Dave Arquati wrote:

You're missing a rather significant point - which is how the people on
the M25 bus got onto it in the first place. You either need a large
number of bus routes from each centre of population within the
travel-to-work area for Staines, or you need feeder buses from the
origin towns too. If it's the latter, as I suspect you are suggesting,
then any journey to Staines that way will involve *at least* 2 changes.
....
That perfect journey takes 55 minutes. The AA say it takes about 30
minutes by car. Therefore, the near-perfect PT alternative takes nearly
twice as long. You may have provided a vastly superior PT service to the
current offering, but it still can't compete with the car for orbital
journeys.

The additional problem is that this is a gross over-simplification. How
likely is it that the commuter actually lives in Reigate town centre, or
at least within a few hundred metres of the road between the town centre
and the motorway?

For most people, this problem can be much alleviated by cycling the
first and/or last leg. When changing from PT to bike there is no
waiting time, and because bike journey times are so accurately
predictable, only a couple of minutes are lost when changing the other
way.

If people can easily and quickly get 2 or 3 miles to their transport
hub, many fewer points need to be served by PT, and it becomes much
easier for it to compete with the private car.

From where I live, I can walk to two tube stations, on different
lines, in 7 or 12 minutes respectively. But in 12 minutes I can cycle
to at least 4 more stations, giving me access to about 6 extra rail
and tube services. By starting by bike, I can get to much of London
with no changes - and to virtually all of the south-east with one change.

And the journey times will compete well with the car too.

Colin McKenzie