Is taking the train really faster than driving?
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- čas přidán 15. 06. 2023
- Today, I answer one of my own, and perhaps one of your, burning questions. Is taking the train really faster than just driving? Well, I found out, so you don't have to!
Date of Travel: May 2023
Train
1st Train
Class of Travel: Standard Class (2nd Class)
Rolling Stock: Class 180 Adelante
Type of Service: Express Passenger
Operator: Grand Central
Train Number: 1A27
Origin: Bradford Interchange, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom (England)
Destination: London King's Cross, United Kingdom (England)
Cost of ticket: £21.45 ($27.50, €25.15)
Tube
Class of Travel: N/A
Rolling Stock: London Underground 2009 Stock
Type of Service: N/A
Operator: Transport for London
Train Number: N/A
Origin: King's Cross St Pancras, London, United Kingdom (England)
Destination: Victoria, London, United Kingdom (England)
Cost of ticket: Included in price of first train
Train 2
Class of Travel: Standard Class (2nd Class)
Rolling Stock: Class 377 Electrostar
Type of Service: Express Passenger
Operator: Southern (GTR)
Train Number: 1B58
Origin: London Victoria, United Kingdom (England)
Destination: Bognor Regis (Cancelled at Barnham), West Sussex, United Kingdom (England)
Cost of ticket: £3.95 ($5.05, €4.65)
Car
Type of Car: Nissan Micra K12 (2003)
Operator: Dylan's Travel Reports :)
Origin: Peel Park, Cliffe Road, Bradford, United Kingdom (England)
Destination: Bognor Regis Pier, The Esplanade, West Sussex, United Kingdom (England)
Cost of ticket: c£34.73 ($44.45, €40.55)
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#trainvscar #nissanmicra #trains
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Credits
[1] www.openstreetmap.org under Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL) opendatacommons.org/licenses/... opendatacommons.org/licenses/... opendatacommons.org/licenses/...
Rail emissions: dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statist....
TfL emissions: tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transpar....
Nissan Micra emissions: drive.google.com/file/d/1G45p...
I love these types for videos! I think it was ridiculous the fact the Grand Central staff member told your wife to move. Hidden disabilities are just as important as a wheelchair user or any other type of visible disability. I loved seeing your wife in this video and I hope we see her again soon!
There’s more to this. Price, comfort, mental health, preference due to these factors
HIGH QUALITY AIR CONDITIONING
The car will win all 3 of those.
@@kwlkid85 REALLY depends. Turns out that in most journeys, it’s a combination of multiple that have different results.
@@collectivelyimprovingtrans2460 On realistic journeys (not station to station but place to place) the car will almost always win in the UK. If you already own a car it makes little financial sense to take the train.
@@kwlkid85 Even London to Edinburgh or Glasgow?
Like you, I have very rarely seen the M25 that quiet, but also last time I drove down the A3 it was at little more than walking pace for miles in the Guildford area, so you were very lucky to do the journey that quickly.
At the moment cobham junction is a ball ache because of the works on it, Guildford is always busy, rest of the A3 is alright
Very fascinating and insightful vid this, Would love to see more Dylan v Ellie races, plenty of potential in them
*casually picks up a car key from underneath a tree*
Making me think of TopGear with the races they used to do, love the videos and enjoy Bognor, my sister lives there and loves it
Top Gear was world class
One thing i would change for this format, would be to both start the race from interchange with the car leaving the same time (yes i know this was addressed haha) but that hour wait really killed the drama, or at least have less of a wait in the station 😊
Maybe instead of going for what looked to be an Advance ticket (for the cheapest fare), getting an off peak (or anytime) ticket which allowed for travel on any train would be a good idea. That way, if there's a train ready to depart, just get on it without having to wait etc.
Not that the 1 hour interchange at the train station would have mattered, when the trains were delayed in this instance.
Brilliant want to see more of you together
D
I’m team train but not everyone lives right next to or in the station so it does make sense not to start at the interchange
Start at your house.
