Sympathy for the ...

secretsqizz

Railway car parking charges gone up / 'wealthy' suburb dwelling car owners ( and their ubiquitous pressure groups) havin' just a little moan about the steep cost of resting their 4x4s etc for 8 hours a day in the usually grottier parts of the town ( all train stations in the grottier parts of town?)
whats the solution for them, hey ?.

verylonglegs

Heard someone talking about this on radio this morning, she mentioned figuers of just over 4k for the train season ticket from Oxford plus about 1.2k for parking. I must admit I struggled for sympathy if she can afford that much on commuting.

Frank the tank

verylonglegs wrote:

Heard someone talking about this on radio this morning, she mentioned figuers of just over 4k for the train season ticket from Oxford plus about 1.2k for parking. I must admit I struggled for sympathy if she can afford that much on commuting.

I wouldn't imagine she'd be struggling along on the minimum wage.

Pross

Why the assumption that someone paying that in commuting is loaded? If your job is in London and you live in Oxford then you don't have much option other than to pay the cost to commute do you? The alternatives are moving to London (likely to cost more than £4k per year extra) or getting a job closer to home (easier said than done, likely to be significantly lower salary). OK, she is likely to be on a reasonable salary but could be pretty much stretched and increases in rail fares and parking could be the final straw. But still, don't let that stop everyone judging her to be some over-priveleged rich woman! I just did a check and the annual season ticket from Oxford to Paddington in over £4k and that's standard class - if she was someone who was loaded surely she'd go 1st class? - if you pay monthly it's even higher. The scandal here is that we live in a country where such a short rail journey is costing over £100 per week!

rick_chasey

The cost of traveling by rail in the UK is beyond ridiculous.

I gripe about a lot here, but that's got to be in the top 3 worst things.

And yeah, what Pross said...

verylonglegs

Pross wrote:

Why the assumption that someone paying that in commuting is loaded? If your job is in London and you live in Oxford then you don't have much option other than to pay the cost to commute do you? The alternatives are moving to London (likely to cost more than £4k per year extra) or getting a job closer to home (easier said than done, likely to be significantly lower salary). OK, she is likely to be on a reasonable salary but could be pretty much stretched and increases in rail fares and parking could be the final straw. But still, don't let that stop everyone judging her to be some over-priveleged rich woman! I just did a check and the annual season ticket from Oxford to Paddington in over £4k and that's standard class - if she was someone who was loaded surely she'd go 1st class? - if you pay monthly it's even higher. The scandal here is that we live in a country where such a short rail journey is costing over £100 per week!

Agreed rail fares are a scandal in the UK but I still can't get too worked up over her plight. I do know people who've been unemployed for over two years now but for some reason they aren't given any airtime on national radio to air their grievances.

MaxwellBygraves

Rick Chasey wrote:

The cost of traveling by rail in the UK is beyond ridiculous.

I gripe about a lot here, but that's got to be in the top 3 worst things.

And yeah, what Pross said...

I'm intrgued to know what the other two are..

Harry B

verylonglegs wrote:

Pross wrote:

Why the assumption that someone paying that in commuting is loaded? If your job is in London and you live in Oxford then you don't have much option other than to pay the cost to commute do you? The alternatives are moving to London (likely to cost more than £4k per year extra) or getting a job closer to home (easier said than done, likely to be significantly lower salary). OK, she is likely to be on a reasonable salary but could be pretty much stretched and increases in rail fares and parking could be the final straw. But still, don't let that stop everyone judging her to be some over-priveleged rich woman! I just did a check and the annual season ticket from Oxford to Paddington in over £4k and that's standard class - if she was someone who was loaded surely she'd go 1st class? - if you pay monthly it's even higher. The scandal here is that we live in a country where such a short rail journey is costing over £100 per week!

Agreed rail fares are a scandal in the UK but I still can't get too worked up over her plight. I do know people who've been unemployed for over two years now but for some reason they aren't given any airtime on national radio to air their grievances.

Presumably the news on the radio was about train fares. No doubt when the news is about unemployment they will interview some unemployed bloke. You can then exercise your prejudgment skills again and call him a work shy lout!

secretsqizz

oi, read http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12752445 and then complain about forum users delighting in stereotypes... if you cant be biased and warped on an internet forum where can you be ?
middle class t9ssr

verylonglegs

Harry B wrote:

Presumably the news on the radio was about train fares.

Er no, reading the opening post would have alerted you to this.

Harry B wrote:

No doubt when the news is about unemployment they will interview some unemployed bloke. You can then exercise your prejudgment skills again and call him a work shy lout!

Why? Unemployment can ruin peoples lives and relationships, it's something to be taken seriously. Car park pricing at railway stations however...sorry, still no real concern..it's simply not newsworthy as it wasn't like a doubling of prices it was the same slightly above inflation rise that everything else is suffering. They are capable of and do run much better stories, like the day before a piece about the closure of libraries or one I remember is the charging to park at hospital so some have to pay, what is a small fortune to them, for the 'priviledge' of spending the last few hours they can with a relative. Now that is bloody scandalous.

Harry B

secretsqizz wrote:

oi, read http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12752445 and then complain about forum users delighting in stereotypes... if you cant be biased and warped on an internet forum where can you be ?
middle class t9ssr

Middle class t9ssr, that's me alright. And I drive a BW X5

Pross

verylonglegs wrote:

Harry B wrote:

Presumably the news on the radio was about train fares.

Er no, reading the opening post would have alerted you to this.

Harry B wrote:

No doubt when the news is about unemployment they will interview some unemployed bloke. You can then exercise your prejudgment skills again and call him a work shy lout!

Why? Unemployment can ruin peoples lives and relationships, it's something to be taken seriously. Car park pricing at railway stations however...sorry, still no real concern..it's simply not newsworthy as it wasn't like a doubling of prices it was the same slightly above inflation rise that everything else is suffering. They are capable of and do run much better stories, like the day before a piece about the closure of libraries or one I remember is the charging to park at hospital so some have to pay, what is a small fortune to them, for the 'priviledge' of spending the last few hours they can with a relative. Now that is bloody scandalous.

I believe the rise (according to the RAC at least) is twice the rate of inflation. Remember too that in a lot of cases driving to the station is the only option, especially if you live in a rural area. As for hospital parking charges yes, it is a scandal and one which has been put right here in Wales (other than at the UHW) although the problem when you don't charge and the hospital is in an urban area is that commuters and shoppers use the car park taking up valuable spaces and stopping visitors being able to park at all. However, I was a frequent and often long term visitor at UHW and there are schemes in place to limit the cost of parking in those situations. We could also have claimed our parking back from a charity but didn't as we could afford it whilst others couldn't.

AndyF16

Pross wrote:

Remember too that in a lot of cases driving to the station is the only option, especially if you live in a rural area.

Did you actually just write that, on a cycling forum? :?

cornerblock

AndyF16 wrote:

Pross wrote:

Remember too that in a lot of cases driving to the station is the only option, especially if you live in a rural area.

Did you actually just write that, on a cycling forum? :?

MattC59

secretsqizz wrote:

Railway car parking charges gone up / 'wealthy' suburb dwelling car owners ( and their ubiquitous pressure groups) havin' just a little moan about the steep cost of resting their 4x4s etc for 8 hours a day in the usually grottier parts of the town ( all train stations in the grottier parts of town?)
whats the solution for them, hey ?.

Can I have salt and vinegar with that chip ?
Reading station car park is charging £4.60 per hour now.

unixnerd

Agreed rail fares are a scandal in the UK

And so random. Aviemore to Inverness (30 miles each way), around a tenner return or 8.80 single. Aviemore to Aberdeen (140 miles each way) only 3.30 more!

Aviemore to Euston sleeper 140 quid or under 20 if you book it "the right way" on a website nobody at ScotRail seems to have heard of.

Le Commentateur

The same thing will happen to recreational woodland space when the Forestry Commision is abolished and England's woodland privatised.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12257835

verylonglegs

MattC59 wrote:

secretsqizz wrote:

Railway car parking charges gone up / 'wealthy' suburb dwelling car owners ( and their ubiquitous pressure groups) havin' just a little moan about the steep cost of resting their 4x4s etc for 8 hours a day in the usually grottier parts of the town ( all train stations in the grottier parts of town?)
whats the solution for them, hey ?.

Can I have salt and vinegar with that chip ?
Reading station car park is charging £4.60 per hour now.

Thinking about figures after you mentioned them has got me scratching my head a little. The woman I heard on the radio definitely said £1200 a year but that works out to about just over £5 per day which sounds like a bloody bargain to me, for city centre parking anyway, as I can't think of anywhere in my nearest city where you can park all day for anything close to that, be it at the railway station or any other type of car park.

nwallace

unixnerd wrote:

Agreed rail fares are a scandal in the UK

And so random. Aviemore to Inverness (30 miles each way), around a tenner return or 8.80 single. Aviemore to Aberdeen (140 miles each way) only 3.30 more!

Aviemore to Euston sleeper 140 quid or under 20 if you book it "the right way" on a website nobody at ScotRail seems to have heard of.

Not to mention, that tickets from Perth are almost always significantly cheaper than the stations on all sides. Wouldn't surprise me if Stirling-Perth-Glasgow works out cheaper than Stirling-Glasgow.

As for the fare charging, the bus home from work £1.35 to the town centre, or £1.45 to do twice the distance to the village at the end of the route.

As for "City Centre Parking" I don't know what it costs at Cupar (It's not free), but I know Leuchars is free due to being a Council Car Park. Cupar is hardly "City Centre", and serves a huge area.

Pross

AndyF16 wrote:

Pross wrote:

Remember too that in a lot of cases driving to the station is the only option, especially if you live in a rural area.

Did you actually just write that, on a cycling forum? :?

Yep, and I stand by it. Cycling to the station would not be an option for most people who would consider anything over 5 miles as too far, they may have to drop kids off at nursery or something on their way or could be scared of riding in traffic especially in the dark. I have to do Green Travel surveys occassionally for my job and all of the above are regularly used as reasons why people won't cycle a couple of miles to work / the station. In some cases it will be valid, in others it's laziness. Add to this the lack of secure cycle parking at most stations and the difficulty getting a bike on a train.

Drysuitdiver

Pross wrote:

AndyF16 wrote:

Pross wrote:

Remember too that in a lot of cases driving to the station is the only option, especially if you live in a rural area.

Did you actually just write that, on a cycling forum? :?

Yep, and I stand by it. Cycling to the station would not be an option for most people who would consider anything over 5 miles as too far, they may have to drop kids off at nursery or something on their way or could be scared of riding in traffic especially in the dark. I have to do Green Travel surveys occassionally for my job and all of the above are regularly used as reasons why people won't cycle a couple of miles to work / the station. In some cases it will be valid, in others it's laziness. Add to this the lack of secure cycle parking at most stations and the difficulty getting a bike on a train.

in some urban locations its also a non starter. wifey teaches, needs to be in school at 08.30 latest, we have a 9yr old who starts school at 9am and a 3yr old who is in nursery. nursery is 1 mile from home and her work is another 2 miles on from that. she cant drop eldest at childminder till 8am. . there is also the 50kg of books she needs to transport each day for marking. the logistics are just impossible. I tried to do the journeys by bike in an effort to prove she could use a bike. even without the marking it was impossible to leave home at 07.55 drop both kids off and get to work for 8.30 on the bike. or should she ditch working and we can claim benefts

i tried public transport to do it and that was also a no go

sad fact is some people need a car. live with it.

secretsqizz

Very passionate.. almost a s good as this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MfXdfXsyNA
You have achieved to sound as frivolous as he sounded like someone who will never be forgotten.

rick_chasey

Drysuitdiver wrote:

in some urban locations its also a non starter. wifey teaches, needs to be in school at 08.30 latest, we have a 9yr old who starts school at 9am and a 3yr old who is in nursery. nursery is 1 mile from home and her work is another 2 miles on from that. she cant drop eldest at childminder till 8am. . there is also the 50kg of books she needs to transport each day for marking. the logistics are just impossible. I tried to do the journeys by bike in an effort to prove she could use a bike. even without the marking it was impossible to leave home at 07.55 drop both kids off and get to work for 8.30 on the bike. or should she ditch working and we can claim benefts

i tried public transport to do it and that was also a no go

sad fact is some people need a car. live with it.

Your 9 yr old can cycle on her own to school. Should help a fair bit.

morxy

there is also the 50kg of books she needs to transport each day for marking

Transporting 50kg of your working environment home, then back to its natural place of work every day... is it necessary? That's a big energy requirement. Most people leave their working materials at their place of work and work there till 18:00, 19:00... till their day is done.

But if you have to pick up kids from school and nursery every day, I presume you're forced to leave your place of work before you're finished, forcing you to transport 50kg of your working environment home, so you can finish it there... raising your energy requirements to the extent you can no longer work without a car.

sad fact is some people need a car. live with it.

Fair point.