People tell me I should use public transport to save on money, so I decided to check cost differences.

To use buses only, would take me 2 hours on a good day, and on a bad day, possibly 3 hours to get from one end to the other. A single bus fare would cost me £2.40 (2 buses), costing £24 a week.

To use underground only, would take me 1.5 hours to 2 hours on an average day. I have to travel from Zone 5 to Zone 1. I travel during the peak so that costs me £4.60 each way, total of £9.20 per day, or £46 per week.

If I wanted the flexibility of using both, a monthly season ticket between Zones 1 and 5 costs me £205.10 or £51.28 per week.

Buses, so far are the cheapest option, but they are the slowest (at 2-3 hours) and are most prone to have disruptive commuters (school kids, drunks, smokers)

But what about if I use a car? In a car it takes me 30-45 minutes to get to work in the morning, and about the same to get home. If I hit a peak of traffic, it maybe, at worse, 1.5 hours. Compare that to a 1.5 hours BEST case on the underground and 3 hours WORST case on the buses.

Here’s my breakdown of costs:

Diesel: Approx £16 pw — I fill up every 3 or so weeks, and on everage, it is about £16 per week of fuel

Road Tax: £0.39 pw (£20 per year)

MOT: £1.05 pw (£54.85 py)

Service (Full): £6.05 pw (£314.36 py) — including work done. If no work actually needs to be done, then this is much lower.

Tyres (4): £4.58 pw (£238 py) — assuming I have to change all tyres at least once a year. Not likely as I don’t do too much mileage, and I have only had to change the tyres once since buying the car.

Insurance: £8.65 pw (£450 py)

Total Cost Per Week: £36.72

So, even with the worst case scenario (lots of work to do on the service and yearly replacing of the tyres), my weekly running cost is STILL less than a season ticket on the Public Transport (and I also get to and from work a HELL of a lot faster).