The minute I heard Southern Trains were involved in a race there was always going to be 1 winner 😂I'm delayed so often with Southern that it always comes as a surprise when my train is ontime for the whole journey. I've had 3 journeys in the last 3 years that have taken 2 hours longer than planned due to delays and cancellations.
It's really annoying to encounter this kind of thing, but there is no other choice. But I'm glad they have a coupon recently.
I love seeing you got an assistant 😀
Unfortunately the car will win in most cases. In real life your car wait for you outside your house, while the train station is far away. Also you can leave exactly when you want with your car, while the train leaves every hour or half hour. Meaning you might end up way to early with the train. I have been balancing this for most of my life. For the moment I have situated myself in the middle of a city in walking distance to the railway station. Also car parking is so expensive I sold my car. And my work is just three stations down the line. So I am all in for trains for the moment 👍
I really enjoyed that Dylan, thank you Ellie for your contribution to a fantastic blog. I am glad that both of you express your thoughts during the journey and make it interesting. Your Chanel has come a long way over the last few years. I like your efforts to keep the Chanel fresh and not stale with the same old thing. It must be hard to think about fresh ideas for the Chanel . Well done to both of you, keep it up it’s working.
You're both brave to be taking this race. I don't envy Dylan driving all that way in the small Nissan while Ellie's plans would have stalled at the start had GC had to cancel the London train (owing to the 180's unreliability). But well done !
The 180s have never been a reliable unit, even EMR are no longer using them. I believe there were also plans (at one stage) for Grand Central to use ex-Avanti 221s to improve their reliability.
Smaller cars can still drive at motorway/highway speeds, they're just not as comfortable doing so (even Dylan noted that the Micra was noisy at 70mph).
@@TheSpotify95czcams.com/video/13biF0xNYFg/video.htmlsi=d9SsLISgmKs4CSGE
Grand Central is actually running one or two ex-AWC 221s
Thank you very much for this excellent video ! The time difference was surprising, and in most ways the car wins hands down. Your experience highlights the frequent delays of rail travel these days, and poor Ellie had a most unpleasant journey on Southern ! I thoroughly enjoy this type of video by the way !
Ellie is adorable! Love to see you give her speaking roles😊
How about coach vs train for you two?
The bus is indeed an option, sometimes the time is similar to the train and the price is cheaper. But the train has a discount recently, so you can compare the price and time to make a decision.
worth mentioning for purposes of races the Brighton mainline out of London is fairly notorious for delays- you might have been better off going down the Portsmouth direct line from Waterloo, then changing onto the coastway at Havant
But at least by submitting a Delay Repay claim, you'll get some off your ticket, meaning that the train beats the car (in terms of price) even more so.
@@TheSpotify95 Relying on delay repay to beat the price is pretty funny.
@@kwlkid85 certainly makes crosscountry fares less absurd, since somehow i'm always seemingly delayed by them lol
@@robblake8999 I'd take an hour late in exchange for half the fare back most times!
@@kwlkid85 The good thing is that most train companies will refund part of the ticket cost if the delay is long enough.
If you book in advance, train journey prices can actually be reasonable, but get an Anytime Day Return on the day and you may well be stung.
Loved it. Me. & Mrs. Travel Report, both speaking. Driving in the U.K. is confusing for many Americans. I wish we had your travel options
Invisible disabilities can be very difficult! You never know what a person is dealing with, always be kind!
I don’t think I’ve ever heard lovely Mrs say a word in your videos until this one BUT I may well have missed some. But it’s a nice addition!
czcams.com/video/wmg1K0eYGKI/video.html :-)
That was a fun vid. Great job by both of you. Thanks. :)
I'm not gonna say that you should have set off at the same time as the train, but you could have chosen a different starting point rather than one that left Ellie about an hour behind from the moment her first train left the station
But that is the point. You can leave in your car ANYTIME YOU WANT, not true for trains.
I'm also never at the station nearly an hour in advance. Perhaps the next bus would have been cutting it fine, but the car certainly seemed to have an excessive head start in this example.
