Fuel Prices

[portzy]

Milk

Carling Extra Cold?. £2.50 a pint at Haven Holidays Fleetwood!

I might be an odd one out here but, I still think the 'smile per mile per pound' effect is worth it. For me petrol could double what it is now, I'd still cough up.

Portzy.

 

[219]

Most days I NEED my car as I have to lug a lot of equipment around with me and have to be able to respond immediately to call outs , BUT , on days when I am not on call I actually LIKE to take the train . The cost and the journey time are just about the same and I find it very relaxing being able to spend an hour or so just reading a newspaper or whatever before work rather than having to concentrate on driving a car.

 

[jeremytaylor]

I agree with Rose Chap.

The way we all live our lives now means we will not be able to turn the clock back, and go back to living just down the road from the factory/docks/ or wherever else we work, without suffering a massive drop in living standards, which let's face it just won't happen. The solution will be in improved technology providing low pollution vehicles so that we can carry on more or less as we are. I predict improvements in battery technology that allow electrical vehicles to be charged overnight using renewable energy (each house having its own mini wind turbine with PV panel), so that the actual vehicle use will not pollute at all. (But then what excuse would the government use to tax cars??)

I mean, with all the out-of-town shopping centres, business parks, housing estates remote from town centres, etc. that we have built, how can these ever all be accessed by public transport?

The cost of puiblic transport is way too high and will never reduce now that they are privatised. The cost of motoring is, dare I say it, too low. We mostly need cars for those times when public transport is inadequate or unavailable, and so once you own a car and are hooked into depreciation and other fixed costs, the cost of fuel compared to the cost of public transport for any one journey means the car is invariably cheaper.

And road pricing is a non-starter. The government might as well just increase the price of fuel - this is a far more efficient form of pricing for our use of the road.

 

[Richard W]

I change my job locations regularly and in the last 2 years have worked in Basingstoke, Cobham and Wilmslow.

To get to any of those places would mean a minimum of 2 hours on a train and to avoid the nightmare of public transport to any of those places and to have the 'freedom' of my own space (even if it's not moving!) is worth much more than the price of fuel at the moment.

 

[219]

I live out in the countryside in North Ayrshire and work out of Hamilton in North Lanarkshire , diametrically across Glasgow and about 34 miles by the shortest route. Probably just about as out of the way as most people will get.

To drive to work I either travel up the A737 to join the M8 at Glasgow Airport and battle my way across Glasgow through the rush hour traffic before changing to the M74 and coming off at the Raith interchange (which is always congested) less than a mile from my place of work .

Otherwise , I can take a route across country lanes , circumnavigating Glasgow on its south side , eventually coming down through East Kilbride and into Hamilton - a similar distance , less traffic but probably more wear and tear on the car than driving along a motorway.

Either way will not take any less than an hour and the motorway route often takes longer due to congestion.

If I fill the tank on my 300TE-24 with typically £55 worth of fuel and just drive to work and back without making any other journeys I will be very lucky to get a full week's travel out of it . It is fair to say that my daily journey by car costs me a tenner or slightly more. That's before I consider things like road tax , insurance and maintenance . Depreciation is not a factor because I would never buy a new car - my 300 cost me £750 just recently , my 190 cost me £300 and my Ponton cost me £100 all those years ago - each of my cars is still worth what I paid for them at a minimum and , because I generally improve my cars as I own them , actually appreciate over the years. So I'll call my trave cost a tenner a day.

If I decide not to take the car , the railway station (Glengarnock) is about a mile and a half down a country lane - walkable on a nice day , easy bike ride or more usually I drive to the station and leave the car there . At the other end a 5 minute walk or 2 minute cycle from the station to work.

The train journey takes about the same time as the car journey and costs £8.10 for a 2nd class return ticket , bought daily (If I were to buy a weekly , monthly or season ticket this would come down , but i don't use the train frequently enough to warrant this - max 2 or 3 days a week).

OK , trains are sometimes delayed but they are more reliable than traffic and you arrive stress free ( I usually do in the car as well though).

On a purely cost and time comparison there is not all that much difference.

 

[inder]

If the price of fuel is that much of an issue why not get a more economical car?

Yes it's expensive but so are so many other things like mineral water and going out clubbing (and paying ridiculous prices for drinks when you're out clubbing).

You do have a choice.

 

[jeremytaylor]

On a purely cost and time comparison there is not all that much difference.

So you don't have to pay to park at the station? My station charges £3.00 a day, which is another deterent to using the train.

