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

The cost of learning to drive is also going up, and booking a test when you're actually ready for it nearly impossible. My son recently passed his driving test (on the first go, thank God) but he has to book it six months in advance. If he'd failed he'd have waiting for months to go again. There used to be a system of people booking ahead and looking for cancellations if they wanted something earlier, but even that workaround has been broken since the pandemic. It's a shambles.

Meanwhile, we have a government that's obsessed with getting everyone to stop working from home (unless they're disabled, in which case WFH is suddenly a great reason to cut their benefits), but won't sort out public transport or make driving more accessible. It's like the "pro having cake and pro-eating it" quip has become actual policy.

The thing is even diesels get stuck when power lines are faulty because there are often stranded electric trains in front of them blocking the tracks. Especially when diversionary routes aren't electrified and the diesels can't "overtake" to get to them.

There are only a tiny number of reserve diesel locos which can be mobilised to drag electric trains out of the way and they usually a couple of hours to get there.

She can drive. She's got a car , she was asking whether she should use it or not.

I support striking workers. They are trying to make the service better, or at least not even worse. They are on our side in this, truly.

@Badbadbunny

The thing is even diesels get stuck when power lines are faulty because there are often stranded electric trains in front of them blocking the tracks. Especially when diversionary routes aren't electrified and the diesels can't "overtake" to get to them.

Of course, but in the post I was responding to the older trains had been running. I was just explaining why that can happen.

Wales is becoming increasingly anti- car, but at the same time builds new housing estates miles from public transport connections.

I’m in Scotland and would prefer to use public transport (hate driving) but the service is rubbish.

Scottish government gives young people free bus travel - great - but the local bus companies are slashing many bus routes owing to the costs of making the buses green.So I can no longer get the bus to work as there is no feasible route from my home to my work. Same for students living in my area - no bus to take them to 2 of the biggest colleges/universities we have.

But for some strange reason, there is a subsidised bus which passes very close to my house from the local area to the local hospital -again, you might think that’s great, but it runs at times when no one wants or needs to go there - from about 8pm to 11pm. Night shift starts at 715pm at said hospital so it’s too late for staff and for visiting patients - I see the bus driving around every night with no-one on it! but the bus that did suit staff has been cancelled! Its nuts.

so money is “going into” public transport but not necessarily in the most useful ways.

I don't drive and don't like cars.
I use public transport a lot and since I have no alternative I just get on with it.

During the summer I was traveling across the Netherlands I bought a return ticket for a family of 4 for £60. We sat down on our train and there was an extremely tense announcement in English, German and Dutch saying we were two minutes delayed. We made up the time and there also was an announcement for that 😂.
I commute three days a week and last week got all my money back in delay repay. Luckily I can work on the train so I just do nine hours instead of seven in a day.

That's great but bar a massive taxi bill there is no option for me to just get on with it

And I genuinely dislike cars and planned where to live so it was a near a train and bus route!

YANBU it's quicker and cheaper for me to go most places by car rather than train, they are always delayed or dissappear which is risky if you need a connection, on the only fast ones there are never any seats and buses aren't much better as there are not enough bus lanes where I live

Purchase transport in this country is the pits.

The whole transport system is a mess. We were quoted £1,124 for 6 people for a train journey London to Bristol return. Add to that accommodation, food etc. instead, we've chosen to go to Lisbon, Portugal for £586 teturn. And they wonder why people use their cars - more reliable and costs less.

Why use cars? Is there an alternative?
We went to Bleinhaim Palace few weeks ago, and when purchasing the tickets there is a lot of bullshit about going green. Have you considered using public transport when travelling here?
So I sat down with a pen and computer and did a calculation: it takes us about 45 minutes to get there by car, about £10 of petrol.
Public transport: 3 bus rides plus one train ride, 54 bus stops and 11 train stops, one hour of walking. 2 hours just travelling time plus waiting in between so it wold take close to 4 hours each way. Price for the whole family 2 adults and 3 kids £88 with all discounts.
It's a sad picture!

We've booked to see a gig in London in Feb. Train for the time we need is £139 each return, plus a taxi to/from the station ourside (say £20) that's £298 for two people

So we've booked parking for £65 and will drive in, which will be about £35 in fuel so £100, that's £200 cheaper and we get to go at our convenience rather than train times.

My normal day to day life couldnt be done on public transport any way, even if it was a better set up.

Yanbu. The system is geared towards cars.

I live in a fairly big city and cycle into the city centre or get the bus if I go alone.

However with kids (4 and 6) it costs more and takes longer to get the bus and other bus passengers are often quite unpleasant (smelly, ranting, saying inappropriate things etc). I know that sounds snobby but to pay £8 for an inconvenient journey with even one oddball doing alarming things when driving costs £4 in parking and is door to door - it's a no brainer.

