Monday 2 September 2013

Why trains are crap....

No wonder the poor can't afford holidays

My Wife and I took our two sons on a short break (two nights) at a hotel-resort/spa near Tiptree in Essex - we live near Brighton.

Check in/out 12:00.

We went by Car

We loaded the car, packed a picnic set off at 10:00, had early picnic lunch arrived at 13:00. For our return two days later we left at 12:00 got home at 14:00.

It was 200 miles round trip, we got about 35mpg so 6 gallons of fuel used on the actual journey. Total cost about £40 in fuel.

So that is 2 hours each way door to door (3 with a lunch stop) - £40.

For reference: We could have hired a car and had it delivered/collected for about £100.

By Train

By train we would have lugged our stuff to the bus stop for 8:00 , got a bus to the station for £10 (for four of us), and would mean a change - with a 10 min walk at the end to get the station itself. (A taxi would be about £15)

Optimistically we may have managed to get the 9:00 from Brighton to Colchester - costing £220 (return) for all of us. With two or three changes we'd be at Colchester for 12:00

From Colchester we'd probably have needed a cab - say £15 to arrive at 13:00.

Assume return trip is similar then its a total of £20 is bus fares, £220 in train fairs and £30 for taxis (and no transport on site!).

So that is 5 hours each way (a total of 7 changes) - £270


My case rests.

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