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by davesmith1983 2510 days ago
Interesting tbh if it was the same amount of time I would just drive in.

Outside of London the train is always slower. I used to live in Manchester and get the train into Stoke. Driving was always faster without exception. Generally it was cheaper as well (I have a crappy old diesel astra that is even cheaper to repair and I will drive it til the wheels fall off).
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isostatic 2510 days ago
All things being equal I'd rather take the train - you can read, work, watch TV

The main benefit of driving is not having to wait for a specific train.

From where I live in south cheshire, it's quicker to get the train into Manchester than drive (although quicker to drive to Stoke than train). That's with a 0930 arrival in Picadilly Gardens.

Same to get to Cardiff, Birmingham and certainly London (2h15 to Euston, vs 2h40 to the M25 with no traffic)

If I had to be in Picadilly Gardens for 0900 though it would be faster to drive thanks to the train times.

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davesmith1983 2510 days ago
Virgin trains wants basically another 10-15 a month on top of your journey for internet and you can't take a bike on their trains without phoning ahead first. Cross country aren't much better.

Phone internet doesn't work on the train typically. That combined with the travel sickness after each journey make the car much more appealing.

I will never go back to using the train as long as I can legally drive. They are just garbage in the UK and expensive.

I doubt I will buy a new car either. I own two cars. I have an old 1994 mercedes SL which is kept in a storage garage at the moment and the other car is a 2005 vauxhall astra that is getting up to 400,000 miles and doesn't show any signs of dying just yet. Every newer car I have driven is full of mostly electric crap which tends to break or they have some awful drive by wire nonsense that takes the feeling out of the vehicle.

I think much like the operating systems I use, I am going to resist using any newer tech as long as I am able to.

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isostatic 2510 days ago
I use 4G tethering and works really well between Crewe and Manchester (well enough for uninterupted youtube streaming and ssh sessions). Virgin "pendilinos" have free wifi now too. Northern run on the Manchester-Stoke line and don't need bike reservations. YMMV.
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davesmith1983 2510 days ago
Yeh well I gave catching the train a chance (I was riding trains for about 10 years before I could afford a car) and driving is much easier.
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