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Old January 20th 11, 07:20 AM posted to uk.transport.london,uk.railway,uk.local.london
Stimpy Stimpy is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Aug 2003
Posts: 254
Default A fare-free travel system for the UK

On Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:17:33 +0000, Jeremy Double wrote
On 18/01/2011 15:00, Alistair Gunn wrote:
In uk.railway Stimpy twisted the electrons to say:
Most people don't live within walking distance of a railway station.


What constitutes "walking distance" when you say this? Obviously
different people will have different ideas as to what would be reasonable
(one person's walk to the shops might be a major expedition requiring a
support vehicle to somebody else!), but just wondering what sort of
ballpark figure you had in mind?


It depends on what the alternative is... if there is a bus service on a
1 hour frequency, then a walk of 30 minutes (or about 2 miles) is not
unreasonable. But not if I've got heavy luggage.

When I was a student, I once walked from Machynlleth to a youth hostel
in Corris, about 5 or 6 miles, because there was no convenient bus. So
IMO "walking distance from a station" is further in rural areas, where
there is no convenient alternative.


Not if you have to do it more than occasionally. If my local station was 5-6
miles away, there's no way I'd define that as 'walking distance'