Great Western Coffee Shop

I was shocked when I put Melksham to Swindon into Google directions.
The default option was to take the TRAIN and I had to manually switch to car! ??? :o

Excellent news  ;D ... here's what Connecting Wiltshire (http://www.connectingwiltshire.co.uk) gave me:

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/cw_mkm_swi.jpg)

and that includes 10 minutes of walking time in the public transport option.   I believe that the 13 pounds is the single journey cost for a car, so that's 26 pounds return.  An anytime day return from Melksham to Swindon costs 9.20 and an off peak day return costs 6.70. 

It would not cost that much to drive the given distance, I'd say that would be right with wear and tear for double that distance.

Got to add the cost of parking in Swindon as well....., which I've just looked up and an annual season ticket in the long stay parks is ^1390 a year. As of tomorrow the annual season ticket from Melksham to Swindon is ^1520.

Car running costs vary hugely - http://www.theaa.com/resources/Documents/pdf/motoring-advice/running-costs/petrol2013.pdf - from 23.3 p / mile (so 6.45 for a one way journey / 12.90 return) if you exclude road tax, depreciation, insurance and other fixed costs through 31.7 p / mile (so 8.78 for a one way journey) if you drive a car that cost under ^13,000 when new and do 30,000 miles a year in it via 48.62 p / mile (so 13.47 for a one way journey) if your car cost ^13,000 to ^18,000 when new and you do 15,000 miles a year to some really horrid costs if you have a luxury motor that you only take out occasionally.  Even more complicated to work out than rail fares!

Grahame, there is a link on cynthias thread to calculate true running costs. Mine came up at under 20p a mile. However its such a variable, whether you buy a brand new car and run it for 3 years, depreciation will be high, or buy a used car and run it to the ground.
HMRC i understand deem 45p a mile to gone the normal cost per mile.