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Went into London last night to see the mighty Tenacious D (brilliant!) so I let the train trake the strain. Parked at Leigh on Sea, straight into Fenchurch Street, onto the District Line, out at Hammersmith, no problems, it's only 35 miles or so. Getting in took a concerning 90 minutes on the train, getting home took a staggering 2 and a half hours door to door and I didn't get a seat.

Had I known where to go and park I would have driven, but Ken doesn't like cars and tells us how great public transport is, so how can it take 2.5 hours to travel 35 or so miles?

RAC route planner (which, I notice, has recently had a makeover - 3D interactive views of routes, how very TomTom-ish ) reckons 89 minutes by road from "Leigh on Sea" to "Hammersmith", so 90 minutes by train doesn't seem so bad. It's also pretty much how long the journey should take according to the c2c timetable and the TfL journey planner - average of 50 minutes for Leigh on Sea to Fenchurch Street, and 35 minutes from there to Hammersmith, plus a few minutes walking time here and there. As for the return journey, I'm guessing there were either delays due to signalling/track/rolling stock problems, or you managed to get totally out of sync with all the trains and ended up having to wait an above-average length of time for each one, or some combination of the two.

For what it's worth, it took me 2 hours to drive the 25 miles home tonight, a journey which normally only takes 45-50 minutes... based purely on that sample of one crappy journey, the question could just as easily be asked - why does anyone use cars?

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Chris

The reason people do not use trains is because of the prices. I lloked at three options for going back home to Preston too see the family Train, Plane and Bus here are the prices, prices are for two adults, 1 child and 1 infant.

Train


See that open return price £740.00 !!!! I do not want to buy the bloody train !!!

Bus



Plane



Its a no brainer, i'll be letting the plane take the strain.

I know the seating issue is very bad, but at least you were able to use the time to do something productive like read.

I did a journey on sunday (Canterbury - Felixstowe at an average 25mph) so I know it can get a bit frustrating though.

The government needs to get its act together and build at the minimum, crossrail.

EFC I'll lool up your journey.

OK
Manningtree - Euston
Saver Return £30 - off peak
Walk on fare - but you can get the 0922 to Liverpool Street on the 29th then get underground to euston.

You've left it too late for cheap singles so the cheapest is a Value Advance First Single A
£49.00 London - Preston on the 1110 arriving 1415
Not bad considering you get free tea, complementries, snack box, more room than in car.

Coming back Preston - London
Value advance single C
£15.50 on the 1744

Underground to London on the return we got earlier, then 2130 from London arriving manningtree at 2233.

£94.50 in total, with some luxury first class travel, and had you tried longer ago it could have been under £50.

Now why would you go by plane when you have drive at both ends, costing far more?

In fact your own screenshot shows £150 for saver return, which is any off peak train and coming back any time within a month. That's probably still cheaper than the specific planes option if you walk at both ends (Manningtree isn't that big, I pass through it on my commute).

I don't think his family lives in the railway station.

I had a get-together with some friends earlier in the year. One couple living in London found it was cheaper to hire a car for 4 days and pay the fuel to drive to Yorkshire and back than get the train. This was booking well in advance.

Nice one!

Trains are great IF you live near a main line and are going somewhere else on that main line. I live near Sherborne, Dorset and Mrs Johnny went through a period of working from home with roughly one meeting a week in either Oxford, central London or Rugby. London was a lot easier by train, whereas the other two destinations would have been impossible to achieve by train, full stop.

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

I think this is by far the most important and often overlooked part of the public transport debate. The vast majority of the population do NOT live within walking distance of a railway station.

My commuting options are:

1) Drive 20 miles north-east which takes 30 minutes in rush hour. I can park freely at both ends.

2) Catch a bus at 8:06 (first bus of the day from our village) which goes 6 miles south-west! Get train at about 8:30 to go 25+ miles north-east. Catch a bus across town from station to about 1 mile from where I work and then walk for 20+ minutes. I would be lucky to arrive by 9:45.

The car is MORE environmentally friendly, faster, more reliable (I've been late once in 2.5 years) and causes less load on the entire transport system so has less impact on others.

I bet about 80% live within cycling distance. I bet more people are within walking distance to a railway station than an airport, yet people go by planes.

