Typical hysterical load of Daily Wail garbage !
Ignoring the gross errors in the rail fares quoted, the Wail seems to have ignored/forgotten/missed/never thought of the most important point in their non-story............Your train fare gets you a ride (possibly even a seat !) to your destination.
The "cost" of the car journey is for x gallons/litres of petrol - no more, not even a can to put the petrol in, let alone a vehicle ! Do I just throw a match into the petrol and hope the resulting explosion is large enough to blow me to Southampton, Manchester or wherever ?
I have just put some figures into a "car costs calculator" on the "This is Money" website - it tells me that my Fiesta costs me 79p a mile to run !! Makes the rail fares look a bargain.
PS: Do Ford do a Senior Road Card to get me 33% off the car costs ??
......I think perhaps the Mail is not the only one being "hysterical"?
It's a valid point that rail travel can be extremely expensive, almost invariably more so than jumping in the car, particularly if there is a family or group involved, or if the travel is taking place on a "walk up" basis, rather than with the benefit of enough available planning time to obtain a "cheaper" advance ticket - the cost of driving doesn't alter whether you decide to go at one minute or one months notice, and 4 people in a car only cost fractionally more in terms of fuel consumption, whereas 4 train tickets? Considerably more, particularly if Groupsave isn't available/possible.
There is also the ridiculous amount of different fares, splitting, etc, some of which not available from all sources which further complicate the issue.
II hits the nail on the head (as so often) - train fares "can" be a ripoff (can is the pivotal word), some can be cheaper, most are somewhere in between, very few will prove cheaper than a car journey.
No matter how keen one is on trains, or reluctant to accept anything from the Daily Mail, it's important to keep perspective (…..and avoid hysteria!)
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