What might be the effects of the rapidly increasing motor vehicle fuel costs?

[Mick F]

+1

[pwa]

My daughter has just ensured that my mother got on her train from Bridgend to Manchester Piccadilly where she will be met by my brother. My daughter is upset because she had to leave my Mum, 85 with a pacemaker and not good on her feet, standing in a ram packed train with her small case beside her. Next time I will drive her.

Nail,head,on!
Which illustrates the state of public transport in the UK,it needs renationalising soon and being run efficiently and reliably as a service to the public,instead of a business to provide profits for investors!

As a happy update, I've just phoned her at my brother's home in Radcliffe and she got there okay. Apparently a young woman gave up her seat almost immediately, so she didn't stand for long. There are still nice people out there.

[reohn2]

My daughter has just ensured that my mother got on her train from Bridgend to Manchester Piccadilly where she will be met by my brother. My daughter is upset because she had to leave my Mum, 85 with a pacemaker and not good on her feet, standing in a ram packed train with her small case beside her. Next time I will drive her.

Nail,head,on!
Which illustrates the state of public transport in the UK,it needs renationalising soon and being run efficiently and reliably as a service to the public,instead of a business to provide profits for investors!

As a happy update, I've just phoned her at my brother's home in Radcliffe and she got there okay. Apparently a young woman gave up her seat almost immediately, so she didn't stand for long. There are still nice people out there.

Glad to hear she was OK,and yes there are far more good and caring people than bad

[Cyril Haearn]

Maybe buses run from Bridgend to Manceinion

[thirdcrank]

I'm sure we all agree that individual cases of difficulty can be distressing and few people want them to happen but the underlying points are that many more people now expect to travel further and more often than was once the case before the greater availability of the motor car, and the concurrent deterioration of a many public transport services has disproportionately affected those who would always have relied on them.

[horizon]

Just out of curiosity, why didn't your daughter/you accompany your mother on the train?

I had to mind the car, with there being no dropping off area and the traffic wardens quite attentive. So I took my daughter to do the accompanying.

Thank you but I meant why didn't your daughter actually travel with your mother and then back again (same as you if you had taken the car)?

[pwa]

Just out of curiosity, why didn't your daughter/you accompany your mother on the train?

I had to mind the car, with there being no dropping off area and the traffic wardens quite attentive. So I took my daughter to do the accompanying.

Thank you but I meant why didn't your daughter actually travel with your mother and then back again (same as you if you had taken the car)?

Time and cost I suppose. Several hours each way (180 miles or thereabouts) and Mum is fine if she is sat down. One train with no changes en route. My brother was at the other end to meet her. The reverse process will happen next week when she returns.

[pete75]

One positive aspect of using higher fuel prices to reduce car use is that the people who pay most are those with the thirstiest cars doing the highest mileage. Those with smaller more frugal cars, using them sparingly, will pay less. So the high mileage Range Rover driver pays much more through the pump than the low mileage Citroen C1 driver.

Spot on. I also think that road tax should be lower on older cars to benefit low income persons/ families. All this misery and pain rubbish put out by the motoring organisations is comical - one often has to remind people to turn their engines off while they chat to friends at the road side. Fuel is cheap, cheap and cheap except that it is hugely costly.

Road tax is free on older cars.

[horizon]

Well, forty years old! I was more thinking ten years old. There is evidence that says an older vehicle is less polluting due to the fact that it still uses the same materials in used in its initial production. Higher fuel duty would take care of the temptation to drive it too much.

[Cyril Haearn]

Well, forty years old! I was more thinking ten years old. There is evidence that says an older vehicle is less polluting due to the fact that it still uses the same materials in used in its initial production. Higher fuel duty would take care of the temptation to drive it too much.

You underestimate the stupidity of the average moton
The whole price structure would have to change so fuel were as expensive as whisky maybe, GBP 10/litre?

They are really SO stupid, the motons
I occasion have to wait 10 minutes at a folding bridge
Granted, most switch their engines off (I find the silence very relaxing) but many start their engines again before they can move off
Doubtless to keep the engine warm so they can get to the fuel station asap, or so the airCon works

How stupid can one be?

[Mark R]

Would higher fuel prices penalise rural dwellers? It's a card often played...

Maybe in the short term, but if car travel wasn't so easy and cheap maybe your local shops and services would start to reappear?

[thirdcrank]

The modern type of "rural dweller" is at the heart of this. They talked out the fuel price escalator but market-led rises won't respond to that sort of lobbying.

It must hit people who live and work in rural areas hard.

[mjr]

If by "rural dweller", you mean second-homer. I strongly suspect they travel around by car or SUV much more than permanent residents, for various reasons, some hard to argue with. Of course, most of our MPs only live rurally part-time...

[Mick F]

You don't know much about cars do you? The engine has to be started before the car can move off.

Our car doesn't and neither does the engine need to be running for the aircon.

Hybrid.

[pwa]

I live in a village surrounded by countryside, but even though we don't have the choice of public transport you get in cities we find car use much more efficient than in a densely urban area. Traffic flows easily. Not much stop-start. And our edge-of-town Tesco is only four miles and two sets of traffic lights away, so we can get to it using less fuel than many city dwellers would use on their weekly grocery shop. We do need a car more than we would if we lived in a city, but our car use is more efficient with fuel. So we won't be feeling the pinch any more than the average car user.