Bus fare - How bloody much?!

[Sara_H]

I find prices for public transport a big rip off in general...where I live in Aberdeen you are £5 for a return trip of 4 miles....and they want folks to ditch their cars....no chance when they charge that

I think its a rip off too. People compare the price to the cost of a car, but the two aren't really comparable as with a car you tend to get a door to door service. As my OH is fond of pointing out a bus picks you up from somewhere you aren't and drops you off somewhere you don't want to be. I wouldn't mind payin extra if it was as convenient as driving. But it isn't.
As I said, the taxi from Whitby to RHB was £2 cheaper than the bus, and he dropped us off right at our tents (to te amusement of the other campers). He was making a profit, so if the taxi driver can do it at that price, why cant the bus?

 

[Sara_H]

A season ticket for me to commute to London including the underground but not the High Speed trains is currently £4500. If i added up all the costs of petrol and keeping a car to do the same journey and all the time it would take against the train. It would actually cost far more.

A one off or short term ticket always sounds like it costs a fortune but in the long term it really doesn't.

You're right of course. I don't run a car and am much better off financially as a result. But I think the problem is that there is no incentive for those who own cars to leave them at home and use public transport as inevitably they're aready paying out for the running costs of a car, the fuel part of the journey ig generally cheaper than public transport.
I'd very happily go completely car free, but with th OH responsible for children who go to school 60 miles away, he isn't prepared to forgo the car.

 

[Noodley]

People compare the price to the cost of a car, but the two aren't really comparable...

He was making a profit, so if the taxi driver can do it at that price, why cant the bus?

There you go, you answered your own question without realising it

 

[Sara_H]

There you go, you answered your own question without realising it

Have I? Whats the answer then?

 

[cd365]

Buy a car?

 

[Accy cyclist]

Part of the price we pay for living in a civilized country.

I bet you have a bus pass. You give me the impression that you have one.

 

[Monsieur]

Isn't it only poor people who travel by bus?

So long since I've been on a bus I've forgotten what you do when you get on one - can you still smoke on them?

 

[ComedyPilot]

What's a bus?

Towns round here are littered with the things carrying people short distances (when they could cycle or walk?) yet people living in villages are treated IMO with contempt and served with bus routes that are sometimes once a week....

 

[welsh dragon]

I wish we had things carrying people around. But alas I tend to be used as the loca, taxi by my daughter and grandchildren, and don't say that's what grannies are for.argh.

 

[Sara_H]

Isn't it only poor people who travel by bus?

You must be joking - I had to take an extra job to afford the bus fare in North Yorkshire.

 

[P.H]

I don't think it's possible to reduce bus fares without increasing the subsidy. Who is going to pay for that? What political party is going to put that in a manifesto? Even attempts to shift the balance of car costs from capital to running costs have always been thwarted. The technology exists to tax car usage, but the car lobby is so strong that it will never happen. You could end free parking to start with, supermarkets, workplaces, towns, someone is paying for these acres of tarmac, why isn't it those using them?

 

[ASC1951]

.... Even attempts to shift the balance of car costs from capital to running costs have always been thwarted. The technology exists to tax car usage, but the car lobby is so strong that it will never happen....

Do you not realise that two thirds of the cost of petrol or diesel is tax?

 

[Puddles]

As I said, the taxi from Whitby to RHB was £2 cheaper than the bus, and he dropped us off right at our tents (to te amusement of the other campers). He was making a profit, so if the taxi driver can do it at that price, why cant the bus?

Because the Taxi driver only drives when he is being paid to drive by his passengers, the bus has to drive even if it has no passengers it goes round and round its route even if no one gets on or it is very very quiet.

The Taxi driver just sits and waits not using any fuel if it is very very quiet.

Are Taxi drivers not self employed (I could be wrong on this) so no fare no wage, the bus driver is employed and so no fare he still needs paying.


If it were just one person in the taxi it would not be cheaper than the bus. Some fares are a bit inducing I will admit when I have peered!

 

[Black Sheep]

it's £5 round trip into town for me.

if I pay the preserved railway £20 a year I get 3 free rides and discounted rides to and from town working out to be around the same!

 

[Cycling Dan]

Buy a car?

Think cheaper mate. Not more expensive.