I’d take the train if….

I used to commute 2hrs each way by train. As mentioned by Janet Bangs, the c2c line has improved hugely over the last years & for the most part even if you weren't spending on an annual ticket, it was still reasonably priced. Just over a tenner to get into London at the weekend & very regular train times. But other lines are not so good.
When I switched to Anglia, I had to pay over £3k pa for an appalling service into Liverpool St.
And don't get me started on the regular delays out of Waterloo.

However, I've now left all that behind to live out west.

Now I don't use the train for work.
But I could be tempted to use it for a specific leisure reason... if not for the fact of the standard bugbear of the rip-off prices for journeys (it is far cheaper to fill up the car- certainly if you then have more than one person in the car). And then there is the also the frequency.
You'll be lucky to see a train every 40mins from my nearest station.

A recent gem- if I wanted to go into London for the day- the last train back left between 18.00 & 20.00.
That was no good for the concert I was going to see.
(let alone if I had gone for a meal, a play, or a few drinks with friends)
It was cheaper for me to drive 150 miles back to Essex, catch the c2c there and then sleep the night at family in Essex and drive home than it was to get the train from my local station.

How can that make sense?

I now live in Scotland, having moved up from England.

With respect to public transport, I see little difference in quality, regularity or price. I do have to say though, that on the few times, I have used public transport in Scotland (both train and bus) in "rush" hour, in comparison, the commute into London from the home counties is by far the most congested &smelly.

In my experience, transport staff in London are both obnoxious and disinterested in people. Although, my public transport experience is minimal in Scotland, there are some transport staff (by no means all) who do have the time of day to help you - and with a smile!

The national public transport system is decrepit - and unlikely to change in the short term - but surely transport staff should be encouraged to be cheery?

On a purely personal note, in order to get to work, I would need to take two buses, or a train and a bus. This costs me at least 4 hours extra per day at £7 per day. By car, depending on traffic 2 hours extra per day, and 66miles of diesel costs me ..... (alot less than £7!)

Final point, I think car drivers are already taxed enough, therefore to introduce congestion charging and road tolls is outrageous. Invest in public transport systems FIRST and let car drivers make a POSITIVE choice for public transport instead of trying to blackmail us out of our cars. By the way, I car share, and fetch a colleague to work - makes the journey less boring and keeps our travel costs down.

I'm a train driver and sometimes I feel ashamed at how passengers are treated and I work for one of the better train operating companies(toc's).
However I can tell you that to most toc's you passengers are a pain in the neck, you want a seat each on a train that goes where and when you want it to and fares that are transparent and good value.
Now to me that sounds like a sound business case but not to managements. They want to run the least number of trains they can get away with at the highest fares but crucially it's the subsidy paid to run alleged uneconomical services which is the bread and butter of most toc's who are mostly glorified bus companies which have been run in this way for decades.
I must say this attitude permeates an awful lot of British managements.
Oh, by the way, train services throughout the UK will be decimated in December and I may be out of a job, but don't worry, I'm emigrating, yes really, this is not a flippant comment.

I would take the train, but you see, too many people have died in train crashes during rush hours for me to believe it is safe, clean, cheap, friendly.

yes I have a mate (I know) who works as 1 of the contractors. He told me that if there is ever a problem or something to be clarified, it would be virtually impossible since the whole maintenance is subcontracted to the nth degree. So if any question is ever asked, who will be able to tell who did what at that time?

Seriously, the whole thing is a joke! I have worked for 5 years in The Netherlands and when I used to fly back from a weekend in the UK, I paid 5 Euros to travel from Schiphol Airport to my place in The Hague (40 minutes in a fast train). 5 miserable Euro's and that was without any reduction in price. Yes, I had to pay as the Oyster card - partly paid for by Government/Employer - was only valid during the week and Saterday evenings!

I get aggresive when I think about trains in the UK, sorry about that!

I avoid taking the train like the pest; it stinks, connections don't exist (e.g you have to travel to London if you want to go from South East to Cornwall); the whole thing is corrupt to the bone and on top of that they are lethal.

Mister Blair, I'd rather invest my time and money in green fuels.

Traveling by train: maybe in another life

Just been on holiday to the south of france and caught a train for a day trip out. What a differnce they are - cheap, punctual, quick, roomy, cool, need I go on - wake up Britain we are seriously inj the dark ages when it comes to travel and have no real alternative to the car. I'm sure the Goverment secretly want to keep it this way in order for them to extreact as much revenure from the poor motorist as they can.

I also take the train regularly and enjoy the journeys far more than traveling by car. With fivelive in my ears and a computer game on the laptop my journey flies.

The services I use do seem to be pretty punctual nowadays (I've had one 15 minute delay that I can remember in the last couple of months). (Sevices I use regularly include Plymouth to Newton Abbot, Bristol, London and St Austell).

Also despite all the negative comments about why people won't take the train above, they are popular. About 1billion trips are made each year. Just imagine how much worse the roads would be without them. Again as a few other people have said, many of the problems are caused by a lack of capacity in the train system. I would certainly vote for a govenment prepared to invest in a modern system capable of high speed trains and increasing capacity (ie building new lines and adding tracks to existing lines).

I do take the train. Regularly. I live in the East Midlands and travel as far as Newcastle on Tyne, Exeter and London. The trains are very rarely late and most of them are very comfortable with on train refreshment facilities (admittedly at over the top prices). With my Senior Railcard, I can travel from Derby to Cardiff and back for £40. This journey is about 300 miles round trip and if I take the true cost of running a car as 50p/mile, to do it by car would cost me £150. How can people claim that the train is expensive?

What would to take for me to convert to train travel - A MIRACLE!

I like that I can take who I like in my car, I am always guaranteed a seat but am not forced to squeeze into a seat next to someone who smells of the bar they spent lunchtime in. I do not have to sit surrounded by fellas having some technological pissing contest over who's got the latest ipod/mobile/laptop, nor do i have to tolerate the Barbie that's going into gruesome details of her last boob job (very loud)! I do not have to sit opposite the young man that is picking his nose and thinks he's hidden by his newspaper (much like traffic light syndrome!) My car does not smell of overpriced day old chicken tikka sandwiches that have been sold to my pas#engers for £5 (with a can of coke!) I don't want to spend 40 minutes stuck behind love's young dream who are bringing each other off on the two seats infront whilst the man next to me snores oblivious! I don't have to read who 'woz ere' or who is available for exotic mas#age. I want a 4 hour journey to last 4 hours, not 9 and I don't want to be stranded on a platform at 10.30 on a freezing November night because of 'inclement' weather! Most of all I need to know that if something goes wrong and there is a delay, my fate (the difference between in the nick of time or a bo@@@@king from the boss) does not lie in the hands of someone that's popped out for their lunch break!!!!!
Granted, my car has 'no small room', but if it did, it would be fully equipped with paper and there would be no excrement smeared on the walls!
I have used the train 6 times in the past year, and these were my experiences!

In contrast, I am 99.9 % punctual (even with problem parking - see previous issues!!!) and my car is not affected by the wrong sort of snow or leaves on the road. I can turn mobile off and sit in silence, or singalonga CD. I choose who I sit by, if anyone. I don't have to travel 13 miles to get to my car and if I break down, I have RAC!If I hit a jam, i take a different route (unless stuck on M'way obviously!), that is the freedom of driving.
These are just a few of the reasons I choose to drive. We pay for the roads, we as taxpayers do actually own the roads, so why shouldn't it be reasonable to use them?

Rant over! Next blog please!

I live 25 miles from work. For a while I tried commuting in by train from my local town. I used to drive 10 miles to get to the station, to get the bus would have made the journey ridiculously long - our village is serviced by 1 bus an hour which takes 30 minutes to get into town. To get to work at 9am I would need to catch the 7am bus from the village, walk from the bus stop to the station (10 mins), wait around in a cold, uncomfortable station waiting room for the next train 8.30am (hope it arrived) and I would be at my desk for 9am. I paid £2.50 per day to park and paid £6.10 for a 15 minute train journey that was often cancelled/late and so full of people you could hardly find room to stand, let alone sit. Like other people before me, I would rather sit in the comfort of my car - and certainly wouldn't spend £43 a week on diesel just getting to work. Until they make public transport a cheaper option and more frequent, reliable and comfortable, I will continue to drive myself in to work every day.

