Public transport

The trams in Manchester are clean, efficient and frequent. I love them

I spent a large part of my career commuting into central London.

I hated every second. I'm disabled and walk with a stick and standing for more than a few minutes is extremely painful for me.

I rarely got a seat . I had to get the 06:20 train to be in with a chance of a seat and even then it was hit and miss. The carriages were full of builders and city boys , and they would studiously avoid my eye because if they saw me they might have to offer me a seat for the 35 min journey.

Many a time I had to get off before my destination just to get a seat on the platform for a few mins before trying again. They even sat in the allocated disabled seats and even then rarely gave up their seats.

The underground was even worse and in fact the commute was the reason I finally gave up work, 9 years before retirement.

I even tried driving into London but had to leave at 06:00 to try to get a parking space somewhere close to my office and then , even leaving a 16:30 the journey home often took 4 hours and I physically couldn't do it.

I don't miss it a bit!

What is public transport ??

There is a huge difference if you can travel off peak. A recent, similar distance journey to London cost £21 including Underground travel.
I also wonder if it is worth checking National Express - they are often cheaper.
I would also add that it is always worthwhile checking in advance - of course I don't know how tight your budget is generally - but had you been prepared you could have transferred some money from elsewhere, taken a snack yourself, at least not be put in this position.
You can also, sometimes, get some deals, even at peak times, if you put in advance. I recently made a journey from Northampton to Manchester at peak time for £38 return.

Having said that, apart from London, it is usually more expensive to travel by train that take the car. I haven't included in the above figures fuel to the station & car parking charges, and public transport to the train station is not an option unless I want to sleep in the station overnight!

I try not to use the tubes mainly because of the stairs that have to be negotiated at both ends. It takes me ages as I am disabled, walk slowly and use a stick. Wherever I go there are stairs.

I have to admit that I have been extremely lucky re being offered a seat. It is mainly the city boys as N&G noted who have heads down and do not want to know.

On buses it is children and teenagers who take up the disabled seats but most of the time I remind them that they can easily go upstairs whereas I cannot.

I think that the excessive cost was because you did not order your ticket in advance- gone are the days when one can go anywhere by train on the spur of the moment. I used to be able to visit my S in L by marriage at St. Leonards by train for around £20 off peak.

I also travelled to central London daily for work but I was fit and not disabled in those days and could stand the entire journey if necessary. I could probably do it now but it would be difficult.

If your budget is so tight why did you not take a packed lunch?

In answer to your question, I love public transport and do enjoy travelling by train. I live in London and try to walk to my destinations - if it's within an hour then I walk. For longer journeys then I use the Tube if necessary; off-peak is usually OK.

I have no experience of regular commuting in London other than having lived and worked there in the sixties, when, though the tubes did get crowded at rush hour, it was nowhere near as bad as it is now, nor as expensive. Last time we had a weekend in London the cost of travelling about made my jaw drop and the tube seemed to be chocca bloc every time we used it, but you kind of expect that in London. My SGS has his mind set on moving to London when he graduates. I wonder whether he has realistically explored he costs of living there. Like ilovecheese we have a very good, clean, frequent tram service here in Sheffield. Its only drawback is that there are areas of the city that it does not serve.

We use buses, tube and trains in London fairly regularly and although crowded if you must travel in rush hour we found them to be very clean and easy to negotiate. With our Freedom passes we travel free of course but I'm guessing it gets expensive especially trains that aren't booked in advance. I'm the whole I quite enjoy the experience provided I can get a seat.

I'm always very jealous of the options Londoners have whenever we come for a visit (and ditto if we go to Manchester, Ilovecheese). We find both the London tube and bus systems efficient, clean and cheap compared to what's on offer to us (expensive hourly buses that stop at 7 or 8pm, no local train service). And, touch wood, we've always had good experiences travelling down from Yorkshire. I went on the Megabus last time - it cost me £6 return! - but we can get cheap rail deals if we book early. I'm sure it's all different at rush hour.

I've never used public transport in London as I've visited the city three times in 59 years, once with school for a hockey match (coach to and from Wembley stadium) once for a friends wedding (drove there and back) and once for a couple of days sightseeing when apart from a train to get there, we walked or took taxis everywhere!
We have an excellent park and ride service to get into Chester, which we use if we're not intending to buy anything too heavy or bulky, otherwise we drive into the city, where we know of a great car park which costs just £2-00 per day!
We are also only a few hundred yards from a station for trains to Chester or Liverpool and even closer to a bus stop for buses to the same.
Up here it's quite unusual for an 'older' woman to be expected to stand, but if a seat is not offered, I have no hesitation in asking young men to stand. I've never had a refusal yet, maybe I've just been lucky!

