Petrol prices and effect on travel modes

[whole diary]

[grahame]

One day I read in the papers that petrol sales are down by 20% because of soaring prices, and the next that there's a potential shortage due to a petrol delivery driver's strike.  Shouldn't the two things be able to balance each other out?

Has there been any noticed rise in journeys by public transport due to the higher petrol cost?

[Phil]

Difficult to gauge it from Melksham, Grahame. I'm sure more people would use public transport if there was any.

[corshamjim]

We took the bus from Corsham to Bath & back at the weekend.  The thought that I have to pay a pound for diesel every ten miles I drive now helped make my mind up to take the bus rather than drive.

[Graz]

When I bought a return on the bus from Bath to Box it was over ^5, surprisingly expensive I thought considering it costs less from Bath to Frome, which is a much longer distance.

I'm glad I don't own a car or drive yet- I'd hate to be forking over all this cash to get the car going!

[swlines]

On my local bus operators from my local bus stop to the station (a return distance of about 8 miles) it costs ^1.50 on the Yellows which run every 10 minutes, and ^1.60 on the W&Ds which run every 7-8.

[corshamjim]

When I bought a return on the bus from Bath to Box it was over ^5, surprisingly expensive I thought considering it costs less from Bath to Frome, which is a much longer distance.

I wonder if it depends on the time of day?  Claire and I spent less than a tenner between us to get to Bath & back from Corsham on Saturday.  I think it was about ^4.10 each if I recall.

[woody]

One day I read in the papers that petrol sales are down by 20% because of soaring prices, and the next that there's a potential shortage due to a petrol delivery driver's strike.  Shouldn't the two things be able to balance each other out?

Has there been any noticed rise in journeys by public transport due to the higher petrol cost?

PLYMOUTH^S biggest bus company says it is on course to lose ^700,000 this year, as the city^s public transport links struggle to keep up with spiralling fuel prices.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/Fuel-crisis-bus-firm/article-189601-detail/article.html

[eightf48544]

On my local bus operators from my local bus stop to the station (a return distance of about 8 miles) it costs ^1.50 on the Yellows which run every 10 minutes, and ^1.60 on the W&Ds which run every 7-8.

Do you really have 14 buses an hour?

Are there enough  passengers?

If not it just shows the folly of bus derugulation and competiton.

On our recent trip to Edinburgh we bought day tickets on Lothian only to find that the 44 route which took us back to our accomodation was jointly run by Lothian and First and tickets aren't interchangable so we couldn't catch the first First bus and had to wait for the Lothian.

Madness. It's about time we had tarriff unions as on the continent whereby all train (local) Underground/Metros, tram and bus tickets are interchangable and the same price depending on the zones you travel through.

The Zonal fare system with Travelcards (and later Oystercards) was one of the finest things the much reviled Ken Livingstone bought in when he was leader of the GLC^▸ (Glasgow Central), plus he fought off bus deregulation and kept control under TFL^▸ (Transport for London).

He did slip up with providing free bendy buses.