Has The Weather Broken?
There is some blue sky and fluffy white clouds and no blustery winds so just perhaps the Food Festival this weekend will be fortunate.
Its a wonder any event or business survives these days looking at the cost of running a car or a bus.
To travel approx 7-12 miles can cost upto £10 one way. So unless you plan for a day, return or a weekly ticket...or have access to a pass due to illness/age I really wonder how most people manage to afford it and is it any wonder more people are stuck within a small area and stay at home as they do...
My trip to Saltburn last weekend without any help and travelling one way and having to change buses could have cost approx £15 so adding in the return journey home that's £30! If you are able to restrict yourself to one company and buy day ticket you can bring it down to approx £7.
So sometimes if you intend to travel only one way it is better to buy a day ticket if you change buses but are using the same company. There could even be a similar argument to purchasing a weekly ticket. That costs approx £26.
The difficulty is often you are unable to stick to one company all the way through your journey in neighbouring areas. The advantage of the bus pass.
Travel costs must be helping to kill off business and the social benefits that getting out does for our well being.
Its a wonder any event or business survives these days looking at the cost of running a car or a bus.
To travel approx 7-12 miles can cost upto £10 one way. So unless you plan for a day, return or a weekly ticket...or have access to a pass due to illness/age I really wonder how most people manage to afford it and is it any wonder more people are stuck within a small area and stay at home as they do...
My trip to Saltburn last weekend without any help and travelling one way and having to change buses could have cost approx £15 so adding in the return journey home that's £30! If you are able to restrict yourself to one company and buy day ticket you can bring it down to approx £7.
So sometimes if you intend to travel only one way it is better to buy a day ticket if you change buses but are using the same company. There could even be a similar argument to purchasing a weekly ticket. That costs approx £26.
The difficulty is often you are unable to stick to one company all the way through your journey in neighbouring areas. The advantage of the bus pass.
Travel costs must be helping to kill off business and the social benefits that getting out does for our well being.
posted by The Great Gildersleeve | 8:58 am
6 Comments:
With a bit of thought it IS possible to get fares down.
In July I shall be going to the New Forest for a week, more than 120 miles from where I live in London. I shall travel by train.
By booking my train tickets three months in advance, I shall be able to do the entire return journey for only £20. I think that's a terrific bargain.
You know VQ this is the silly thing. Often you can travel a greater distance for less and its the local every day travel that costs far too much.
People would probably use local transport more and they would have more passengers, be busier and make more of a profit by bringing their prices down. And advertising such a scheme. Then everyone is a winner.
They could try it and if it fails then they could say "We tried"
Or offer lower prices at various times in the year as a promotion.
Or how about you get a voucher of some kind when you travel and you save them up and can then reduce the fare or have a free journey once in a while.
Its not unlike the offers you get at the supermarket when you shop.
I was going to say my local service(but its a national company)Arriva is announcing the introduction of new fleets of buses that run on electric and gas in certain areas with much fanfare but many areas are still seeing a reduction in services and prices going up not frozen or reducing.
And services being withdrawn.
That trip to the New Forrest is really good value.
I'm ok as long as the bus pass is not removed. I will use it as much as I am able but of course I need a reason and it is not needed every day.
For me my saving is that I can go to a wider choice of shops and money saved on the bus can mean I buy more food so the shopping trip is free or it gives me exttra money for food.
Though at present I have more than enough and I think I have been quite clever with my food shopping and stretching my money further.
Re my post above .....
The peculiar thing is that by taking that journey (London Waterloo to Brockenhurst) I shall arrive at nearly 4 miles from my final destination.
If I travelled from London to Ashurst (only 3 miles from my final destination) it would cost me more than twice as much. Where's the reasoning? It's lunacy!
Public transport is a law onto itself.
I used to travel that line on my annual holidays to Bournemouth. And we had a few day trips into the New Forrest.
Happy days!
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