Great Western Coffee Shop

As part of the exercise to lever myself out of my car and take to public transport I thought I'd try to frighten myself by working out how much it is costing me to run my little Skoda.  I got it down to a figure per week, but am really too embarrassed to admit publicly how much I spend on personal transport! :-[

I just wondered whether any other posters have 'done the maths', and whether they have produced results which have sent them scurrying to the railway station for a season ticket!? At least, now I'm in the realm of the wrinklies I can apply for a senior citizens railcard; I already have a bus pass but confess I haven't made use of it since moving to Melksham.

I'm sure someone somewhere must have done some research about travel cost comparisons, but not only am I too lazy to try to make sense of train timetables, neither can I be bothered to trawl through the myriad search engines to find the most accurate and reliable figures.  Perhaps the Dept. of Transport would be a place to start?  Someone out there might know better.

Only just realised that when I calculated the cost of running a car, I forgot to factor in the depreciation of the vehicle.  I wonder how much that would add to the ^38 per week I thought I was probably spending at present. 

According to http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-1633412/Calculator-True-cost-running-car.html

My car is costing me:
A year: ^1912.48
A month: ^159.37
A mile: ^0.10
Per day of use: ^5.25 

That calculator is very good, as long as you know how long you intend keeping your car and what it will be worth at that time, I've put in 5 years for mine, and put in the current value of a 8 year old model the same off of Autotrader, as mine is 3 years old now.

Unfortunately in Cornwall our public transport is inadequate at best. At evening peak on the main line we have 90 mins between services for example.

Thanks very much for the link, richwarwicker, will use it presently to further frighten myself out of my car and onto the trains, although I feel now there is a much improved rail service from Melksham that I should be taking advantage of that anyway.

Now, where did I put that timetable.......?

Here http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/~/media/PDF/TicketsAndTrainTimes/TrainTimes/December%202013%20Timetables/TTC01_Web.ashx (http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/~/media/PDF/TicketsAndTrainTimes/TrainTimes/December%202013%20Timetables/TTC01_Web.ashx) ! ;D

Hoorah!  Thanks, bobm.  I am hoping to start using trains to get to both Bristol (Southville) and to Potters Bar, which will be quite an adventure for me, as I think from Paddington I have to use the underground to get to Barnet/Potters Bar (Actually need to get to South Mimms village).  Has to be an improvement on trawling my way round the M25.

I have read on the forum with interest, some comments about holdups on the rail service, but I can't imagine it can be much worse than all the hours I've spent fuming in traffic jams on the motorway.  I can hardly recall a journey to Potters Bar without any delays at all, and I go up there an awful lot, as my son and his family live there.  Um.  This paragraph should probably have gone elsewhere on the forum.  Whoops.