We live in a little village and would have to use the car to travel 6 miles to the station anyway - then they don't run regularly or at very good times. IF they ever have a regular reliable service I would use it for longer journeys.
Last time I used one, we ended up being bussed anyway,as a train had broken down - making us late and not very comfortable either!

I watched a programme the other night about Britain's transport issues. The presenter seemed to be advocating charging motorists more in order to put money into public transport. This would be tolerable if all the money raised from congestion charges etc. went into good integrated public transport making it a cheap and easy alternative. But do you trust any government to do that....?? This approach seems very unfair as successive government policies (lack of investment and deregulation etc) has created a very poor public transport system and now the motorist is being asked to pay to get it back into shape. It's always down to the stick and never the carrot.

Yes if was door to door which is handy if you are disabled like me

I would use trains more if I could work out if I was travelling at an economic price and not being to sit in the same seat on the same day at a widely ranging price.

A couple of years ago, I was banned for a short while (speeding- my fault no complaints!) however, this meant that I had to use public transport to get to and from work.

My journey time via car is about 40mins. Via Bus only in was nearly 2 hours (each way)and the use of bus/train/walk meant about and hour and a half each way.

Cost wise (assuming I would retain a car for other uses) there is no way public transport is a viable option for me and thousands like me whose journey to work is via mainly rural roads. A bike is possible as I only work around 19 miles away, that would be quite nice in the fine weather maybe........ yeah right!

My point is this: all this talk of use of public transport is fine if you live and work in the same City (ie London) but for the rest of us, the realistic option to a private car means unrealitic travelling times and no financial benefit.

Seems to me that the "anti car" transport policies are designed to deal with across City commuters, and in fact only really suit those with a short journey to make. (no disrespect guy's, I'm not having a pop at you)

The fares are too high , the stations not conveniently placed and the stations are unwelcoming ,and not safe at night , ticket offices are only open at certain times of the day at the convenience of the rail company not the customer . Who said the customer is always right? , not the various rail companies .

So the theme so far: Govenment has made public transport incovienient. unavaliable and expensive just like they are now trying to do with motering!

our nearest station is 14 miles with no bus service, the nearest bus is 2 miles but takes 1h20m to get to the nearest town with a station ? the station Car park costs £3 for the day + the 28 mile round trip... where is the logic in this intigrated transport policy....

Oh yeah TAX in the name of the environment Bollo##s

Seems to me that the most common reason why we don't use trains is because of the cost!!Surely if the train companies made it cheaper for us to use the trains than our cars,over the long term people would start to use them in their thousands.Thus making the investment viable.Add to this a frequent bus service to and from the stations,then over time everyones a winner!!Come on train companies,start talking to your equals about making it easier for commuters to commute!!!

The convenience of a station that is accessible by public transport that runs after 9pm and does not leave you stranded with the need of the use of a taxi at £15 oneway. Train fares that do not drive me to use my car when there are two of us. To travel on a cheap day return to London costs £34+ by main line, whereas we can travel for half-an-hour (as long as it takes to get to my main line station) and travel by Jubilee Line to London and this will cost around £13.

The term public transport is a misnomer; it can only be used by "the public" if they can afford it and with the every increasing fares it is becoming less affordable, therefore excluding the so-called public from affording to use it.

For those of us over retirement age why can't the train companies offer what the bus companies are offering? No profit in that - even with the empty carriages that are going to and fro off peak.

I commute 85 miles each way. This costs me £6,620 by train, but would cost £8,015 by car, and that does not include wear and tear, servicing etc., just petrol and Congestion charge, so I think that train travel is more economic over a year. However, I do agree that the trains are generally grubby, sometimes unsafe, always uncomfortable and never on time. I would much prefer to drive, but is it just not ecomincally viable for me.

the emphasis on puplic transport has been moved from it being a service ,to a purely profit making activety.There are very few servces either train or bus that can compete with the car either on a financial or on a convenience basis.If we are serious about getting a public transport service in this country it must be taken out of private hands so that the motive for running a bus or train is to provide a service to the people who are using it not a profit for shareholders who would not dream of using it.

