Public transport, a bit crap isn't it?

[thelawnet]

My son is doing an 11+ tomorrow in Kingston. We live in Woking. He needs to be there between 8:45 and 9:15 for a 9:30 start. There are no direct trains but you can get a train to Surbiton, which takes 11 minutes normally, but because it's rush hour there aren't any fast trains, and you have to take a slow train which takes half an hour. From Surbiton it's about two miles, and there are lots of buses but none that go quite the right way, and the traffic will undoubtedly be horrible, and then there's a walk at the end.

No bikes allowed on the train at that time of morning.

So it turns out it's quicker to cycle, a little over 15 miles....

Hopefully no ice on the roads. Have done the route quite a few times, Woking - Ottershaw - Addlestone - Weybridge - Walton-on-Thames - Hampton Court Road - Kingston.

Don't usually do it in rush hour, but it should be ok.....

 

[defy-one]

good luck.... brings back memories of my son taking the Buckinghamshire and Berkshire exams

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Not crap at all - absolutely first class in comparison to the public transport you get in many rural areas.

Last(quite big) village we lived in had 1 bus per week at 11am every Friday to Kendal.

The village we live in now has no public transport.

 

[Drago]

He's gonna arrived pumped and alert, sweet.

 

[ianrauk]

One of my brothers has recently moved to Woking. It's a nice 40 mile ride from Orpington taking in Box Hill.

 

[jarlrmai]

there is no direct bus or train for my 10 mile commute, the train takes double the time I can ride it in and you have to change trains.

 

[ray7]

Not crap at all - absolutely first class in comparison to the public transport you get in many rural areas.

Last(quite big) village we lived in had 1 bus per week at 11am every Friday to Kendal.

The village we live in now has no public transport.

Did they not have one coming back?
Where I live when we moved in we had a morning and afternoon bus 2 days a week, now we have one in the morning (10 am) and one in the afternoon (4 pm) either 5 or 6 days a week (not sure if it runs Saturday as I don`t use it)

thelawnet - hope your son does well.

Ray

 

[Chris S]

I live about 3 miles from Birmingham City Centre, it takes me about 15 minutes to cyle there. Birmingham has a good public transport infrastructure but I can easily spend that waiting for a bus.

 

[thelawnet]

He's gonna arrived pumped and alert, sweet.

He wasn't the one riding! He was sitting on the back of my bike.

Only problem was it was -5 when we set out and -3 when we got there, and no amount of clothes (well possibly specialist Arctic stuff) could keep you warm in that sitting still on the back of a bike for an hour. So he was pretty freezing when we got there.

He said it went ok, so we will wait and see.

They told us to get there at 12:00, as I kept checking my phone working out which train we would get, eventually let them out at at 12:28 , and we went straight to Surbiton station, just got down the steps at 12:40:45 as the 12:41 was leaving, got on the next one instead which stopped everywhere. Guard said 'you could have got the fast train'. 'No, we just missed it'.... Trains are annoying like that, get there 10 minutes early and you've wasted 10 minutes doing nothing, get there on time and you miss it.

So he just missed lunch at school so we went to Nandos instead, which took ages as they were doing some epic takeaway order, but eventually just dropped him back at school. He's singing Christmas carols at 5pm in the school choir at the church so couldn't really give him the afternoon off.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I used to live in Surrey as well. We had no bus service where I was, I would have to walk across country (and I mean very boggy and wellies left behind in mud type boggy and after any rain, it would not be passable) around 2.5 miles to get to the closest bus stop, further if a bridge was out.
You needed your timing spot on, becuase there was only 1 bus an hour. Taking the bus for the remaining 2 miles of the way would cost over £2 each way. With one bus an hour and having already walked 2.5 miles to get to a bus stop to wait for an hourly bus, I could often walk the entire distance before any buses would pass me at all, thus saving me £2 each way. Needless to say it was quicker and easier to cycle and people wonder why some families need a car per adult.

When I lived in the Lakes it was even more fun during the summer daytime hours. Bank Holiday weekends were the worst; we lived up 8 miles of single track road that every tourist wanted to drive up, look at and drive back again, signs saying unsuitable for caravans did not deter people. So we developed a system between our shifts at work and the only car we had. We had to get a 2nd key cut for the car otherwise it would not work. Weather permitting it was quicker to walk in the opposite direction, up onto the fells, then look back using High Street and drop into Pooley Bridge for work (a trip of around 13 miles and 3,500 foot of climbing (we were a lot fitter and a lot younger then)) than it for one of us to drive home and the other drive back to work. So basically if you drove to work, you walked home and vice versa on BH weekends. The person who got the late shift (walked in and) drove home after 11pm and could be home in less than 15 mins; during the day (and only on BH weekends) a 2 way trip could not be guarenteed to be completed in 3 hours between shifts! The other option, which only worked during tourist season was to use the steamer on the lake to take over half of the distance out for you and walk the remaining 4 miles home along the roads, but that costs a lot. The only public transport was a seasonal tourist steamer or the postman which you arranged in advance.

 

[wiggydiggy]

Its all in context really to your own circumstance - bus's in W.Yorkshire are widely criticised for being overpriced, yet I get free travel on any bus as I have a train pass. There is a route advantage as living near to a main road there are 6 different services I can use to town. I know train pass's are criticised for being expensive but my employer offers a scheme where I get 12.5% discount on a annual pass so I'm not too unhappy there either.

Its not all rosy though, the trains on my routes are in the region of 25 years old and showing it. Frequent delays due to breakdowns are experienced, other niggles such as sending 3 carriage trains with no bike storage or the heating been fully on/off in summer/winter. The bus services I am well aware are unreliable, it is only because I can get any bus I am not affected but I frequently see/hear of people having to wait for 'their' bus e.g. They have a First pass but the next 2 bus's for 20mins are Centrebus/Transdev.

But I'm blatently aware, as pointed out above, that some areas simply have no public transport whatsoever.

 

[thelawnet]

Public transport is fairly good around here really, I just hate public transport. Taking a train was one thing, but then a bus as well, hmm no thanks....

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Did they not have one coming back?
Where I live when we moved in we had a morning and afternoon bus 2 days a week, now we have one in the morning (10 am) and one in the afternoon (4 pm) either 5 or 6 days a week (not sure if it runs Saturday as I don`t use it)

thelawnet - hope your son does well.

Ray

Yes - I counted the there and back as one bus a week.

It went at 11am and came back at 2pm.

 

[summerdays]

I took the bus today, and it's always a good reminder as to why I cycle! This morning's journey (9 am) I was sitting next to someone swigging alcohol out of a squash bottle. And this evening's return journey I waited for over an hour for a bus, in which time there should have been at least 3. I could have cycled it in the time it took to wait for the bus and had a cup of tea too!

 

[DiddlyDodds]

Public transport crap ? .. Buses YES ... Trains from here to Manchester /York pretty good just as long as you dont have to rely on tham actually turning up .