121–130 of 240 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference is that in America we have politicians who cultivate a fear of cities, public transportation, and not owning a bigger car than you need.
...there's also the kind of housing uncertainty where "maybe I'll have to live in that car for a bit" is often a consideration. You might get away with living on the train for a little while, but a car is a much better bet.
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> Somehow the prices are still high enough that it's cheaper to buy a cheap used car and drive it instead. City streets and roads are paid for through property taxes, so they are subsidized 100%.
Roads allow goods and services to be imported and exported from an area. The subsidy brings public benefit.
> Avanti West Coast offers customers: > 15 minutes — 25% off > 30 minutes — 50% off > 1 hour + — 100% off To me they look like very generous refund policies. I checked Italy's Trenitalia and what they offer is[1]: > 30-119 minutes: 25% > 120+ minutes: 50% I suppose anything below 30 minutes is consideres "on time". [1] https://www.trenitalia.com/it/informazioni/indennizzo_per_ri...
I commuted via train for years when I lived in Chicago and a refund policy like Italy's definitely would've been amazing. Perhaps the trains would be more reliable with refunds, all we received was a late slip when the train was delayed by 2 hours..
Where I live, in the US, the income from light rail fair payers is a laughably small portion of the operating budget, so all rides are effectively discounted by 90%+. The fares really only exist to keep homeless people from sheltering on the trains, but they do that anyway, without a ticket. Somehow the prices are still high enough that it's cheaper to buy a cheap used car and drive it instead.
> Somehow the prices are still high enough that it's cheaper to buy a cheap used car and drive it instead. I find this claim to be incredibly dubious. More convenient? A practical necessity? Sure. Cheaper ? Gonna need to see some receipts. Edit: since at least one person appears to be grumpy about my comment, here is an example of a large system with light rail: https://www.dart.org/fare/general-fares-and-overview/fa…
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Only 2% of all journeys in the UK are made by train. Only 8% of people in England use trains at least once per week. The professional-managerial class grossly over estimate the social and economic importance of passenger rail, because the network was built to serve their needs. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66c5c0b6cbe60... https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a815d8e40f0b...
Well yeah, you're not going to take a train to the corner store. Your PDF notes that 29% of trips are made on foot . 2% of trips by train is a lot higher than the number of trips by airplane... And again, 8% of people using trains once a week is a lot higher than they use planes... ...And yet I don't think anybody "grossly overestimates" the social and economic importance of airplanes. People use trains to visit fami…
Where I live, in the US, the income from light rail fair payers is a laughably small portion of the operating budget, so all rides are effectively discounted by 90%+. The fares really only exist to keep homeless people from sheltering on the trains, but they do that anyway, without a ticket. Somehow the prices are still high enough that it's cheaper to buy a cheap used car and drive it instead.
I still own and use a car because there is enough friction in day to day errands that transit isn't a great option for. For trips to downtown or the various arenas, it works wonderfully though.
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It's expensive for irregular users. If I want to visit friends in Derby, coming from London, that's £81. For no good reason, a return ticket is £84. If I need to travel at peak times, that's £123. Booked months in advance it might be £20, roughly what a bus ticket costs.
the return is 30p/mile, which is still considerably cheaper than driving (HMRC rate is 45p/mile, which constitutes insurance, capital cost, wear, petrol, etc) the single pricing is because they don't want to sell singles at all, but remember that return lets you come back upto a month later (your choice when)
Very often I don't want to return. I can fly to Manchester, visit family, take the train to Derby, visit friends, continue to London and fly home.
I can't book advance tickets as the plane might be late, and I can't use a return journey ticket.
It's all ridiculous, and I don't understand how anyone can defend it.
Here in Denmark I can travel tomorrow (leaving at 02.35 if I want to, good luck trying that in England...) to Århus for about £50, any time of day. That's 300km, London to Derby is only 200km.
Booked in advance I can roughly halve the fare, but I don't feel punished if I'm unable to commit to that.