I can’t believe that in the year of our global warming lord 2024 it costs a million dollars to catch the train in melb. If I could drive my car atm I would every day to save money 🙃 wild!
Last month it cost me £100 to visit my parents on the train. I did it because I don't like driving or contributing to emissions more than necessary and I like to work or read, but it probably would've cost about £30 in the car. If I'd been taking the kids, the train would have been madness.
Price is a way of suppressing demand, particularly if you’ve just cancelled the major infrastructure project that was going to deliver increased capacity (thank you Sunak 😡).
This is a bugbear of mine. Yes, it is, sometimes, especially short notice. But taking a look, let’s say in a weeks time, morning… train £62 Lumo. Plane £61 EasyJet. That’s still ridiculous because the plane should be way more, but is not meaningfully cheaper.
Yes plane should be way more! And I'd pick the train in that case also. But it's wild that in Melbourne is significantly cheaper to pay for petrol than it is to PT. Add comfort, less risk of covid etc. I'd pick the car if I could right now. I love the planet but saving is more urgent rn 😩
At least where the United States of America are concerned, the car lobby has long kept public transit suppressed (we don’t exactly have Japan-grade trains, for one thing) to ensure they have lots of purchases. Nixon even tried to set Amtrak to fail!
agreed. sometimes I can put £25/£30 of petrol in my car and it lasts me all month, I would spend that in a week if I had to get the bus. even if you include the cost of my insurance, the bus would still cost more than double what my car does every month and I would have far less freedom.