I am on state pension and find it difficult to afford to run my car and in fact I would be happy to give up driving if only somebody ran a local mini bus to get people to and from the local shops or to the bus stops to enable us to get the bus into the nearest large town, there is no way I could afford to use a taxi a few times a week to do this.

I'm now 'retired' but under the age of 65yrs. I retired to the Isle of Wight moving from London where I was born and bred, and still have family. Now if anyone knows the Island we do have a short public railway... Island Line (actually the train and carriages are old Northern Line Underground stock), a marvellous little service. The only alternative transport on the Island is by either bus or taxis. A single 6 mile journey by bus will set you back £2.50, whilst taxis workout around £2.50 per mile. Given that neither can be relied upon or are convenient. A car, or other means of transport is essential just to lead a normally familly life.

At Easter 2005 over the Bank Holiday I wished to visit some relatives in London using public transport... not possible. The train service to London over the entire Easter period was unavailable due to signal refurbishment. Again, over the August Bank Holiday the railway service to London was withdrawn. At Christmas 2005 through to the New Year (23rd December to 3rd January) no trains ran, this time line refurbishment. When South West Region's manager was questioned why there would be no trains over the second busiest period of the year for travellers his reply was quite interesting "most of our customers own cars, and we expect them to use them over the holiday period".

If one purchases a car and pays VAT on it. Purchases a Road Fund Licence. Pays an insurance premium and associated VAT on it. Has the vehicle serviced and pays VAT on it. Buys spare parts... tyres etc. and pays VAT on them. Later in the vehicles life has it MOT'd and pays VAT on it. And lastly, but not finally, fills up with petrol and not only pays VAT on the petrol, but also Duty on it as well. It can't make economic sense to leave the car in the garage and try and use public transport. Public transport which when it is available for use, is expensive, dirty, inconvenient, and at cetain times of the day downright dangerous to travel on!

As a last comment, I wanted to attend a family christening a couple of weeks back. The christening was just over 30 miles away in Dorset. To use public transport meant 7 changes of service on the outward journey and no less than 10 changes on the return journey. Outward journey time was 6 hours, and the return journey could have been over 18 hours if any one of the 10 changes of service had been missed through cancellation etc. I won't go into the cost... Needless to say I didn't use public transport.

As a widowed, grandmother pensioner who drives 240 miles to visit family whenever possible. I would greatly appreciate being able to use the train, especially in winter if it was not for the following problems -

Train travel is too costly.
I would need to be sure of getting a seat.
I am not left standing on a cold platform waiting for a late train.

Having specifically booked on a Direct Through to Destination train to be told part way through the journey that I have to change trains, and there are no Porters to help with luggage I cannot carry.
This actually happened to me after prior arrangements had been made for someone to meet me at destinations end and nobody was there, nor was there a trolley on which to put my two suitcases.

GNER announce a loss today 24/8/06. They gave every excuse they could think of except overpriced fares.

The unions suggest nationalisation to solve the problem. We know how bad nationalised trains were - dirty, late and subsidised by us the taxpayer and branch lines axed.

The unions argued with Arriva until they lost a Northern franchise because they could not deliver a service.

However union members could hold the travelling public to ransom again for uneconomic wage and condition claims and run the railways for their benefit alone just like the old days.

We actually like train travel except for:

No windows to open.....Air conditioning failure in mid summer.....
High fares..... (cheaper by car for 2+).....
Unexpected delays.......
People refusing to vacate your booked seat.....
Expensive refreshments.........(we take our own)
No Railcard savings on cheapest tickets.......
The number of phones etc in the "silent" carriage....
Less comfort than a car.........
Inconsiderate passengers - feet on seats, one person spreads over whole table, noisy computers/PDAs/iPods/smelly food/bags on spare seats

Besides that it is fine....

