Going green - the reality

[Novice]

Hi,

Since the new year I have given up my car and decided to cycle 2.5 miles to a train station and then spend an hour getting to work on the train.

It's not going into London so isn't that busy so I always get a seat etc.

My point is this costs me £19.10 return and luckily I work from home 3 days a week. Even at nearly £40 a week it is questionable if financially I would be better off getting a car again.

How are people supposed to go green and use the trains if it's more expensive than a car? Am I missing something

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum.

Remember when making a comparison to include the total cost of motoring, not just the fuel costs. For example:

Depreciation of the vehicle
Insurance
Road fund license
Servicing and MOT etc.

 

[Flying Snail]

Unless you tell us your journey/details how do you expect anyone to give you a reasonable answer?

I will say that you'd be doing very well to buy, maintain, tax, insure and fuel a car for a year on less than £2k

 

[yorkie]

Hi,

Since the new year I have given up my car and decided to cycle 2.5 miles to a train station and then spend an hour getting to work on the train.

It's not going into London so isn't that busy so I always get a seat etc.

My point is this costs me £19.10 return and luckily I work from home 3 days a week. Even at nearly £40 a week it is questionable if financially I would be better off getting a car again.

How are people supposed to go green and use the trains if it's more expensive than a car? Am I missing something

Consider switching jobs and/or moving house so that you can reduce your commuting costs/time. If you can manage to be in a position where you can cycle to work you would save yourself 2 hours and £19.20 each day. It may be worth paying more for property or accepting a lower paid job (depending on your circumstances) as the time and cost savings may well make up for it.

But without knowing any details of your particular commute or circumstances it really is impossible to give good advice.

 

[Condor7]

Even without knowing your details the reality is that going green more often than not is more expensive. When possible I buy organic food, but by the very nature of how it’s grown without intensive farming or use of chemicals it is more expensive. I switched to natural paint for the inside of my house, while absolutely brilliant to use it is more expensive.

There are other examples I could use, in the end it is up to individuals to decide whether the benefits out weight the costs. In your case you have immediately reduced your carbon footprint quite considerably by not having a car not to mention how much better for your health cycling is, I guess it is up to you to decide how much that is worth.

 

[Novice]

Hi guys,

Sorry for the lack of details.

My commute is the 07:19 from East Malling to Chartham and return 17:10 to West Malling.

Doing this twice a week at nearly £40 just about makes sense financially but if I had to go into the office 3 days a week then that would be around £240 a month.

I could lease and insure a car for £240. Ok you would have petrol costs on top but that would be cancelled out by the fact that you have a car you can use for other purposes.

It is so annoying you can't get a part time season ticket.

I'm enjoying going green but it does feel like it should be cheaper (like all things i suppose ha ha)

Thanks

 

[yorksrob]

Hi guys,

Sorry for the lack of details.

My commute is the 07:19 from East Malling to Chartham and return 17:10 to West Malling.

Doing this twice a week at nearly £40 just about makes sense financially but if I had to go into the office 3 days a week then that would be around £240 a month.

I could lease and insure a car for £240. Ok you would have petrol costs on top but that would be cancelled out by the fact that you have a car you can use for other purposes.

It is so annoying you can't get a part time season ticket.

I'm enjoying going green but it does feel like it should be cheaper (like all things i suppose ha ha)

Thanks

As someone who used to live around that way, its great to see someone using trains in the opposite direction within Kent.

In terms of fares, this is one instance whete the railway hasn't quite caught up with changing workplace routines. Some companies offer carnet style tickets where you obtain discounted travel for a book of journeys which can be used when you need them, but really they all ought to.

 

[30907]

You're a bit unlucky, in that the way fares are now calculated you could do West Mailing to Sturry for the same price. Annoying, but that's unlikely to change so...

You should also factor into your calculation the 90 minutes (net) productive time your journey presumably allows.

A weekly season costs about 4x the daily fare, so I doubt a part-time season or carnet would be less than 20% of a weekly, so £16 a day. That's about 25p/mile.

 

[Novice]

Took the car today and not doing that again. Mental traffic everywhere, stressful , road rage . Terrible.

Staying green!

Rant over ha ha

You're a bit unlucky, in that the way fares are now calculated you could do West Mailing to Sturry for the same price. Annoying, but that's unlikely to change so...

You should also factor into your calculation the 90 minutes (net) productive time your journey presumably allows.

A weekly season costs about 4x the daily fare, so I doubt a part-time season or carnet would be less than 20% of a weekly, so £16 a day. That's about 25p/mile.

 

[kieron]

I was going to ask about starting from another nearby station, but there probably isn't a convenient train on any of them.

One thing you could do would be, instead of buying a ticket to Chartham, to buy one to Wye and a second from Wye to Chartham. That should save a bit each day. You'd need a train which stops in Wye, but I think they all do.

 

[Novice]

Thanks for the tip. Only saves a little bit but well worth it.

Silly question but what is the easiest way to buy tickets online. Surely you can and just use your smart phone on the train to produce a valid ticket?

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Thanks for the tip. Only saves a little bit but well worth it.

Silly question but what is the easiest way to buy tickets online. Surely you can and just use your smart phone on the train to produce a valid ticket?

Depends on what your definition of "easiest" is, but I have to say that Trainline based apps (e.g. Trainline itself, Virgin, CrossCountry, East Midlands Trains etc. etc.) make it fairly easy to buy tickets quickly (although make sure not to buy tickets on Trainline before the day of travel, as you'll be charged an avoidable booking fee). But I'm not sure if you can get an e-ticket or m-ticket for Southeastern yet. You should be able to by the end of the year, I'd have thought, as they are being continually rolled out. Another option would be to go to a ticket office (if there's one that you can get to at all), and buy a week's worth of season tickets in advance each Friday, say, or to buy the same online and pick it up at a ticket machine.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Thanks for the tip. Only saves a little bit but well worth it.

Silly question but what is the easiest way to buy tickets online. Surely you can and just use your smart phone on the train to produce a valid ticket?

Not a silly question, but in your case you might regard the answer as silly. No, on Southeastern you cannot yet buy a ticket to show on your smartphone (though this situation is finally movong on).

You can buy single and return tickets to be loaded onto Southeastern's "Key" smartcard, but not online - only from a ticket office or ticket machine. Daft, yes. (Season tickets for the Key smartcard can be bought online.)