My work is about 22 miles away from my house. I must confess to being a user of public transport (don't flame me
), but to compare:
On a good day with clear roads, traffic moving freely, house to work in the car can take about 35 mins (door to door). With roadworks and other holdups, I can be looking at 50 mins to 1 hour easily. I can't with any accuracy give any petrol costs/tyre wear/depreciation of the car etc etc.
However, from house to train station carpark (2 miles away), travelling by train to Glasgow, then subway out to office, then 3 min walk from subway to office, the total time is about 1 hour to 1 hour 10 mins. I have to say the train in the morning is usually ok, but in the evening its standing room only (shortage of rolling stock I think is the expression
4 week ticket (for train and subway) is £115
The advantage for me is that I always sell my cars with low mileage and in good condition. I'm not convinced that using the car for work (5 days a week) for 47 weeks a year (5 weeks holiday per year) would be cheaper than the train. I have often thought about buying something like an entry level ford fiesta TDCi and basically just use it as a work horse, which I would have thought would be cheaper... but I don't really need 2 cars... hmmmmm