Great video, Dylan and Ellie! It's always good to see these sorts of comparisons between car and public transport.
Love this format. You should definitely do more
THANKS both of you for a lovely video! ❤
This video had an excellent premise, so I commend you for making it! It did well at characterising a non-savvy public transport user, but it would be more entertaining at least to do a proper race with planned shortest journey times.
Some suggestions for future (hopefully!) episodes might be trying to minimise the journey time - theoretically you could do the trip here in 5h 15m ish (trains only). This route seemed long and the initial hour wait seemed a bit excessive.
The second point is perhaps more controversial - costs. I think that car travel costs should factor an element of maintenance, insurance, and tax. Owning a car is not free, and I think you should amortise the cost per mile. Going by car means paying for parking and all sorts of hidden costs, so this could be a major drawback.
Good luck with future videos!
I would say if you have the car anyway there’s not much point to adding the maintenance costs unless there’s some sort of notable regular issue
I suppose it depends on if you're actually making regular car journeys. If you're regularly using the car for other purposes, then adding an extra trip on for a car vs train video won't make much difference, but if you're using a car purely for a certain purpose (e.g. driving to work instead of taking the train/public transport) then road tax, insurance and MOTs have to be taken into consideration. Plus you have to take into account maintenance costs of making sure the car will actually pass its MOT.
Sample journey comparisons like this are always interesting, but to truly get useful data would probably require taking many samples. Fun video
I would always opt for the train as it maybe slower but you have all your amenities in one place and compared to a car you can go for a walk
Hope to see more of these races. I reckon a race to Paris would be very interesting and close especially with the start being a bit further out of Bradford like Haworth for example.
1. Comfortable car! 2. Do another race! It's great! 3. I suggest you to do Edinburgh to Glasgow! 4. Unlucky Eli, better luck next time! I hope you win! 5. Another suggestion, Edinburgh to Kings Cross via the A1! I'm so excited if you do another race! Loved it!
These kind of videos are fantastic! Definitely more. Maybe even could do some Collabs with other travel Vloggers (ideas lol) and do some races
Something With someone like Jen on the move, a girls vs boys race, not sure which youtuber you could pair up with Dylan though,
The North-South divide is wherever the Waitrose store finder stops 😂
Good stuff, mate. Loved the vid. I live in London but have family in Glasgow so make the trip regularly. When I'm on my own I take the train but when I have kids I drive as the cost is prohibitive. Now I know the emissions difference is also in favour of a full car.
I too, would like to see more videos like this, it was fascinating. I envy you two and your experiences. Don't stop! 👍♥
Great video you two, more please!
I'm a bit late commenting on this one, Dylan; because of other issues in the last month, have only just caught up with an incredible backlog of CZcams viewing. Well! This is a great revelation of the differences between car travel and use of public transport to achieve a given journey.
All the comparisons aside, it was great to see both you and Eli giving a very chirpy conversation about aspects of the journey on what was, apparently, a rather warm summer's day (just a normal late spring, mild summer, early autumn day for me downunder in Melbourne).
You lucked out with forgetting to re-gas the air conditioning in the car but kept your spirits high throughout the journey, so congratulations on that! Looks like a trip to the shearing shed (err... I mean hairdresser) could be in order to relieve some of the summer heat.
Eli really shone with her description of the rail journey. I think I might have had an issue with the Grand Central Conductor though on having to move from the seat of choice to one that gave a crap view through the window. Throughout her journey, she showed remarkable grace, considering the delays, etc.
Whilst you appear to have enjoyed the car trip and have done several such journeys from Bradford to Bognor Regis, I don't think I would like such a long motorway journey in unfamiliar surroundings (unfamiliar to me, that is). I was fortunate not to have any major problems using rail when I visited Britain five years ago, but I understand there have been a lot of strikes, unexpected diversions and reliability issues since my visit and I'm sure extreme heat conditions haven't helped the average traveller's mood.
