WTF? British Rail.

Is the right answer. Unfortunately it's not always possible to get it
approved.

 

Once you have the car and it's a couple of years old, pretty much the
more you drive the cheaper the cost per mile is.

 

As there is no such thing as British Rail, who ae you complaining about ?

Now go back and look atg fares and times, if you need to be in the city
for 09:00, yes, it is expensive. Its a captured market.

Jean and I are commuting to London on a regular basis at the moment.

66ukp for a return ticket. No brainer, by travelling out side core hours .

Driving to and in London is *not* an option. IMO

 

You have neglected the time it takes you to get there, hanging around
traffic jams and being crushed by taxis and buses (and rammed by push bikes)

 

It's something like £120 return for the train from here to London.

Plus the hassle of getting across London from Paddington to Holborn.

I'm not allowed 1st class, so I tend to drive in - especially as you
don't pay congestion charge in a Pious.

Despite the reputation, driving in central London hasn't been a big
issue to me - I drove from Euston to Holborn in the rush hour a few
weeks ago, and seemed to be just about the only car on the road.

 

here: have the old dusted-of[1] Voice-of-Reason tag.

[1] I used my Invisible Hand complete with the
duster-of-the-fucking-obvious to do that, by the way

 

*Nods*

Mate over the road fails to get below 50mpg, and on economy runs gets
well over 60. He's managed something like 240 miles to a tank before.

 

Except that he's not strictly correct. The train companies are in
business to run a franchise that is dictated down to the last dot and
crossed "t" by the DfT. The DfT specify how many trains each company
can lease and also dictate what trains should run on each departure.
The TOC's objective is to either pay a ludicrously high franchise
premium as demanded by the DfT (i.e. HM Treasury) or else survive on
the least subsidy (where a premium is financially impossible). Yes
the TOCs try to make a profit for their shareholders as well but not
all of them do. You only need to look at the ridiculous mess that is
the East Coast main line franchise (collapsed twice due to
unsustainable financial targets) to see that something is badly amiss.

For all of those screaming about fare levels please note that it is
government policy that farepayers pay half the total cost of
supporting the rail industry. If you think fare levels are bad now
just wait and see what they will be like in about 3 years time. This
assumes no change on the part of the Tories if they win the election.
If they decide that support for the rail industry should fall (and
that would be in line with their overall budgetary objective) then
you'll get higher fares, fewer services and probably reduced
investment. If Labour win we'd probably get a variation on this theme
so I'm not banging a political drum here.

And for those in London just wait and see what the Mayor delivers in
terms of a 2010 fares rise and revised fares structure for Pay as you
Go on National Rail. Oh once the dear old Tory Party Conference is out
of the way, of course, wouldn't want any bad news spoiling things!

 

heheh, in my defence it's just rush hour motorway miles.

 

Walk, its quicker

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Don't think that this has not been noted for future reference.

 

Eh? It's about 3 miles. On the tube it's five stops on the bakerloo and
then one on the central; 15 minutes or so.

 

I was young and impressionable. My school was next to a railway line.

 

Way above inflation fare rises you mean?

Just like in 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004,..., ...

 

Have you seen how quickly Bruce walks?

Especially when you say "It's your round" to him. )

 

Only that I remember the Evening Standard headlines year in, year out,
and yes, I am well aware that it's Daily Mail-lite! )

[snip well researched proper details - very unlike most of ukrm]

 

He's a bit of a spoilsport, really.....

 

Same way the technology correspondents can. Brass neck.

/me proposes new aphorism: Those that can, do. Those that can't report.

Media in oversimplification shocker.

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<Sidles away, stage left>

 

and this is different from any other area of journalism, how?