I used to get the train to work and keep a car at work for my business mileage (as well as a car at home), but the extra cost of doing so became so much I gave up.

 

[anarchy-inc]

If the price of fuel is that much of an issue why not get a more economical car?

Yes it's expensive but so are so many other things like mineral water and going out clubbing (and paying ridiculous prices for drinks when you're out clubbing).

You do have a choice.

The question is; Where do you draw the line? Sure, we could all go out and get more fuel efficient cars (notice I did no say smaller engine as this does not allways mean more efficient) and therefore spend less on fuel. Once we have these cars we save a little every month and then Gordon "Tax-Alot" Brown raises the duty and eventually, we are right back where we started. Eventually the price will reach a point that will make the country slowly grind to a halt. There are reasons why economists look so closely at inflation. The problem here is that it's just inflation on one product. For now . . .

 

[smartbrabus]

Rising fuel costs are one of the main reasons I started cycling the 3 miles to work, plus the fact that the engine doesn't get a chance to warm up in that distance... The journey takes no longer on the bike than it does in the car (and I get some exercise for free)!

 

[big x]

Public transport can be cheaper than driving... recently I went from Somerset to Hull by train via London.Booked online 1 day in advance and the fare was only £22.50 http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ I left the Mercs at home on this occasion.I live in the sticks but there is a bus every 2 hours to the station.
If I go up to London and use a bus the fare is only 80 pence using my oyster card.
It's amazing how people don't think through the true cost of motoring yet are prepared to knock the costs of public transport.

adam

 

[219]

If the price of fuel is that much of an issue why not get a more economical car?
You do have a choice.

I'm not sure if that comment was aimed at me or someone else.

I most certainly am not complaining about the price of fuel , on the contrary , I was trying to illustrate that the train is , in fact , very comparable when it comes to the day to day cost of getting to work.

As it happens I do have a more economical car : the 190E , but since I have to carry around a large amount of photographic and video equipment when on call I need a large estate car and they don't come any better than the 124.


I know there are Diesels , but to me Diesels all drive like tractors besides which even the ones that superficially seem quiet always cause me to end up with a sore head at the end of the day.

I was just trying to say that on days when I do not need the car I am quite happy to use the train which I find a pleasant and cost effective alternative.

 

[219]

So you don't have to pay to park at the station? My station charges £3.00 a day, which is another deterent to using the train.

No , I don't pay at the station car park - nor do I know of any that charge around here.

Is that normal where you come from ?

 

[big x]

What I do get cross about is the cost of public transport being so high that it doesn't encourage people not to use their cars. We will pay whatever it takes to use our cars until public transport is a viable and cheap alternative.

So you mean the roads will be clear for you to use your own car ?

adam

 

[BTB 500]

So you don't have to pay to park at the station? My station charges £3.00 a day, which is another deterent to using the train.

Blimey, you've got it easy ... £6 a day to park at my station (Woking)!

 

[BTB 500]

nor do I know of any that charge around here.

A location in your profile is quite helpful in this sort of discussion!

 

[219]

Modified now , though I had stated in my posting exactly where I live.

 

[pammy]

So you mean the roads will be clear for you to use your own car ?

adam

er - no!! far from it, I never even intimated that.

My people are getting touchy aren't they

 

[jeremytaylor]

Blimey, you've got it easy ... £6 a day to park at my station (Woking)!

I'm talking Cobham. I guess Woking is so much because it's in the town centre, and so has to charge the same as the shoppers car parks (per day).

Cobham station is right on the outskirts, next to open fields, so to charge £3 is extortion.

 

[DieselE]

I hope I never have to give up my car and get on bus or a train with a bunch of other people.

I've got absolutely no problem in driving a hybrid battery powered zero emission hydrogen fuel cell fresh air propelled car though, providing its as nippy and comfortable as I'd want a car to be.

I think (hope!) the future doesn't lie in forcing our working practices back 50 years or making us all get public transport, but lies in improving the technology and increasing the efficiency of what we've got and what we're developing.

Slightlu OT I know but an article in the Professional Engineer (Magazine of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers) pointed out that when the energy used in producing hybrid and fuel cell cars and disposing of them is taken into account they use roughly six times the amount of energy than the least fuel efficient current cars. They may be more eco-friendly at point of use but not overall.

 

[PJH]

No , I don't pay at the station car park - nor do I know of any that charge around here.

Is that normal where you come from ?

Essex, commuter land:-
Not only do commuters have to pay to use station car parks, but the surrounding areas are either residents only parking or a single yellow line with a time restriction.
So you would have to park at least a 15 minute walk away from the railway station.