Great Western Coffee Shop

From TransPennine Express (https://mediacentre.tpexpress.co.uk/news/brits-turn-to-trains-due-to-rising-car-costs?)

There is also a report that the Government wants to introduce a pay per mile system.

I know it was mooted many years ago, to do away with the road fund licence and put the cost onto the fuel.

That's going to be difficult now in future years with amount of Electric cars coming onto the roads.

I think I can that all of us on this forum would like more people to travel by train,

and to try and convince occasional rail users to use the train/s more often. 

I'm wondering whether to ditch the car, not that renewal quotes for my Fiesta insurance look that bad: £369+. I haven't been using it so much these past 15 months, and sometimes it's been mainly for the sake of keeping the battery charged. I wouldn't be much inconvenienced, what with doing my Big Shop on-line and being within walking distance of "corner shops" - and Tilehurst Station, trains from which conveniently serve a good number of destinations.

As it happens, I've been using the bus more for for trips into Reading, rather than the train. (I have a bus pass.) I'm not so sure if this trend will continue over the winter, with more risks of my catching a bug on the bus than on the train. (I have a depleted immune system.)

A couple of points from me, if I may?  ;)

1.  We (SWMBO and I) used to have two cars - both inherited from her family, as it happened - but we then noticed that there was never more than one of them off the drive in front of our house at any time.  Clearly, we didn't need two cars.  ::)

2.  We do still need one car, simply to enable SWMBO to commute for her work - public transport just wouldn't work for her.  However, the cost of insurance was an insignificant consideration in our case - we're both careful drivers, with no claims and our premiums have only increased marginally over the years.

I've recently, and probably rather belatedly at age 65, obtained a Senior Railcard - simply to make it even cheaper for me to visit Melksham (for example) by train occasionally.  That has nothing to do with car running costs - it's just more convenient for me.

Perhaps I should also look into this 'bus pass' idea, though.  ;D

CfN  :)

Well yes, but on a selfish note I would say longer and / or more frequent trains would be needed on many routes. I don't want to stand any more than I do now.

I was with the AA for my car Insurance,  8 years no claims and no accidents yet julynwhen it was due for renewal it went from £45 per month to £96 per month both included basic breakdown cover too.

I emailed them giving them a few home truths they reduced it to £85 per month. I'm now with route me happy.com  and I pay.£48  per month with nationwide breakdown cover with the RAC
 That includes nationwide towing to our destination or home or a replacement vehicle.

I work as a bus driver but I do use the train to get to/from work if I can however these days my shifts in Swansea don't finish until 2350-0010 so a train from llansamle  Pyle is
Impossible

We were with the AA, for several years, as loyal customers with no claims. Then their annual renewal premium almost doubled: we went to the RAC, who welcomed us as new members, for less than the AA had been charging for the same level of cover.

It does indeed pay to shop around.  :o

CfN  ;)

We recently (well, within the last year) bought a new electric car. We both have full no claims etc. We were, if you’ll forgive the pun, shocked at the cost of insuring it - in fact our existing insurer wouldn’t insure it at all.

None of this has any bearing on how much we use the train or bus, or walk. In general, if we can avoid using the car we do.

Because there are so few garage/repair shops that can yet handle electric cars....they cost even more to repair

With reference to AA insurance, for 2022-23 it cost me £337, for 2023-24 £510 and the quote for renewal this month is £526, if there are no changes to the policy.

Last year's quote was a heck of hike, but I was ill at the time and also conscious that other companies had upped their prices.

With the costs of an MoT and service and road fund, that's £1100 just to keep it on the road, or £20 a week. Replacing a damaged A/C condenser last month cost £490. All of which, after just 2,000 miles of driving in the past 12 months, makes retaining the vehicle seem an extravagance.

As I noted above, I've had lower quotes, and I'll be considering these over the weekend.

Mine's just increased from £400 to £600 which was a bit of a shock. I've only had a licence a few months despite being of mature years and its the percentage increase rather than the actual amount that surprised me. Strangely it didn't go up last year when I changed the Smart Car for something newer, faster etc that could actually overtake other cars in fact it went down by about 10%. I'm sure there's an algorithm somewhere that explains it all.

There were some cheaper quotes when I shopped around but bigger excesses, needing a black box (feel a bit to old to have to be home by 7pm) or companies I'd never heard of with poor reviews so at least the industry is being consistent in its price increases.

After being quite unwell earlier in the summer, I spent 6 weeks recovering after a hospital admission and emergency surgery, whilst allowed to drive, I didn’t have the confidence I was fit enough to drive longer distances than my local supermarket. After a few weeks of being discharged my nurse told me to fully recover I should have a couple of days a week where I go out for a few hours. I opted to go by train for some of these days. Every train I’ve travelled on has been much busier than i recall them being pre Covid on similar routes and times of day.

My observations are that the trains are definitely busier than I recall 5 years ago.

Hope you are getting better in the coming days and months.

I always stated that after Covid, leisure passengers numbers would rise,
but the commuters would not return to pre-covid level.

There are higher passengers numbers but they are not bringing the money that the commuters did.

I think more workers are traveling shorter distances,just look how successful the Elizabeth line has become.

Due to my health issues I’ve only been travelling at off peak times so can’t comment on the commuter services. I’m only seeing what I assume to be leisure traveller services.

I decided to stay with the AA, rather than switch to a Mickey Mouse insurer to save a few pounds.Yesterday and this morning, I tried to renew on-line, but kept on getting a message that there was a problem and to try again later. So I rang up, and got a helpful agent who said that their IT system had been updated and that she needed to check a few details with me. Just as well, as she asked if the value of the car was still £16k; I reckoned not and said that I'd had a couple of on-line valuations for £11.5k.  Where upon she reduced my premium from £526 to £437.52.

I'm sure that were I to have a write-off accident in the next year the AA would not have paid out £16k but the current value.

I also had a raft of quotes via a comparison site, the lowest being £486, with roadside assistance not included - it was with the AA.

We renewed our insurance with Direct Line for both cars.
Premiums came in almost double from last year (one accident each, in both cars).

Using the online quotes, we called Direct Line, told them of the far lower figure from online quotes.
Direct Line then gave us around £50 off each of their quotes, which made the figures more palatable.