The problem for the OP is that Royston to Kings Cross is a busy commuter route so you can't book seats.

As for the Tube, I love the District/Circle Line trains - they're effectively one looong carriage, so very safe and no feeling of claustrophobia!

Even off peak Riverwalk ?

If we visit family in London by train/tube we need the Victoria line. Horrendous !

I'm no expert nina but from my travels I've only seen bookable seats on inter-city routes, not suburban commuter trains.

If you travelled off-peak it would have been cheaper and more chance of a seat. Once in London if I had nothing specific to do I would travel by bus wherever the feeling took me, there is so much of it I have never seen especially north of the river

When we lived in Southend I often took the train into London - I can't remember the price, but I had a rail card which reduced it. To Liverpool St.
Once there I walked. There's so much to see, and you can keep sitting down, buying a coffee etc. I do miss it.

The buses, trams and trains in the West Midlands are great.

Hi Riverwalk

In answer to your question "why didn't I take my own lunch" I thought I would have enough money for a sandwich and coffee!
I have a 13 year old son who is on the autistic spectrum and very challenging - so getting him out the door in the mornings are very hard work.
I'm also a spoonie - meaning I have a chronic disease - in my case it's an autoimmune liver disease which causes severe fatigue (only spoonies understand this type of crippling fatigue) so I don't expect you to begin to understand!
I have no money this month but had a course to attend in Covent Garden - so my husband gave me £40 wrongly thinking it would be more than enough!
My energy has to be managed daily! so walking long distances can take it's toll.

I m not answering this from a London point of view as I don't often travel around London now but from a person with no car and having to rely totally on public transport I have to say it's pretty good around my way and I regularly travel by train to places like Stansted I think when it comes to London it can't be a spur of the moment thing you have to plan ahead, book ahead, book out of peak time and generally do your homework first ...... I would never imagine I could buy a meal or even a snack in London and £40 isn't really much for a day out if you re including travel and food/ drink
I ve never heard the term spoonie what is it short for ?
Anyway I hope you enjoyed the course and it was worth it

I've just googled spoonie, Gail and I've learned something new! I didn't know what it meant in your OP so assumed it was a regional term and wasn't sure how it related to the story of your trip to London. I must say I'd have thought too that I'd have had enough with £40 to at least buy a Boots meal deal lunch to keep me going after transport costs from your area, but obviously I'm wrong. It must be a pain if you can't book earlybird seats and end up having to pay more to sit on the floor.

Sounds grim Gail I rarely travel into London by train, but sometimes we have to.
We prefer the coach to the train.Is that not possible next time for you?

Hi Maggiemaybe

The Spoons theory is a very easy way to explain to people how you cope with daily chores/life depending on the amount of spoons you have.

The only way I could describe chronic fatigue is it's like someone pulling the plug - you can't put another foot in front of you! It's horrid and I get no benefits! It's difficult to work because my son needs me all the time!

Thankyou for taking the time to google spoonie! One day I'll write a post about my liver disease (not alcohol related) xxx

Hi GailJ - I understand about your liver disease since for the past 8 years I ran the liver centre at very well known private hospital - not everyone has that level of fatigue and it guess that youre just unlucky
I commuted into London every day leaving home at 5.30 so I could park at Epping tube station and pay £6 every day ! I used to get home about 8 or 8 most nights because of the pressure of work - most of us were dead On our feet but I had to work -
But the cost of the fares is horrendous - if I wasn't used to travelling up I too would have thought £40 was enough - and how patronising can you be - should have made a packed lunch - I walk everywhere
Just sorry what should have been a nice day out wasn't

Nice to meet you, GailJ, and I hope (if you're new) that we'll see more of you on Gransnet. I'm sure there'll be others on here who are spoonies too, who'd come on to post if you did write about your condition.

Not patronising Janet - just an observation.

Even without the OP's surprise at the £39.50 train fare, £40 was always going to be cutting it fine for a day in London, return rail fare from Royston to Kings Cross, tube to Covent Garden and back, and lunch and refreshments.

Plus, as the OP also seems not to have had access to a debit/credit card or she'd have used one to eat - I'd have taken lunch with me.

Gail I'm sorry about your condition, BTW I do understand as I too worked in an Hepatobiliary unit.