London Banter - View Single Post

[email protected] · March 7th 18, 10:47 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article , (D A Stocks)
wrote:

wrote in message
...
In article , (D A
Stocks) wrote:

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
news In message , at 10:36:14 on Wed,
7 Mar 2018, Clive Page remarked:

A £5 fare would be (at 20mph) 2.6 miles, £20 11.5 miles. That's a
stupendous amount of "getting lost"

Is Uber any good?

I've not been encouraged by their website. For a journey that we do
occasionally by taxi from our local station to home, it shows a range
of fares from £4 to £16 (a black cab typically costs £5.50).

Once you get outside metropolitan areas the cost per mile is a
killer. Even a short-ish trip to an airport (let's say 50 miles) is
grossly uncompetitive with local minicabs.

I've just got a quote for central Brighton to Gatwick Airport (around
30 miles) that compares reasonably well with a turn up and go fare in
a minicab. Wise travellers to an airport use a pre-booked specialist
airport car service, but I once had to grab a cab off the rank at
Brighton station when I arrived to find the rail service to be in
tits up mode.

You could of course just get a direct train from Brighton to
Gatwick Airport!

Only if such a train is available.

If you're travelling at times when there are no trains (0010 to 0510) taxi
fares tend to attract premium rates.

--
Colin Rosenstiel