[Rusalka]

Originally Posted by Laois Commuter

A Portarlington - Dublin Heuston annual costs €2210. Assuming 47 weeks use, 5 days per week, that works out at €47 per week, or about €9.40 per day. That is 11c per mile (assuming 40 miles each way) - and that is before taxsaver. You cannot come near to running a car for that.

It would be really nice if the €2210 (less tax) was the only charge for everyone, though.

Hubby and I are going to drive from next year on. The €384 parking charge is the main deciding factor, unfortunately. I honestly weighed up the pros and cons of continuing to commute via rail, but unfortunately it's no contest anymore.

Here's our reckoning (lets assume we live in a dream world where the ticket prices don't rise next year ):

Current commute by rail/bus:

Our annual rail passes would cost €4620. (€2210+€2210+one bus add-on of €200)

With 41% taxsaver, we'd actually pay only €2725.80.

Adding 48 weeks parking @ €8 per week (€384) and you get €3109.80 per annum.

Add to this, the cost of driving in and out to the station every day:

2.2km (per Google Maps) x 10 journeys/week = 22km/week or 1056km/year.

Car gets 15km per litre petrol (conservative average town/country driving - we drive a titchy, economical little car!), so at petrol estimate of €1.33 per litre (let's suppose it goes up again), that's an additional €93.63 per annum.

When we get into Heuston, I would take the 92 or walk if the weather's good, so my ticket would be covered by my bus add-on of €200. However, my husband needs to take 2 buses to get to work (3 days a week), so he uses a Travel 90 ticket, costing €1.70 each way. This is an additional €10.20 per week, or €489.60 per annum.

Grand total for our 48 week year is then €3109.80 (train) + €93.63 (petrol to/from station) + €489.60 (Dublin Bus) = €3693.03, or €76.94 per week.

Switching to a commute by car is as follows:

Route to work, including a little detour on days he travels, and drops me off: 74.19km each way 3 days a week and 69.89km each way 2 days a week (per AA RoutePlanner) = 724.7km/week. Given our 15km/litre, that takes about 48.31 litres of petrol, and costed again at, say, €1.33, that's €64.26 per week, or €3084.32 per annum.

So we have €3693.03 per 48-week annum for the train/bus option, and €3084.32 for the driving option, saving about €608.71 - little more than the cost of the parking charge, you might say, ASSUMING ticket prices for rail and bus stay the same next year - and that's not going to happen, is it?

However, when you consider the commute times as follows:

Daily commute by rail/bus:
(Average daily commute times we currently do most often than not when we have to drive)
Inbound:
Him: Dep. 07.30, Arr. 09.40 = 2 hours 10 minutes
Her: Dep. 07.30, Arr. 09.15 = 1 hour 45 minutes
Outbound:
Him: Dep. 17.00, Arr. 19.30 = 2 hours 30 minutes
Her: Dep. 17.30, Arr. 19.30 = 2 hours

Total time: 8 hours 25 minutes

Daily commute by car:
(Maximum trip times encountered to date - for example, Monday mornings through school term times, and Friday evenings)
Inbound:
Him: Dep. 06.30, Arr. 08.00 = 1 hour 30 minutes
Her: Dep. 06.30, Arr. 07.45 = 1 hour 15 minutes
Outbound:
Him: Dep. 16.00, Arr. 17.45 = 1 hour 45 minutes
Her: Dep. 16.15, Arr. 17.45 = 1 hour 30 minutes

Total time: 6 hours

I know we have to leave earlier than usual, but we get home earlier too (both have flexible working hours). If we leave at 7am, it takes about 20 minutes longer to get in, at 7.30am, it takes about 35 minutes longer to get in, but leaving at 8am, we can add only an additional 20 minutes or so, but then we wouldn't be able to leave early in the evening, and as the journey time is quite unpredictable leaving Dublin city centre past 4.30pm, at that stage it could take about 2 hours to get home (which is still as quick as the train!), but we'd be better off having supper in Dublin and waiting past rush hour until about 6.30pm before leaving, as it would be more pleasurable than sitting in the traffic.

As well as this, we're currently paying for our annual tickets, but we find that we often have to drive 2, 3 or 4 times a month anyway, as we will want to go out in Dublin for a gig or a meal or to see friends/family, and there is simply no train to get us home afterwards.

So that's why we're back in the car from next January. Oh, that and the antisocial muppets who use the train - smokers, and rail staff who just don't care about it, crappy-noisy-earbud-wearers (the byelaw-breaking tools!), Crazy Frog ringtone users, hen and stag parties getting p*ssed, the queueing at Heuston for seats some (most?) days, the late boarding of trains, cancellation of trains, bus transfers, school tours booking up whole carriages at a time, waiting in the rain for buses to/from Heuston, etc., etc., etc. - all things we were willing to put up with in the past.

At least in the car, I don't have to queue, it's always clean (ish!), it's always quiet (or I have music of MY choice!) and dry, and there's no antisocial gobshytes (unless I'm being particularly cranky!)

I know the roads can have problems too - pile-ups, slow moving traffic in adverse weather, stress of dealing with some stoopit road-users, etc., but honestly, we feel it'll be less painful than the train has become.

I'm not arguing that cars are the perfect way to go - far from it - I LOVE trains, and I take them all over Europe (including the gorgeous sleepers!) in preference to any other form of transport, but this latest charge (for what really is a crappy, crappy parking facility) is just a step too far for me, I'm sad to say.