al78 wrote:AyrshireAlps wrote:I'm driving north in July and, even at £2 per litre, it'll still be significantly cheaper for two of us to get to Fort Bill by car than it would be by train.
Are you comparing fuel cost only though? There are a lot of other factors that add to the cost, wear and tear, depreciation, servicing, insurance to name but a few, these are factored into the train ticket price too. If I'm driving anywhere for work, it's calculated at a flat cost of 45p per mile to reflect this more fairly for instance.
I'd happily pay more taxes for better public services, social care, all that good stuff, but I'd want it as part of a greater rebalance, it doesn't work in isolation. Instead we have Bawjaws coming out with nonsense like folks on benefits getting a mortgage.
Whwn comparing the cost of journey modes, only the tangible cost matters. You have to pay for servicing/MOT/tax/insurance just by owning a car, so those costs are only eliminated if you go car free. There is no way of identifying the contributory cost of a typical car journey from wear and tear other than by some crude approximation which may or may not apply to any individual.
Which is exactly the point.
Folks paying 500 quid a month for a car is fairly normal, before you even consider insurance, tax and consumables. When you factor in everything else we pay monthly for, phones, TV, utilities, monthly beauty stuff, apps, spotify, amazon prime....... - all of that stuff, that is why we baulk at public transport prices, it's because our disposable income is gubbed, the train price is a symptom, not a root cause.
When we were sold the whole buy your own home and pension for the working man decades ago, and then the subsequent privatisation of public transport, they created a nation who became obsessed with their own space. Greed, laziness and debt, all rolled up in one lovely package (and also prevents anyone from really properly striking!)
To get a public transport system worthy of the name, it'll take not only massive investment (and ongoing subsidy), but a huge change in mindset. The investment is possible, I'm really not sure about the mindset.
As above, the only decent public transport is in London, but using it would involve living in the SE.
Bugger that.