I'd happily have a cargo bike but there's nowhere to store it as we're in a terrace with no rear access. Of course, you don't usually have to worry about where to store a car!

The icing on the cake with public transport is that lots of them are part owned by foreign nationally owned transport companies. So profits from UK transport goes to improving transport in France and Netherlands etc while we're stuck with a shit service.

Definitely not being unreasonable.

I work in London, and the last month has been pretty horrific even by London's standards. If there was somewhere I could park easily and even get the tube into work, I would.

To make matters worse, I'm in the public sector where we've just had the 60% time in the office edict handed down - apparently to make us more productive. If the "grown ups" think that commuting (with delays) for 6 hours a day to get 4 hours of work done is productive.....not to mention the increase in costs, which are scheduled to increase in March. Fun times.

My god this drives me mad when you go to an attraction, usually in the middle of no where and they're bigging up to travel to them by public transport

How is that then, by that bus that runs every other Wednesday?

Bleinheim palace is in Woodstock, well served by buses and would make sense for many people living fairly close by to get the bus. I get the point but in this case it's not exactly middle of nowhere.

I wasnt referencing Bleinheim specifically, just a myriad of places we have visited in the past, not near any train stations so you would have to get an expensive cab or near regular bus routes.

It's nothing new, sadly. My first job, 40 years ago was in the next town, just 20 miles away, an easy 30 minute drive door to door.

By train it would take 2.5 hours as both towns are on branch lines off the main line, so it was 3 different trains, none of which "connected" with acceptably short changeover times. Actually "on" the train moving was about 25 minutes, 5 minutes on each branch line and 15 minutes on the main line.

By bus, just as bad as the only bus went via all the outlying villages not on the main road and only went from our town's bus station and was an hourly service, so I had to leave home around 6.30 to get a bus to the station and then the slow bus to the next town for work for 9!

These were both "big" towns, i.e. 40-50k population each, not tiny hamlets! There "could" be direct trains if they wanted to as the tracks would "meet" at the stations, and network rail inspection trains often do the journey directly (there always used to be direct trains until the 60s!). Likewise, more direct buses (and more regular buses) are also possible as both towns are linked by a good, direct "A" road!

Trouble is political, as the two towns are in different counties, so neither county council is remotely interested in "integrated" services between them. They even stop the gritting trucks dead on the boundary line when it's icy! Of course both councils are raging a war against motorists with ever more one way systems, traffic calming, parking charge increases, etc., but don't actually ever bother to find out "why" people use cars. It's definitely all stick and no carrot!

My dd takes the train to school. 30 minutes.
We have had this school run since 2013 when my oldest started.
At the beginning it was a reliable service.
By the time my middle one was taking the train it was delayed by 10 minutes at least once a week.

Now I just have dd in her last year.
The last 18 months have been HORRENDOUS.
This week - morning train cancelled twice.
The afternoon train cancelled every single day. There is a 3:30; 4:30; 5:30 etc train. Monday she came on 5:30. Tuesday 4:30 and Wed 4:30.
Today the 3:30 and 4:30 are already cancelled and the 5:30 delayed.

yesterday was a train strike. It is a 50 minute drive at rush hour, so even with full car and car sharing it means that parents have had to take time off work to get them in to school.

Today the school has had to allow train kids to leave an hour early to get the 2:30 train.

She is in GCSE year, and at exam time, I will need ot make myself availble every day incase the morning trainis cancelled and I have to drive her in for exams.
Did not need to do that for ds or dd1, for GCSE or A level.

I am so glad this is our last year, and I would not recommend this journey any more to any new parent.

UK train system is broken

We drove to a gig in east London last night.

Could have got 2 trains (delayed) and stood about in the wind and rain for a bit, but instead got there door to door in 30 mins.

In the past I have always taken public transport as we are always told not to even think about driving anywhere in London.

I will probably drive again in future. Much quicker and nicer.

I live in a city and the trains and busses are either always late or cancel last minute.. or just don't turn up. So unreliable so I just don't bother anymore

I agree. I don’t trust trains. When I commute to work I get the 6:10 the first train of the day as my logic is if they can’t get that train right then what can they get right. Also means I can leave work 3:45 and get the 4:15 train home which then means there’s another 4/5 trains after I can get if the 4:15 is cancelled. If I oversleep and don’t get into work early I get really panicked because I know there are fewer trains for me to rely on to get to and from work.

Im currently pregnant and just got a car as I was having whole afternoons off work just to travel to a maternity appointment because I’d have to get earlier trains in case they were cancelled. Couple of times had to fork out on a taxi too! If trains could be relied on it would be fine and I wouldn’t have got a car but they’re so unreliable I felt like I had no option.