> Despite high fuel prices, it's still cheaper for me to drive from northern England to London
I assume you calculate all the costs of car usage, not just the fuel?
I assume you calculate all the costs of car usage, not just the fuel?
My answer is; yes and no.
I could still add the cost of annual service, tyres, brakes etc and still be cheaper to use the car, but the reality is, my family has a car because we need it otherwise, we live in the suburbs and have two kids who need to get places, so if I'm asked to travel to London and back tomorrow, it costs me ~£70 I wasn't expecting to spend today on fuel, or going by train would cost me anywhere between £200-400+ for the train, plus connecting transport; so add roughly half the cost of my fuel bill (~£30-35) for that.
The reality is, our trains are poor and overpriced have have been increasingly so since privatization. It also happen to be on the West-Coast Mainline, the operator of which is basically robbing us blind before they lose their contract due to poor performance.