The Oil Drum

Hello,
I am a long-time reader at the Oil Drum but this is my first comment.

"The only reason the UK continues to roll along with 9 dollar equivalent gas per gallon is that most people in Great Britain use public transit which goes everywhere."

I see variations on the above a lot in peak oil discussions but I must question the truth of this statement. There is indeed a large bus and train system but it is hideously expensive to use unless you are a) retired (in Scotland at least) or b) at school. As someone who, until recently, only used public transport I can give concrete figures for the cost of using the bus. To travel from the village I live in to the nearest town cost £4.75 for a return ticket in 2006, in 2007 this cost was raised to £14.10. For myself, my wife and my 7 year old daughter to travel to Stirling and back now costs over £35 by bus. We realised that we couldn't afford this and so bought a cheap second-hand car that now costs £6 in petrol for the same trip. Even factoring in road tax, insurance etc. there is a huge saving especially as our small car gets around 45mpg.

People are abandoning buses in droves and trains are much more expensive than buses, I hardly know anyone that uses the bus nowadays.
There has been a lot of discussion regarding people leaving their car at home and using public transport but the one aspect that is rarely mentioned is the ever increasing cost of using buses, trams and trains. For public transport to be practical it must be subsidised but this is anathema to our current free-market obsessed govt.

All the best,
Fergie