Many of us are having to rethink how we spend our money with the rising cost of living - and when it comes to transport, it would make sense to assume that swapping from your car to buses or trains would make sense. After all, cars come with running costs - petrol, insurance, tax and parking to name but a few.
The Government has announced plans to cap bus journeys in England at £2 from January to March next year in an attempt to control rising living costs. The Department of Transport has indicated that passengers could save more than £3 per single bus ticket.
However some people say public transport is not for them. And it isn't always the price which is the deciding factor.
Members of the money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk have revealed why they’re not impressed with public transport across the UK. Many bargain hunters told how they deliberately used their car to save time as well as money.
Several members cited the ‘extortionate’ price of bus fares, with Gail T from Portsmouth saying: ‘I got the bus yesterday - literally a 10-minute journey for me and my daughter was £8.90.’ Vasare M from Plymouth added: ‘My daughter started secondary school and the school bus charges £4.50 a day ride. She only has to go two stops!’
Tracey B chipped in: ‘After traveling on the bus to a town 12 miles away it cost £26 for two of us. What a rip off.’ Emma W was similarly against it: ‘Costs me over £20 for my son to go 2.5 miles from school. [To get to the] nearest city it’s £8 per person.’
Others had done the calculations - Erica H said: ‘The bus is more expensive than driving and parking combined here, and that’s just one person traveling. It costs £7 one way, per person, to go 2 miles into town here.’
Meanwhile, Sarah M revealed how she’d saved over £100 on her bus fare by avoiding it during the summer: ‘I can’t drive and so sometimes cycle to work. Cycled for 6 weeks during the summer holidays and saved £102. I usually buy a weekly bus ticket at £17.’ Sarah L had a similar point to make: ‘My weekly journey is £5 to £7 in fuel - would cost me £4.60 a day on the bus.’
Some comments indicated that occasionally it’s cheaper to take the bus or train - but only if you live in one of a few lucky locations in the UK. Mark K said: ‘I do a long-distance drive every couple of weeks in a car on my own. On the dates and times I need to do it, it’s cheaper to take my diesel car than take a train. Even the cheaper off-peak tickets were only balancing out about the same as my car at the peak of the fuel costs.’ In contrast, Dean C had a totally different experience: ‘I sold my car when I moved to central London. Public transport is far cheaper. Sometimes if needed we hired a car for a day or two or even a few hours. I have a car now I’m back in the countryside.’
Price isn’t the only factor deterring Brits from using buses and trains - Joe B said: ‘I’m getting a car because public transport is so c**p. It takes me 3 hours just to get 8 miles away.’ Jan M added: ‘My village only has 2 buses a day for commuters. I have an EV so I plug it in about once a month at home.’
Nathan F said he’d also struggle without a car: ‘Cannot get to work on public transport. [Takes] an hour by the time I get two buses and then it’s a mile walk on a road with no pavement. The car takes 15 minutes.’ Zoe F pointed out that public transport isn’t always reliable: ‘So many bus routes no longer exist and some buses can be a half-hour or more late. There is one fairly reliable bus but no good if not on its route so have to get two buses.’
Tom Church, Co-Founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, said: ‘The Government’s plan to cut down bus fare prices next year could work well if the public is made thoroughly aware of the scheme and people see their savings in real-time. However, it seems that many of us are so used to using our vehicles to save money that it could take time for us to make the mental shift back over to using public transport.
‘I can see an additional problem with the fact that public transport infrastructure appears to be lacking in the UK, especially in rural areas. If people would have to spend over an hour to get to work on the bus, compared with a 15-minute car journey as Nathan indicated, it won’t make a difference if the bus is a little cheaper for a few months. People need utility as well as cheaper costs - or it seems unlikely that we’ll be using buses and trains en masse any time soon.’
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea
