What’s The Most Economic And Convenient Way Of Travelling Throughout The UK?

The cost of travelling in the UK can vary wildly, depending upon where you live. In general, if you reside in the bigger cities there tends to be more competition between rival transport operators - whether they are airline, train or coach companies - so chances are travellers will be paying a lot less per mile than their rural cousins. However, if you do live slightly out of the way, you may find travelling around the UK a lot more expensive. And if you reside in the sticks, forget public transport altogether; the infrastructure just isn’t there so a car is the only real alternative for getting around.

So, how do prices match up when it comes to differentiating between air, rail or road travel? For many years, air travel was only for the better off, with prices out of the reach of the masses. However, with the advent of low-cost airlines, competition increased and prices have dropped dramatically to the extent that an airline ticket can cost the same or less than mainline train tickets. Depending upon the carrier, a cheap return air ticket between London and Manchester can cost as little as £69 - comparing favourably against a return train trip fare of £110! However, low-cost domestic airlines only operate between major airports, which tend to be few and far between, giving the traveller less choice if they live outside the country's major conurbations.

Train operators have been subject to criticism lately, both over the cost of travelling and also their inability to consistently keep to their published timetables. Indeed, Virgin recently lost their cross-country franchise after 10 years service, mainly due to one in five trains arriving late and costing the government over £2m per week in subsidies. This move is seen by many as the start of price increases for train travellers, as the operators will now seek to recover their costs from the public rather than the government.

Coach travel is mostly a cheaper alternative to using trains or planes and in many cases can be even better value than car travel. Most coach travel in the UK operates between fixed routes on a timetable basis, but there are also many charter companies from which you can hire a coach to a destination of your choice. This is a handy solution if a group of people wish to travel to a special event, and again can prove cheaper than taking the car.

In summary, there are many options for travelling throughout the UK, but the majority of us still choose to use our own private transport. That is likely to continue until there is major investment in the rail and road infrastructure; until then travelling anywhere in the UK will continue to be frustrating, mostly expensive and largely unsatisfying.

Elisha Burberry is a freelance writer who enjoys sharing her works over the internet