While a fairly lengthy video to watch, it was very well compiled and edited and a credit to both of you. Thank you for the experience and hope you can continue to involve Eli in your productions. Well done!🙂🙂🙂
Excellent video Dylan and Ellie well done. Hope we see more stuff like this soon.
Loved it, so wholesome
Hey Dylan, I really enjoyed this video and it was lovely to see more of Ellie in this one. More of these please :)
Nice change of pace. I had no idea it ever got that hot in England. It was a fair race as the fact that trains can be delayed and cars can get stuck in traffic are always possible.
Had she not waited an hour and instead caught the next train into Leeds and changed there she would’ve landed in London earlier and faster. Obviously the issues with Southern would have delayed her anyway but the outcome would’ve been miles closer. Otherwise, she’d have easily won by a long shot
Really enjoyed that one Dylan, best of luck with your move to Bognor, was good to see Ellie more involved as well!
You should do Bognor to Wick, and do the beautiful Inverness to Wick Train journey.
Ellie should complain about the conductor assuming she wasn't disabled. I also have a hidden disability, and I have complained twice about staff at Euston to Avanti West Coast.
Bognor Wick would be some drive too 😂
@@DylansTravelReportsthe Inverness to Wick section would definitely be faster by car. I would like to do it by train sometime though.
You've done Inverness to Golspie (nice place) twice I think. It would be nice to see a report on the line north of Golspie.
Loved this .👍🇬🇧
Absolutely brilliant video both...definitely would like to see more videos like this
For emissions you should also take into account the fact that a Class 180 is a diesel train and not an electric train… if you took LNER from Forster Square for example, you’d be doing electric most of the time.
There are differentiated figures I think for diesel and electric trains but of course running for miles on diesel under wires doesn’t favor you in this case!
Fantastic video and very interesting!
The M25 around there especially heathrow and chertsy is always like a car park when I'm there! I hope you had aircon in the car and stopped a few times. Also thanks to you GF for taking part and helping out.
Great vlog. Congratulations on you and Ellie getting married. I really enjoy your vlogs, very informative and always interesting.😉👍
Thanks so much! 😊
Loved this. Like the old top gear challenges. I'd love to do something like this myself. Live near Bath so something like Bath or Bristol to Edinburgh train Vs Coach be a good 👍
Really loved you chatting while driving actually!
That was an interesting challenge and typical of real-world conditions for people living in the UK too. Perhaps you could do something similar one day but from the point of view of a visitor to this country arriving at Heathrow? Make a trip comparing a Hire Car and a Train from a Hotel in London to St. Ives in Cornwall. Non-boring scenic bits for the train from Exeter to Plymouth and on the short train trip from the mainline to St Ives. For more interest the car would go M3, A303, A30, little bit of M5 and then A30 again. The M4,M5,A30 route would be like 40 miles longer and quite boring.
I live just off the A3. Always a nice road to drive, and the landscape from Guildford to Liss is lovely.
Excellent video! Can we please have more of this sort of stuff? Well done Elle!
would love to see more races like this on the channel ☺
Cars for the win! 😎💪🏻 Greatly amusing video by the was.
I still found it cool that he was nerding out about his car and the motorway
This was a fun video!
Epic video!
When I decide on how to travel, I also consider how much mobility I need at my destination.
When I visit a large city with expensive parking and decent public transport, that favours the train. When I visit my family in their small town, I'd get there reasonably well but have very limited mobility once I'm there, so I drive there.
For rural travel destinations, I always liked the combo of flying or taking a fast train to the area and hiring a car to get around - but current rental prices have thrown that option out of the window.
Great vlog, good idea, very enjoyable
Hubby and I thoroughly enjoyed this challenge. More please😊
In my case it is. I live in Malaysia. From Penang to Kuala Lumpur via the highway driving at 100-110km/h, it'll take around 4++ hours. Via train = 3++ hours.