I am 70years old and have children living 230 miles away. I still drive but would love to take the train. I did this a few months ago and arrived at Manchester to find the train had been cancelled it took me 5 hours to get from Manchester to Newport S Wales and even with a rail card the cost was prohibiting. How can we use public trtansport if we cannot rely on it

Never mind the trains, has anyone been on a bus lately? I have always used my car for any journey but now having reached the ripe old age of 60 I get a bus pass which entitles me to ride our buses for free! Taking advantage of this I took a bus to our local town centre and found myself sharing the bus with a crowd of foul mouthed, uncouth hoodies who ignored the no smoking rule for the whole of the journey and noisily discussed their drug taking habits, sexual preferences, recent visits to court etc. Anyone even looking round in their direction was left in no doubt what they were in for if they dared open their mouths to complain and this applied equally to the driver who no doubt had to put up with this sort of behaviour for the whole of his working day. No more public transport for me even if they paid me to get on!

The train is too expensive, subject to too many delays and overcrowded. There's never a train when you want one and to top it all the parking is £6 a day and i have no other way of getting to the station. I'd rather sit in a traffic queue in my own car then wait on a station or sit on a crowded train.

...if it took my children to school
...if it came back home after taking the children to school to pick up the P.E. kit they forgot in the mad dash to leave the house on time in the morning
...if it then took me to work
...if it popped home at lunch time to let my dog out
...if it went to Tesco's for the weekly shop on Sunday and had enough space for me, my children and my 12 bags of shopping

Even for pleasure, the train is so unreliable and expensive it's just not worth using it. My husband and I went to Paris via the Eurotunnel, which was fantastic, however to get there we had to take 2 trains (1 of which was cancelled and due to lack of staff at the station was not even announced!) by the time we eventually got to Waterloo we were totally shattered and stressed out! In complete contrast, the service in most european countries i.e. France, Germany, Italy, Prague, is SUPERB! Our service is still in the Victorian times, like the lines themselves, and should really be updated.
My Mum lives only 20 miles away from me in the next county and she can't get a train directly to my nearest station, she has to go to London first to come back up to get cross-country. It's ridiculous.
There are NO incentives whatsoever for me to use public transport of any description, I'd rather sit on the M1 for 45 minutes in roadworks in my warm car with my music playing than at a cold train station waiting for a train that may or may never come!

I'm starting university in September in Derby and I live in Mansfield (just outside Nottingham). It's 37 minutes to get to uni from my house by car, yet it takes 1 and a half hours by train because I have to catch a train to Nottingham from Mansfield and then wait around in Nottingham for one to Derby. Also, it costs me £9.90 a day to go from Mansfield - Nottingham then Nottingham-Derby and the trains don't run after 7:00pm (my lectures can finish at 8) it's just not practical for me to catch the train.

Simple! Emigrate to Switzerland!
Public Transport may not be cheaper there, but who minds paying a bit more if
- You have a fully integrated transport system that offers you
- One simple ticketing system covering the whole country, including public and private trains, public and private buses, even cable-cars and lake-steamers
- Timetables that are thought out: The bus arrives at the station a few minutes before the train leaves etc.
- Trains and buses actually run to time - a five-minute delay is a major event.
- Continuous improvements of the infrastructure by building new, larger stations, more capacity by doubling up lines, building of railway bypass lines round old bottlenecks, very modern rolling stock etc.
- Attracting more and more freight on to the railways, so freeing valuable road space and capacity.
- Investing the vast sums taken in road and fuel taxes back into the transport system, both road and rail. (The Swiss currently build not one but TWO trans-alpine tunnels one equal to, one larger than the Channel Tunnel with the aim of taking 30-40% of trans-alpine lorries off the roads).
Unfortunately, our politicians just do not have a clue what "public transport" even means, let alone making it work in the UK.... As to "integrated transport", well......

Oh dear, Come to Warwick, as a pensioner parking £3.00, train fare to London £10. Ok so you cannot return between 4.30and 6.30 but that is no poblem. I have to drive 14 miles to Warwick so I use a gallon of petrol, but compared with 8 gallons of petrol and £50 to park what a bargain.
Rod

I regularly have to travel to Birmingham. I have now resorted to using my car. When I tried to let the train take the strain I had to walk 20 mins to the station, land line train to Tottenham Hale (mostly very lucky to being able to squeeze in the carriage), underground to Kings Cross, Virgin Rail to Birmingham and then taxi to the office.

