles away.

YANBU, I drive to work which is about 50 miles each way as I'd have to get a bus to the station, fork out £27 to get a train for 42 mins and then walk half an hour.
I'd actually do all that despite the cost but the buses are unreliable, the trains are even worse and I've given up after giving it another chance.
I was working Sat in the office to a deadline and had organised a lift from the station. Worked great there; took me hours to get home. It's my works Xmas do next week and I'm really fed up that I again have to drive as i can't risk a £80+ taxi home.

Having come from a country with literally one of the veyr best, most efficient transport systems in the world, it's mortifying to have to explain to people I know back home what a shit show the UK is.

Not the point of this post but make sure you keep a receipt for the taxi and try to claim it back. With that many cancellations in a row you should have a good case.

I had to get a train for the first time in ages recently, from Bristol to Penrith. It cost £157 and was delayed by over 2 hours. I ended up getting a full refund. The service costs a fortune and is absolutely abysmal. I would never choose a train as regular transport.

Just drive! If the government genuinely wanted more people to use public transport, they'd make it work properly and ensure the companies running it had appropriate money and resources so if one train was out of action they could put another on the line instead. The fact the government doesn't give a shit about public transport shouldn't be your problem.

I can't believe you'd do all the damage to the environment of owning an electric car and then leave it on the drive thinking you're doing an environmental good deed.

It really is embarrassingly awful. I went to Japan in the summer, travelled the country for 3 weeks by train, not a single delay, always a seat, even when a monsoon hit.
Last time a travelled back from London I had to sit on the floor for 4 hours with three children because they'd crammed three trains' worth of passengers onto one train. Apparently a problem with overhead wires meant only the older trains were working that day!

Thanks, will try, but the train provider's solution was for me to get a train to a different city then get a train to my normal station from there, which would have taken nearly 2 hours, so not sure they'll cover an Uber.

I always do delay repay though.

I don’t think I’ve been on a single train journey in the last couple of years where there hasn’t been delays, cancellations and overcrowding. On one memorable journey last summer the train was cancelled one station before mine, we were all turfed off with vague information about another train that would be along in an hour or so. Nowhere to sit at the station and the cafe was closed. I usually drive now.

Just drive! If the government genuinely wanted more people to use public transport, they'd make it work properly and ensure the companies running it had appropriate money and resources so if one train was out of action they could put another on the line instead. The fact the government doesn't give a shit about public transport shouldn't be your problem

Absolutely this. Zero guilt about using my car at all. I'd be happy to use public transport if it was reliable, but it isn't. So I drive.

Oh yanbu. I work 13 miles away from home in another town in a very built up part of the West Midlands. I generally drive to work because it’s easier, it takes 25 minutes on a good day but 40, normally.
I looked in to getting public transport recently so I could go out after work and have a drink and it was 4 busses and 5 walks. It would have taken an hour and 40 minute. If I got the train it was an hour and 20 and I’d have to go in to Birmingham city centre and back out. Who’s got time for that?

DH is taking me 🤣

The train service over here is abysmal. On Saturday I saw two nightmare scenarios due to strikes . Whilst stuck on a platform one lad jumped off an incoming train to be told there was no way the train could get him to his destination 30 miles away , no buses either he was told . Stranded .
A lady had got off the same train to be told the only way she could get to her station 10 miles away was to go into London and back out on another line . Some 2/3 hrs extra on her journey . She broke down and said she couldn't pay for the extra train fare into London and the station person told her to wait there and went off presumably to sort something for her .
Even without strikes it's abysmal. I don't think I've ever gone into London without delays / cancellations / changing of routes .

public transport in this country has become unrecognisable in the past few years. I regularly used trains and buses previously and didn't even have a car or know how to drive until around 2012. but now, it's just relentless delays, cancellations, buses and trains totally filthy. by contrast go to mainland Europe, or Middle East/ far east and its like a different planet.

at this point I have given up and just drive everywhere. obviously I am lucky and this is not an option for everyone. I think it's so much worse for the elderly/those who are in poor health as well.

This is exactly why I drive.

Public transport in my city is late, dirty, cold, unreliable and often cancelled at short notice. Combined with the nearest bus stop being a 15 minute walk away and the bus journey taking much, much longer than a car journey.

In addition, pound for pound it is actually more expensive than running my car (I factored in petrol, annual service and MOT and insurance - I own the car outright).

It's a no brainier!

YANBU.

I gave up my car voluntarily but wow it is hard at times! I have watched public transport get worse and worse since the Tories took over.

There's no way you can trust public transport around here. It's so unreliable and to add insult to injury you only get savings if you buy ahead and still have to fork out for taxis if they're off.

Cheaper to run a ruddy car.

One single bus journey to work = 1-1.5 hours door to door.

Or,

One commute by car = 12-17 minutes.

I used to commute by public transport until I realised I was spending as much on taxis due to cancellations and delays (on top of season tickets) as it would be to run a car. Ridiculous.

I am disabled. Public transport of any sort is impossible at any time. Accessible transport is a fiction.

I love travelling by train but this year has seriously pissed me off. Strikes I support but I have been delayed so many times I can't keep a track of the delay repay claims. I just want to arrive on time!

I can’t drive (medical reasons) and find public transport desperately frustrating and constantly deteriorating. Last Friday I needed to travel to London - on the way home power lines had gone down meaning that all trains going north from King’s Cross were cancelled. The night before YEt AnOTHER strike day. The train connections in the north of England are spectacularly bad. To get to my parents by car it is exactly 1 hour on busy A roads. To do the same journey by train involves three changes, two cities and three hours - assuming that all the connections work. (So more often 4 hours).
I interrailed in Europe this summer and it was so smooth and easy everywhere. Even when a train was stopped due to a death on the line, travellers were told how to proceed with their journeys.
It is embarrassing to show visitors the UK public transport system.