Great trip, and yeah it's great to see Elie comeback as co-trip reporter in this video. For next suggestions of trip like this is from London to Paris, between direct bus and train (not the Eurostar). That speed camera sign is definitely killjoy, maybe I haven't driving yet IRL, but when i play truck simulator and entering UK territory, that speed camera sign is coming as a sudden.
Awesome video both from Alan in Lowestoft buddy 👍
another great video
It really helped the automobile driver that the normally awful traffic around Heathrow Airport was avoided.
Wonderful Compilation
Thanks
not bad! That rain trip was pretty brutal, I bet. i guess sometimes you have to plan ahead for something like this.
Sometimes, with the issues that can arise with train trips, you think you're better off driving instead.
For example, I've recently (as in since the start of the pandemic) made 2 reasonably long train journeys. One was Wellingborough to St Pancras and the other was Wellingborough to Hull (requiring a change at Leicester and Sheffield).
Both train journeys went well, but had there been any cancellations or delays, I would have been left wishing I'd have taken the car instead!
Great video 👍
To make it fair, you probably should have left as the train left. Essentially, you had a pre planned one hour head start. I accept it made for a closer finish, but it also beats the point of the video too. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the video. Great to see Ellie, too. Cheers guys!
I love the integration of your wife in your videos! Love this video, really original :D
Thanks so much!
Look, I love driving and I love my sexy beast of a car. But I wish there were more train options available in the US. MARC here in the east coast is very comfortable.
Very enjoyable video 😎👍🏽🎉🎉👀
Sorry to the Mrs for getting the worse end of the deal with the race. Enjoyed this video and Ellie was really good on camera. Would like to see more of both of you doing videos together. Dylan has got more confident in front of camera also
Watch out Dylan. Ellie looks like she is set to take over you travel videos. Ellie you have a great voice. Thanks to you both for this interesting video.
I hope you enjoyed it overall! When it comes to working out the numbers, there are many variations. When it comes to expenses, some will know that there are established HMRC guidelines for working out running costs for business tax allowances that cover a range of different expenses, not just fuel consumption.
W.r.t. the CO2 emissions numbers, the old official rate of that model is probably out of date, given that the fuel used now has changed c.f. how it was back then - assuming you were using E10. You could do the sums based on your actual fuel used for that trip and look up the CO2 produced by buying that amount, taking into account that a proportion of it is not oil (as the other part is renewable). Have fun with that.
It was a surprise that on the particular journey from Yorkshire down to the extreme south of England, driving beat taking the train on the time-o-meter although part of that had had to do with a delayed train heading south from London.
I enjoy both driving and getting the train but both have their downfalls- You were incredibly lucky to do that journey without being stuck in M25 traffic, and being able to whizz down the A3 without getting stuck behind the many people who hog the outside lane!
Suprised Ellie didn't take Thameslink from St Pancras to East Croydon or Gatwick to avoid using the tube to Victoria. Having said that on the particular day of your journey with the Southern disruption it probably wouldn't have made any difference. Love your videos Dylan. Keep up the good work!
I would love another race!
Can't believe you said the Chichester bypass is in Bognor. How dare you!😂 Great video mate
Quite nice different video, enjoying it so far! :D P.S. The M62 is horrible atm, i travel on it like every week and the speed limits are stupid slow
About the emisions, a note: I believe the fairest way to compare the two would be to divide the car's emisions by the average occupancy of private vehicles in the UK, which is around 1.57. This will give us two figures:
1. Roughly half of all car trips in the UK are made by lone drivers, so it is quite likely that you end up contaminating all that by yourself.
2. The average kgs of CO2 per passenger in this trip is 40.76
Good point, didn't think of that
But you need to do the same for the train. There are not always running at full capacity.
@@johnp139 I suppose the data the UK gov publishes takes on account passenger count. Here in my homecountry of Spain, Renfe calculates it with its average overall occupancy which I believe is in the region of 70%, but I can't say for sure for the UK
Interesting!!
