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

My dd catches a transpennine train approx every three weeks. In three years she’s not paid for a single journey because every one has been 100% refunded due to being delayed. It’s a crazy way to run a company.

I never catch the train, but this weekend I had to meet friends in London, so needed to get from the West Country to London Paddington. It was a day from hell due to cancellations, delays, paid in the end three lots of £70, most of which needs refunding because there were no fucking trains. They were getting cancelled 10 mins after I booked them. It was pandemonium and ruined the day. I had to drive to a random station, leave my car there, it was just chaos and wasn’t worth the effort. Needed a wee at one station, four toilets, all blocked, no loo roll. Hundreds of people completely stranded. Never ever ever again. My friends said we should go and see a show in the New Year, no way. I’ll stick to driving my Chelsea tractor until trains start running efficiently.

We've had a new LTN brought in locally which has caused chaos on the main roads - the roads that all the buses use. I've actually started driving more since the LTN was brought in - go figure.

If we are serious about reducing the use of cars and/or increasing the use of electric vehicles, then we need a complete rethink of the transport system and the infrastructure. It’s just ridiculous to expect people to use trains when they are cancelled or broken on a very regular basis. It’s just not acceptable.

If there can be effective systems in other countries, why not here? The British public can not be expected to fork out ever increasing fares for a shit non service. The infrastructure for electric vehicles must be vastly improved and the roads must be maintained far better.

I live within walking distance of a station and work within walking distance of a station on the same line. If I took the train I’d need to leave an hour earlier and get back an hour later every day. Plus it would cost 3x as much as it does in petrol. Not going to happen.

I feel your pain. I live in Leeds and the transport system is shite. Unreliable buses and shoddy trains. However, these days with all the bus gates and roadworks driving is not much of an option either

I commute by train and every day there's some excuse for the dreadful service. It's a nightmare but I have to earn a living and therefore I endure and have done for the last 20 years

I don’t drive and live in the midlands. I’m lucky enough to get a free bus pass through work. If I had to pay for it i’d be needing a refund every month!

Trains are useless too!

driver's seat broken

😂

I used to drive £5 all day parking. 10 min drive ( via school drop-off)
Or £4.50 return bus.. If it turned up. Which took 30 min and often made me late.
.only time I get a bus now is if dc ask. Thankfully only about 3x a year

Re trains this makes sense but more cars on the road makes it shit for buses 😬

'Outside London' is key. Where do all the decision-makers work? London.

I dread this happening here because I live on a main road and it's bad enough with traffic already. Rat runs exist for a reason, and I say that as someone who is very anti car and walks anything under about 3 miles. If it was attractive enough, people would give up their cars.

YANBU OP. Public transport in my city is awful too. I live 2 minutes walk from a train station and bus stop but if I commute to my nearest office it's a 40 min drive one way or a 2 hour train journey. To visit my parents it's a 35 minute drive or again over 2 hours by train door to door. Either train fare for one adult would be more than the fuel cost. My boyfriend lives on the other side of the city but on the same bus route and the quickest door to door journey is over an hour IF the bus shows up, or 20 mins in a taxi. If both of us are in the taxi it's less than a tenner more than the bus, a fraction of the time and guaranteed to get you there.

I used to get train to work (2 trains each way), regularly it was cancelled or terminated half way. They changed timetable making it totally impractical to get to nearby city as it’s now a 35 min wait for second train not 5 mins. Just checking new timetable hoping it has changed back but still 35 mins wait.
So I drive the 16 miles instead and sit in bumper to bumper traffic.

YANBU! I bursted out crying not too long ago due to the awful train services. I live in Greater Manchester and travel into the city Center for work and with the train it should take around 10 minutes but it has taken me over an hour to get there and an hour or more to get back home due to delays and cancellations. There are times I couldn't fit on the train because they used a smaller train (during rush hour!) and that meant I had to RUN to the station on the other side of town to get a train home and of course it was delayed.

I was always late picking DS up from nursery and have had to ask mum very last minute to start picking him up and it's sometimes not convenient for her. But I kept getting told off by the nursery... I have also had a day where I was waiting over an hour for 2 cancelled trains until I said fuck it, and paid £25 for an Uber to get me home in 40 minutes. I was cold, soaking wet and already experiencing the start of hyperemesis so it was a nightmare!