Invariably this would take me about 4 hours. Once it took me 5 hours when there was difficulty on the line. Another time the Virgin train was cancelled and I had to wait another hour for the next one. Car travel takes 3 hours door to door at the most. National Express takes nearly 5 hours, but I have to drive the car about 20 mins to the coach stop.

I would never use the train again i went away for christmas last
year thinking take the train give the car a rest and found out how
bad things are i have to pre book because i use a wheelchair cant
just hop on as the say take the train less strain i right dont think so

Most points have been covered already; hundreds of miles of track ripped up or no longer used, so it is two camel-rides to your nearest station; very expensive way of standing up for two hours and getting bounced about with someones garlic breath blowing at you whilst you listen to rap music from someone elses earphones that do not work properly.
You usually have to ask which train because the announcements are as clear as a pint of Guiness only to find later, that you are on the Northbound train when you should be going south .. or the more popular trick now is, the train does not stop at your station; you have to get off at the next big station and catch another train back to your stop!!
Now, we get to the excuses for train delays or cancellations;

1. There's snow on the line ... in Winter !! Yikes.
2. It's the wrong type of snow .. I suppose had it been Swiss snow, the train would be alright
3. There is ice on the track
4. There are leaves on the track ....... none of these things bothered steam trains, they had sand-boxes to drop sand in front of the wheels at the pull of a lever
5. Sheep on the line .. the wrong sort of sheep, ones that don't run away when a train comes
6. Mechanical fault .. (someone forgot to top it up with diesel last night)
7. Electrical fault . (they can't find the keys)

The list goes on .......
If .. the railways were affordable to all, If .. the trains could run on time, If .. there was a station in every town and If .. there was a seat for at least 7/8ths of the passengers, they may become viable.
At the moment, internal air travel is becoming a far better way of getting around.

Catching a train that should take about 15 minutes according to the timetable, always takes over 20 minutes. It is almost always late in the morning.

Many evenings it is delayed, or they come with excuses such as signal failure, or staff shortage.

When you do complain to the train providers, they don't want to know.

So, yes of course i would catch the train, if only....

Some music would be nice, im fed up reading the metro and staring out of the window as the rain hits it.

At least in my car i park underneath my work, have heating and my own choice of music.

I would use public transport a lot more if it was priced realistically. The cost is far too high and must put a lot of people off. Britian has one of the most expensive transport systems and also one of the poorest. We are not a third world country and our transport system should be far cleaner, safer and more reliable.

I have recently been to Europe and travelled by train. They must think we are a right shower to run such an expensive and ineffective railway service. The only reason it survives is because of frequent business travellers who work for companies that don't care what they pay for travel. WAKE UP BRITAIN (to loosely quote Lady Houseman?). Should we re nationalise?

I have not been on a train for many years as it is so expensive. I do use the tube as I live in London but the problem here is the price of parking in the station car parks, if there is one. I live 2 miles from any tube station and do not always feel safe to travel by bus after dark as I would have about 1/2 mile to walk home.
The Metropolitan line blasts out hot air around my legs in summer and cold air in winter.
There is no guarantee that one's tube for that day will turn up. So many lines are suspended leaving customers stranded.
I have a Freedom pass for the tube which I use but I cannot understand the expensive ticketing system on the overground railway.
SMH London

I live in a village a few miles from Sudbury. The village is ‘served’ by a bus once per week. I drive 27 miles to work because there is no viable alternative. There does not appear to be a service which would allow me to carry my bicycle on the bus otherwise I would cycle to Sudbury and then from the bus stop in Ipswich.

I had the dubious pleasure of utilising the First Great Eastern (now 'One') train service from Sudbury into Liverpool Street for 3 years. The service was affected in the mornings when the carriages could not get from Colchester to Sudbury. It has also been affected by landslip, tree falls and, on one memorable occasion, by a car skidding onto the rails at a level crossing and being hit by the train! During the periods of time when I have stood on platform 1 at Marks Tey waiting for the westbound service into London, I noted that the service going east towards Ipswich and Harwich was frequently delayed for a multitude of reasons.

