Sunday 11 January 2009

The Train vs The Car?

I have spent from 10am this morning mucking about with the National Rail Travel website trying to get myself from down in Sussex up to Birmingham International for the big show in March for the cheapest way possible ...... what a palava.
When I went last March the fare was £54. In November, I went via an easier, more relaxing way but slightly more expensive route i.e. not through London for £80 - worth it for the seat but not for all the fuss and performance getting me to and from Guildford and avoiding their horrendous all day parking charges - and the fare anyway was a pressie from my son. The relaxing route has gone up to £90, which would eat into the spending money so I have spent the morning putting all sorts of variations into the site ....
20 minutes ago I finally managed to get it back down to £58, which is an early rush hour ticket and an off peak train from Euston to Birmingham. I won't say I have a seat on the way back because every time I have gone it's been standing room only - lol .... but I am nothing but tenacious - lol
The point of my moan being is that I could drive to the NEC but when you take into account the petrol, car parking when you get there and the M25 and M1/M6, the stress of it all, and the government urging us to leave the car at home, the train has got to win but why does everything have to be so difficult .....
I am considering inviting my crafting pals, Sue (the one who hasn't got a blog but should have) and Anita down here for Ally Pally in the autumn .....

1 comment:

Gail Is This Mutton? said...

I think we'd all love to use trains Sue but they're impractical on many levels. I drive to work which takes me around 2 hours. If I went by train, it would cost over £100 (a return from London to Swindon) plus I would have to go on 2 trains, a tube and a tax or bus, so it would take even longer than 2 hours.