Hi Dylan, I dip in and out of your content so you may have already answered this but what made you move to Bognor? (I grew up there and moved away in 2019 but have my work down there still so go back a few times a year.)
very interesting video. car beats the train mostly depending on traffic of cause.
Enjoyed this ‘race’. I think it was a more honest race than some of the others I’ve seen on CZcams. They are always always biased towards the train, starting and ending somewhere close to the railway stations. This goes for train v plane videos in particular. They also time them so that a train is leaving a few minutes after the ‘race’ begins which means they have to run for it which makes for a better video but isn’t really fair on the opposition who may have to wait for a later flight and hope to catch up. I travel from Glasgow to London a fair bit. Going from, say, George Square in Glasgow to Piccadilly Circus would be quicker by train but I nearly always fly as I live nearer the airport than central station and am visiting somewhere nearer Stansted Airport than Euston Station.
Enjoyed this one, and definitely would have also been interesting if the emissions were less if Eli went from Bradford Forster Square via LNER to London Kings Cross (electric train) instead of the diesel of Grand Central - because according to the ORR stats, the electric emissions are around one quarter of diesel. The 47 gram figure on ORR's main page is all traction which will include diesel. It's a shame that Southern did a Southern and there were delays, and the M25 was amazingly quiet, which is a minor miracle. Definitely an interesting watch and well worth noting the pluses and minuses of each mode of travel.
The Bognor Regis - Littlehampton shuttle service definitely is worth a video on its own when you get chance to do it. There's also two fab crazy golf courses at Littlehampton too (and the two of you must do the Bognor one by the pier) and it's a good little day out.
its not about time, its about comfort, low stress, safety and the scenery
love the car v train video. nice change
You forgot the Dart crossing toll and any parking charges at Bognor. It was a great video well done ✅
Nice video 6:03 reminds me why I hate traveling by bus. The Q to pay, then the general people in the way as you try to get on and them faffing about to sit down and then the noise of the traveling public.
Not always, but it is always safer...
When at Bognor, you could do the Coastliner 700 - Dylan’s bus reports
Whenever I have a train coupon I ignore the bus option because the train is more comfortable.
Hello what is the name of your phone holder in the car ❤
So nice to meet your lovely wife! Great teamwork
A couple of days ago I travelled by train from Bath Somerset to Great Malvern Worcestershire, a distance of 75 miles. It involved 2 changes and took nearly 4 hours. Next time it's going to be the car.
Great video. How about Bognor to Selfridges in Oxford Street as a train versus car. Surely the train would win?
Having looked at various train lines in Yorkshire, I would have looked at a different route. A northern train to Leeds, then a LNER to King’s Cross. The LNER are more often and quicker even allowing for the additional time to Leeds station. Especially as Grand Central is only 4 trains a day. Then at London I would have used Thameslink to East Croydon or Clapham Junction. Then switched there. It would have been less congested at the start of the train from Victoria. Though nothing would have prevented the problems on the train that day.
I wouldn't go that way on balance, although it depends whether you arrive into King's Cross or St Pancras International. It's quite a walk from KGX platforms 0-8 (where she was, as all the long distance traints tend to use) to the Thameslink platforms A&B. KGX concourse to VIC concourse I reckon is 20 minutes by Victoria Line if you know the quick way (although I'd allow 25-30 if it was important to make the connection) You'd get a seat on the train at Victoria, plus there's a lot more facilities at Victoria. If it's a race, I'd also get the Gatwick Express and change at Gatwick Airport. You have to be careful about which tickets are valid for GX though.
Price of public transport is a joke. I travel from Sheffield to fife regularly and the train is 100-200 single bus 20 but that’s 6-7 hours but car is 45ish and faster than both
but the car is a slow way cuz traffic. the only way to speed up cars is VIABLE alternatives to driving
you should do a high speed rail race to france eurostar vs eurotunnel
Hopefully youve not scared her off the trains, at least she'd get her delay repay. Prehaps you should try a Southend trip pier to pier with one of you on C2C and the other on Greater Anglia.