I know that Manningtree station is at a tangent, but Mannigtree is probably the second smallest place on the line. It also hjas a large car park.


I presume that you live in the sticks outside of a town then. I imagine road pricing would not affect you then.

[same old answer to same old conversation]

Public transport works best when it is used in combination with private transport, otherwise called using the right tool for the job.

I travel to London often, and would rather not stay away overnight too often:

- 6:30 cab or car from home to station, usually car as there is a big car park there, £6.00 all day.
- 7:00 train to Euston, £56 is about as much as I have paid all year.
- Arrive Euston 9:13, been late once this year.
Walk to the office in London, I could get a cab but I have legs that work, it's 25 minutes and I can pick up a cup of coffee and still be in the office before 10.00
- 16:45 leave the office
- 17:46 Leave Euston, the return leg has varied between £12 and £56 this year, depending on when I book it, whether I've used first class etc.
- 19:57 arrive at station
- 20:15 arrive home

Total cost around £120 worst case, nearly 7 hours usable time in the London office, 4 hours train time I can use to work if I want to, or can use the time to watch videos on my DVD player, or sleep.

Driving ... 4 hours each way? If I was lucky. Using the time to do some work, sleep, or watch films? Not possible. Getting nearly 7 hours work done in the day as well? Not without staying over. Hotel cost? I won't stay in crap dives, so we are looking at c. £100

Why would anyone ever drive this journey?

Well, sometimes it works - if there are a couple of us going from the north, we could car share (possibly even share the driving).

Everything in balance.

[/same old answer to same old question]

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

There are four of us travelling not 1, I obtained the prices from the trainline.com, now when I asked it to find me the cheapest way, why did it not? I cannot be arsed searching round when I have asked for the CHEAPEST way. As far as the plane is concerned i will leave my car at Stansted £18.30 and we will be picked up from Blackpool FREE, total cost £70.23. no changes of train, no underground, no horrible gits sitting next to me, and the most important two bits, the plane is CHEAPER & FASTER.

That's one thing which I have found annoying about train bookings, I have been told before that "if you book 4 months in advance then you might get a reasonable price" or something like that, but why should I have to? I can't plan my life that far in advance! What if you're ill? You would have to re-book an expensive rate ticket when you recover and they probably wouldn't refund your original one.

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Andrew.

Oops, in which case it depends if you have a family railcard.

The cheapest way does not find the cheapest way due to some stupid ATOC rule. Unlike France they're actually told not to split it to reduce the price. MPs seem to encourage this.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1154104247,31062,

Remember a plane you can't turn up 1 minute befoer and jump on.

Looked at Money Saving Expert, it advised me to use National Rail Enquiries, which I did.

What a surprise on the same info I entered into the trainline.com NRE said NO TRAINS ARE AVAILABLE LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL no wonder people do not use public transport

There was a set, props and a story line. The Anti Christ on electric guitar, Colonel Sanders on drums and Charlie Chaplin on bass all while playing in hell. The devil popped by too! I didn't catch the drummers real name, but Jesus he was good, you have to be to drum Grohl's drums like that.
Great night out.

I usually book between 24 hours and 1 week in advance - and for the ONE journey I was unable to make this year, I got a refund less £5.00 admin fee.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

We currently have record post-Beeching passenger numbers, so a lot of people must think it's a good idea.

Personally, taking the train normally has something to do with alcohol consumption

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

To me the main problem is price. I make a lot of use of trains professionally, but almost never privately (Except for Stafford to Birmingham which is MUCH quicker than driving).

Stafford is on the main west coast drag and anywhere in the North West or the run to London is very fast - but stupidly expensive. I can get to Euston in 1hr 25 mins by train, and as my meetings are normally at places like CentrePoint is by far the best way to get there BUT it costs £140 standard class or over £200 first class!!!!

that's the walk on fare, if you booked before 6:00pm the night before it's much cheaper.

I'm not saying public transport is the only answer, but used properly it does make sense. Air transport within the UK similarly makes sense for certain requirements but not always.

I still think the best, bar none, way of travelling into Europe is the Eurostar. I'll be the grinning idiot in first class in January on the way to Disneyland Paris!

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

Disney in Paris in January.................no way!

Orlando, yes, California, maybe, Paris.....no chance.

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Speed camera policy Kills