Public Transport

Do you ever use public transport or not if you do what do you make of it overall?

I use buses and the Newcastle metro to get around, they're okay, better than what i've seen in other places of the country like Glasgow.

london tranpsort sucks, boris "the Blade" johnson has improved it since Kenny Livvy fucked it up tho

i use it a lot where i live and its generally good but not today as the buses are on strike

public transport where i live is about as popular as shit on your shoes.

I would love to use public transport to get to work. A nice hour on the train would allow me to rip through books like there was no tomorrow, brilliant.... Only it's not brilliant, it's rubbish...

I live about 35 miles from London and i could, technically, get a bus from my village into the local town (£1.50) for 3 miles of chewing gum covered seats.

Then the train from the station to London Victoria, stopping at every damn station it bloody well can and sometimes those not even on the route manifest, just for jokes. (£9.50) This is about 30 miles and takes about 55 mins.

London Victoria to workie-woos can take me about 30 mins to walk, which i quite enjoy because it takes me past Buck Palace, the Ritz, near Saville Row if i like... What can i say, it's a beautiful walk in and costs nothing. Of course, i carry an umbrella but sometimes take the underground if it's raining really heavily, if so that would set me back whatever the hell a journey using my Oyster card costs.. (£1.50) i think.

Then a pleasant 10 hours at work finishing at 05:30 the next day. Alas i cannot use my railcard from the previous day to get back so have to buy a new one and guess what, that's another £10. Then back to my local station and another £1.50 on the bus.

So that's a total of £22.50 and about 2 hours each way, just to get to work and back. Not even getting into the fact that sometimes the bus is late or just doesn't turn up at all and of course the British Rail system and it's punctual trains... Oh no, wait.

Of course, i could jump in my trusy Toyota Yaris and spend 2 hours-2.5 hours getting into London but only a mere 1 hour getting back at 05:30 in the morning. Not to mention, being dry from the rain, pretty darn comfortable and able to listen to music as loud as i want.. Did i mention that it would only cost me about £10 in petrol to get to work and back. Under HALF the cost of shabby, unreliable public transport..

Pfffttt! I say. Especially to all those people trying to get us using public transport and all those people who say they can't afford a car. No wonder you can't afford one! You're being ripped off by crappy services!

The only downside to driving is the stress of sitting in traffic on the way in and the fact that i don't get a chance to fly through my books anymore.


Yay, 100th Post

Nope, very rarely use public transport due to location and the hours it runs.

Mod's calculations however are a bit simplified and biased in favour of driving a car however. Don't forget a car costs more to run than just fuel. There is tax, MOT, servicing, insurance, breakdown of parts and consumables (eg. tyres, oil, filters, bulbs, etc) let alone the oft forgotten cost of depreciation

I live in London and haven't used public transport for over two years.
I cycle most of the time but if I can't be bothered or i'm too pissed, then I use mini cabs.

I use public transport to travel into the city centre from where I live on the outskirts. From where I live buses run frequently into the city, and cost less than parking charges even if you could find somewhere to park. A pleasant experience? definately not! Especially if you have to travel on the upper deck of buses where you are more likely to encounter the groups of youths sprawled across the rear seats, whose main method of communication seems to be swearing as much and as loudly as possible to make themselves heard above the constant soundtrack of rap or house music(???) played through tiny and tinny mobile phone speakers. This may make the tunes (I use the term losely) sound completely distorted and unrecognisable as music but they seem to feel it their duty to inflict- sorry share- it with everyone else. Tobacco may have been banned on buses these days (theoreticaly) but that doesn't seem to apply to the constant atmosphere of more 'herbal' substances. Still I suppose you're guaranteed to arrive in 'happy' mood.

Totally agree Red, over the year my car costs £250 in insurance, £56 for MOT and something like £150 Road Tax. So definately agree it adds up ovet the year. But you get a little 1.3 like my Toyota and not only is the MPG wicked awesome but the damn Jap car JUST WON'T DIE! To be fair i never have been a boy racer, i don't have anything to prove and drive pretty sensibly most of the time. I don't mount kerbs or drop the clutch, drive in 2nd at 30 miles an hour etc...

Seriously though in most 'decent' modern cars you hardly ever have to change anything if you look after your car. I get it serviced every 10,000 miles and do bi-monthly maintenance on it myself. Like Dad's of old would do every Sunday. It's not hard, just go and get a HAynes from Halfords or somewhere, learn about your car and maintain it. It costs nothing and you learn loads at the same time. You also have the the GOD-GIVEN right to mock people in fancy pants cars broken down at the side of the road who clearly never listened to the salesperson when they said "Now go easy for the first 1000 miles or so".

(07-11-2009 02:26 )Red Wrote:  Nope, very rarely use public transport due to location and the hours it runs.

Mod's calculations however are a bit simplified and biased in favour of driving a car however. Don't forget a car costs more to run than just fuel. There is tax, MOT, servicing, insurance, breakdown of parts and consumables (eg. tyres, oil, filters, bulbs, etc) let alone the oft forgotten cost of depreciation