Train fares..I'm confused

[Profpointy]

As others have said, it's not just petrol, so even the marginal cost of the journey once you have the car does cost you. Yes it's depreciating whether you use it or not in a sense, but based on a calculation that a car costs £10,000 and lasts 100,000 miles, that's 10p per mile off the bat. And sat unused, it'll last longer.

That said, I've done 50,000 miles in a car I paid £2500 for and I recon I might get another 30k out of it, but still

 

[marknotgeorge]

Don't forget to add £11.50 congestion charge and London car parking fees to your costings...

Then look at the stress levels of train travel vs driving.

The train journey looks more attractive to me.

St Pancras is just outside the Congestion Charge zone, and if I have to include parking, then I'd have to include the cost of getting to the station at both ends. I didn't do this because I was comparing like with like. If I really was going to London, I'd park somewhere in Zone 4 and tube in. Stress? I don't tend to find driving that stressful, not even in heavy traffic. I find people far more stressful.

Maybe I should have compared a journey I do regularly, such as my commute from Derby to Burton. If I caught the train in, I'd have to go into Derby city centre and out out the other side a bit to get to the station - completely the wrong direction. I live 2 minutes (if that) away from the main road between the two towns.