$640.00 to fill the tanks...

Yes, but fuel isn't most of that. And if it weren't for taxes fuel
there would cost what fuel here does. OTOH they have effective
passenger rail transport, we don't.


Less of the here and there, I'm in the UK!

No, we don't have effective passenger rail transport

It takes 5 hours to travel from London to Edinburgh by train, at a cost of
around £80 ($160). Whereas, book early enough, and you can fly from London
Luton (about 30 miles out of London) to Edinburgh with low cost carrier
easyJet.com for around £20 ($40) in just under 50 minutes.

Not a journey I make regularly, but have done it once or twice - only got
the train last time because the plane was cancelled - still, had plenty of
time to sit around and think about it... Okay, I jest - the trains are
good - but only because the entire country is small enough to drive from one
end to the other in about 14 hours, and from one side to the other in about
6 - that makes train journeys sensible in a lot of scenarios where flights
and cars just are pointless.

Oh, and the Pilot magazines here have more adverts in for people to do their
PPL in the USA (and, increasingly, Spain and South Africa) than they do
adverts for UK PPL training - it's about half the cost in the USA, I reckon.

D.

On Wed, 16 Aug 2006 20:47:54 +0100, "David Wright"
wrote:
Okay, I jest - the trains are good - but only because
the entire country is small enough to drive from one
end to the other in about 14 hours, and from one side
to the other in about 6

Damn, it takes about 15 hours just to drive across Texas... And about
18 hours to drive the length of the state... Both are about 900 miles,
but the driving the length of the state involves a few more
non-interstate type roads...

15-18 hours!! No wonder you fly. Buy a nice BMW, Audi, or Porsche and you
should be able to halve that.

On Thu, 17 Aug 2006 11:33:32 -0400, "Skylune"
wrote:
15-18 hours!! No wonder you fly. Buy a nice BMW, Audi, or Porsche and you
should be able to halve that.

Used to own a Porsche... Also had the speeding tickets to prove it...
Top ticket was for 154 in a 55 -- apparently he clocked me when I was
slowing down for a curve...

http://grumman581.googlepages.com/1989porsche944-turbo

These days, most of the vehicles that I drive, I don't have to worry
about them scraping bottom on a speed bump... Well, except my sport
bike... I've had it up to 140 and it was still accelerating quite
nicely... Yeah, had to slow up for a curve on US-151 somewhere between
Marion and Monticello, IA...

http://i3.tinypic.com/wco9ll.jpg

On 2006-08-16, David Wright wrote:
It takes 5 hours to travel from London to Edinburgh by train, at a cost of
around £80 ($160).

They've slowed down that much? When I worked for British Rail, London
King's Cross to Edinburgh took 3hr 59 mins by InterCity 225

Luton (about 30 miles out of London) to Edinburgh with low cost carrier
easyJet.com for around £20 ($40) in just under 50 minutes.

Plus 2 hours check in time at the departure airport, and a further 45
minutes to get to the centre of Edinburgh, don't forget :-)

--
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de

In article ,
David Wright wrote:

It takes 5 hours to travel from London to Edinburgh by train, at a cost of
around £80 ($160). Whereas, book early enough, and you can fly from London
Luton (about 30 miles out of London) to Edinburgh with low cost carrier
easyJet.com for around £20 ($40) in just under 50 minutes.


There is a Top Gear episode in which they buy cars and drive them
from London to some nearby town for less than the train ticket would have
costed them... I was shocked.


--
Eduardo K. |
http://www.carfun.cl | "World domination, now"
http://e.nn.cl | Linus Torvalds

"David Wright" wrote:

Yes, but fuel isn't most of that. And if it weren't for taxes fuel
there would cost what fuel here does. OTOH they have effective
passenger rail transport, we don't.

Less of the here and there, I'm in the UK!

No, we don't have effective passenger rail transport

It takes 5 hours to travel from London to Edinburgh by train, at a
cost of around £80 ($160). Whereas, book early enough, and you can fly
from London Luton (about 30 miles out of London) to Edinburgh with low
cost carrier easyJet.com for around £20 ($40) in just under 50
minutes.

The train is scheduled at 4.5 hours, and Easyjet at 1.25 hours. I found
Easyjet fares for tomorrow at £140, and if you book early enough on the
train, you can find fares as low as £12.50.

The choice of mode really depends on where you are, and where you are
going. If you are in central London, you can arrive at KX only 15
minutes before departure, and be on your way. If you need to go to Luten
or Stansted to catch Easyjet, you need to start out at least 2 hours
ahead, to get to the airport in time to catch the flight. Transportation
to and from the airport adds to the cost, of course. Plus it takes 45
minutes to get into Edinburgh when you arrive at the other end.

Any way you look at it, the trip is still pretty long.

Now, if you lived near Luton, Stansted, or Gatwick, it would be a whole
different calculation, or if you were destined to a place part-way to
Edinburgh, like York or Newcastle.