When the Sudbury branch line is not running, again due to a multitude of excuses/reasons there is a replacement bus service from Sudbury to Marks Tey - a most unpleasant and laboured journey on an uncomfortable and, in my opinion, unsuitable double-decker bus operated by Chambers Coaches of Bures. In summary, without being overly dramatic, I dread having to use the train to get to and from work ever again!

So, commuters should be encouraged to ditch their cars and take to the trains... Then why charge more for peak travel? How is it encouraging me to take the train to work when it costs more than during the day? For me it's not an option anyway - I drive approx 30 miles each way to work, taking around an hour each way. If I don't drive (when the car is in the garage for example) I have a 5 minute walk to the station (fine), then a 40 minute train ride, then a 10 minute wait, then another 40 minute train ride, then a 10 minute bus ride. Of course, if the first train is late then I miss my connection and have to wait another 30 minutes, making me late for work. When I do take this journey I have to leave the house at about 07:30, and get home at about 20:00. Am I really expected to do that every day? I thought work-life balance and family life was being promoted more and more... As for the cost - about £40 per week to drive, about £60 for public transport. So I drive, and now I hear they want to start charging more for driving during peak hours... I can't afford to move closer to work, and can't get a job at similar pay closer to home. They want to charge more to drive during rush hour, and already do to take the train - how about I quit work and the government can support me instead?

Trains are too expensive to use for pleasure.
Just having returned from Italy, the contrast is amazing. Trains there run frequently all day (and well into the late evening), to wherever you want to go.
They are clean and exceedingly cheap compared with our fares. Consequently they are well used (so more trains run).

Being 'priced out of use' by all forms of transport in this country is another miraculous money spinner for the chancellor becuase he knows most people have to travel.

I have used the underground before to get to work in london when my cars in the garage but there's no direct route.

I have to walk 15 minutes to the station first then catch the train to
tottenham court road and then change lines and going to North acton then again walking to work from there takes 15 minutes
This takes a minimum 1hr 15-20mins.

When i take the car i get door to door service in a comfortable car with music i like and which is warm in the winter which takes a maximum 30 minutes.

I need some REAL reasons to want to catch public transport.

YES i admit i COULD be more enviromentally friendly, but y should i?
Im a (T-Total)student and i work, but why should i work my socks of to fund a non improving government transport system. For my first year at college i caught the train ... it ment i had to get up every morning at about 7ish catch a bus (in winter it would be cold and dark) and go WAIT in a trainstation with no roof, only to be pushed onto a train in no better manner than id say mcdonalds cattle get treated and then return home in the same way at about 6 pm and then catch a bus back and get in my house at 7, i did this for 5 days per week and then go to work for the weekend doing a similar routine (- the train) all so i could afford the train and bus and college. THINKING sack this i bought me a nice 1.2 clio quite E-friendly cheap on insurance £120 for tax, (not too bad) but, as a student i admit i struggle to find this. Only to find out i had another war with the government on how they spend my money. I've worked out that before i set of anywhere in my car in a morning i have paid £2.19 insurance 32p road tax and lets say £2 maintenance and depretitation in car value. £4.51 for my car to sit there then its 12p per mile so on a return trip to UNI (38m) it costs me about £4 so my days travel in my car costs me £8.50 the amount of that ive paid in tax is £2.43. the same journey by bus and train would cost me upto £7.40 (including student fares) where i would wait around from 6 in the morning to catch a bus to catch 2 trains to go 18 miles and then walk about 1-1.5 miles up hill to my uni. hey lets face it for an extra £20 pounds i could go to Amsterdam and back in the same time. lets face we are getting rogued .. how do i set up a new government ?

If I didn't have to drive in to the centre of a city to catch one - it somewhat defeats the object of the exercise if I have to fight with all of the city bound traffic simply so that I can get out of the city on a train.

Many people here complain that trains are too expensive - despite the truckfulls of taxpayers money that goes into subsidising them.

Many people (myself included) find driving their cars to be cheaper - despite the 400% tax on petrol, and that's with just one person on board, unlike trains the cost doesn't double when two travel together!

