(06 Sep 2019, 5:59 pm)streetdeckfan wrote

But the thing is if she is using the bus to commute to work every day, there is no way she would be buying a return ticket every day. It would be more cost effective to buy a weekly ticket as Martijn said. Then again, assuming a clean run, it'd probably cost her about £1.20 in petrol/diesel for her return journey, there is no way a bus could compete with that... or could it?

What people fail to take into account is by the time you add in all the extra expenses of running a car like buying/leasing the car, maintenance, insurance, the car does actually become quite expensive.

If for example we lease a base Vauxhall Corsa with maintenance included, that's probably going to cost around £160 a month, plus insurance that's taking it to about £200 a month just to have the car.

Then the price of the fuel for her journey on top of that would take it to about £225 a month.

If we then look at the price of a 2 Zone Network One pass, which is what she would need, that is only £86.50 for a 4 week ticket.

Less than half the cost per month for her journey, and that's assuming she only uses her car for commuting.

With a car, the more you travel, the more fuel you use, so the more it costs. With a bus pass, you can use it as much as you like and it costs the same

I've mentioned this before, what if she starts at 530am on some days - no matter how you calculate that i'd like to see her use the bus for that journey..... and maybe once or twice a week they'ed rather go further afield than tyne and wear?

(06 Sep 2019, 6:50 pm)streetdeckfan wrote

I mean, there is an unofficial park and ride system in place, that being the Metrocentre. I know a few people who just park in the Metrocentre and get the bus into Newcastle, and for me anyway paying £15 a week to not have to sit in traffic doesn't sound like that bad of a deal!

The fact is that during the day, the Metrocentre car parks are dead, it would be relatively easy for an official park and ride system to be implemented since basically everything is already in place. I would imagine it would be quite good for Intu as well, since people might just call in to pick a few things up on their way home from work.

I'd be very carefull about doing this. My mate work in M&S at metro centre and there have been tickets placed on cars when cameras have seen people parking then going for the bus/train.  It does say on the signage that you cannot use the carpark to park and ride.