During train strikes there are no rail replacement services and it would take me 2 buses (so about 2 hours each way). 4 hour commute per day! Or I'd have to park the car at a park and ride and get the tram which is also totalling about 1 hour or more each way due to rush hour to get to the park and ride and how slow the trams are. Not to mention how disgustingly close together people are due to all wanting to squash in 🤢🤮.

Only my manager and supervisor is allowed a free parking spot at the hotel i work at which is quite frustrating as most people get public transport to the hotel as it's in the city Center, and the time I finish that's when the vast majority of people check-in, so technically they could allow more staff to park.

It's so stressful and an absolute waste of £110 per month for shit quality /non existent services.

I'm currently off due to severe hyperemesis and I am dreading going back due to the commute! 😢😢😢😢😢😢
Unfortunately where I live there aren't a lot of jobs and we can't afford to move closer to the city either, and I have mum living across the road to help with childcare.

YANBU. Public transport is getting worse and worse, even the smart new Elizabeth line is down or delayed almost every day. In my hometown, the buses used to run from the town to the suburbs until 10.30pm. The last bus is now at 5.30pm.

I live a 30 minute walk into town, fine when its sunny but miserable in cold, wet weather.

So i had the idea of buying a bike, thinking it would stop me using the car to go into town.

There are no cycle paths (actually thats a lie, there is one tiny 20m stretch of road that has a cycle path, it randomly starts then ends). I tried to cycle into town twice and both times felt so unsafe that I've given up. I can either cycle along a busy road where the edges by the pavement are riddled with potholes. Endless potholes hidden in puddles. Like a fun death trap game. Or i can cycle more towards the centre of the road and massively irritate all the drivers. Or i can be someone who cycles on the pavement.

So earlier this week when i needed to go to the bank, i got into my car.

Thankfully i don't need to catch trains, but the last time i looked it was cheaper to pay for flights to canary islands than it was to get the train tickets to the airport.

I was a late driver, about 32 and all those years I was continuing to be let down by trains and busses etc. And I would say put at risk left stranded at stations and bus stops late at night.

And with a small child tying to navigate stairs, broken lifts and loos.

I adore my car....

We live 50 miles from London, and 5 miles from the nearest station which is a direct commuter line into Waterloo. If I plan enough in advance to get the cheaper parking, 4 of us can drive into central London, park on the South Bank and pay the congestion charge for cheaper than just over an hours journey on the train. It’s madness. My kids wouldn’t even know how to get a bus here, they barely exist.

All the government initiatives (local and national) to cut down on car journeys seem to be based around making car journeys more difficult and/or expensive. There seems to be no effort to make public transport better, only efforts to make car journeys worse. It's all stick and no carrot.

Done lots of uni visits with dd this year, every journey on an avanti north west has been disrupted.
My favourite was announcing in London and on train it was replacement bus from Crewe. Big crowd gets off at Crewe and say which way to the bus…no bus as no one had told Crewe staff. I showed pic of board in London to Crewe station manager as proof, he said they were now denying it. Near riot, after several hours they paid for taxis to Preston. Glasgow last week train was delayed over an hour then a further wait while driver had his break. DH gets refunded on most trips to London.

Which country?

Why is it mortifying?

Tbh while I think public transport is poor here I wouldn't judge a whole country negatively or even positively on the transport alone

Controversial opinion on MN, but our railways have been destroyed by the unions. Train drivers are paid on average, twice as much as any other European country. They along with railway workers have resisted any and all modern flexible work practices, engineering alternatives and digital upgrades.

I took my car in for a service this week - 20 min journey - to get home after dropping it off, 2 trains, and a 30 min walk from the station. I got a taxi. DH works in Chester - a reasonable size town, but to get home on the Wirral, the last bus leaves at 5.30. Not much use when your shift ends at 10pm. Not much use for the average shop worker either

Public transport is awful lately, I've been stood at a bus stop for over an hour in the cold and rain because 2 buses never turned up, the one that did the driver was over his shift time but took us all home anyway bless him. Super star.