What does this tell you? Trains are fundamentally economically unviable without massive government distortion of the market.

Just because I have to drive (no alternative from where I live), why should money be confiscated from my pocket to help cover the cost of someone else using an expensive-to-run train?

Remove the subsidies - if trains cannot operate funded entirely by the people using them, they don't deserve to survive. Harsh, but fair.

The train is fine in theory, but being disabled, one isn't always sure of a seat, and invariably the trains are less than clean. Toilets are usually dirty or worse blocked by users etc. If you want us on public transport, then give us an integrated system which is clean, runs to schedule, and a guaranteed seat!

I think many people are missing the point regarding the trains and their variance on delays/cancellations, crowdidness. I commute daily, changing from an overground train to an underground train and have been for the past several years and have noticed varying factors over this time. I travel into the city from the south west and pay a weekly cost of £58.10 for the privilege and 212 for the month if I choose a monthly pass. This to me is quite reasonable considering I drive close to the station, park my car a 10 minute walk away and then happily go on my way. If I cant find parking or am going to work a little later, I park in the park & ride facility which takes me into town and then i walk from there.
If I took my car in to work, fuel would easily be £15 a day, congestion charge would be £8 a day and parking on top of that that can easily add to a minimum of £10 a day. That equates to £33 a day or £165 a week. Cancellations and delays occur on the trian network everyday, so do traffic jams, road works, accidents, diversions etc which also cause delays frequently. The only difference is, we have all become cosy in our own little world which we are afraid of getting out of ! People talk about radios and cd players in cars etc. MP3 players, personal radios etc do the same thing. I can also do some work on the train if I need to, whether its reading or note taking etc.
In every walk of life, choices are made. If you want to park at the station you will pay a premium, if you dont want to hear other peoples noise, buy your own iPOD, take an earlier train to beat the rush, take an alternative mode of transport for longer journeys, planes are now cheaper than trains on longer journeys......everything is a choice.
Before I get lambasted for my comments, I do own a car, a fuel guzzling beast which only does 15mpg. It was my choice to buy it, it is my choice to take the train to work, it is my choice to pay the fares, it is my choice to be held up in overcrowded cabins but I still do it. Why ? Because it is still cheaper than taking the car for any journey.
We shouldnt be criticising the train network too heavily as all public transport and more importantly its infrastructure has declined in its own environment for many years.
The road network, fuel prices, toll roads, bus routes, frequency of buses, age of vehicles, prices etc have all been on the wane for many years. As a proud nation we are sometimes a victim of our own success. Many of the blogs have stated how good the good old days where ! The area of problem is the past govts. not having the forecast of analysis to realise what will happen in 10, 20, 30 years time. Look at the M25, 3 lanes was never enough to manage the future traffic of this country, car production and sales were massively on the increase but no one thought of what impact this would have on our road network in the future. This has happened to the train and buses infrastructure and we are now paying the price for past incompetencies.

I am a car lover and would love to use it more often. The public transport is no way near perfect and neither is nearly everything we do in life that is outside of our control but this direct impact can be changed and lobbying the correct groups of people is the way forward. There are many different ways of combatting these areas of issues but it has to take someone in power to realise it. This is unheard of over the past 20 years so we should give a fir trial to all. Example:
I read in the Metro that the govt. are thinking of charging road tax depending on the car. My car would be classed in the biggest band which would be £1500 a year. Surely I can agree with that if I do 50000 miles in my car a year. Realistically, I do about 7000 a year. Doesnt make sense does it ? A car with a lesser band may do 60000 a year and release more quantative harmful emissions over the course of that year but gets charged less ! Thought is never put into these strategies and that is what makes us moan !

I travel into London each day by train from my home in Essex. Distance 31 miles. I walk a mile to the station and another mile at the other end to my office. I almost always have to stand on the train in the mornings although I do usually manage a seat in the evenings. The trains are old and in the heat of Summer unbearably hot. No aircon, just tiny windows that open a bit. The trains are often short formed, frequently late, nobody ever tries to keep us informed, except when everything is running smoothly when they tell us to read the safety notices! For this privilege I pay GBP2,300 per year! And don't tell me to travel some other way, I do not have an option!