On Mar 12, 7:15*pm, Neil Williams wrote:
On Sat, 12 Mar 2011 09:56:32 -0800 (PST), NM
wrote:

Four people traveling to work in London and returning home at the
end
of the working day would find it cheaper to hire a minicab than use
the train.

Cheaper yes, but vastly slower. *You can argue about whether trains
make sense for a lot of journeys, but going to London and back in the
peak by car (or taxi) is nuts.


Well that isn't really true is it? You assume that these theoretical
punters want to travel from station to station, if you look at the
real world not the rose tinted failway enthusiasts version and account
for the door to door times then a different story emerges.

Assuming you are in a comfortable climate controlled taxi the stress
of driving it does not rest with you there is plenty of time to work
on the famous laptop that all train enthusiasts claim they carry for
use in transit so they can show their journey is more productive than
driving, or you could read the paper, view a DVD, watch television in
fact everything you can do on the train but you are going door to door
and can stop wherever you want for toilet breaks plus all varieties of
refreshment from hamburger stands to five star restaurants are
available at your whim.

I really don't understand why people use the train it's far too
expensive for what you get unless you can book light years in advance
and be specific about travel times. In the seventies if I had to go
anywhere I had a rule of thumb, one person alone, cheaper by train,
more than one, take the car, that's gone completely out of the window
these days.