Daisy Green travels up and down the UK

This last week I have been lucky enough to have been to both London and Reading on 2 separate occasions, both purely for fun. The first journey I took the train from Newcastle to London, followed by the tube to Hampton Court where my little brother lives.

A relaxed, 3 hour journey provided the chance to chat to anyone who would listen (thankfully a chatty male physiotherapist was sitting opposite me!) and the ability to type up some articles. Every second of the train journey was put to good use. A frantic 20 minutes on the tube and then a sedate train journey to Hampton Court followed, but thankfully I was accompanied by “our kid” who had kindly come to Kings Cross to meet me.

Now, the following weekend, I chose to drive to reading simply because of my perceived CLART ON, getting to Reading from Newcastle on the train. Never again.

Far from the relaxed journey of the previous week, I was stuck in numerous traffic jams due to the high maintenance that the entire M1 needs, then of course the permanent car park that is the M25, and then onto the packed M4. Delightful, I do not think. I spent the entire journey getting very cross with all those people who simply refuse to pull over out of the middle lane (what is it with people sitting in the middle lane anyhow?) and panicking at the cost of petrol.

The travel time to Hampton took only 4 hours in total, even with all the changes; to Reading took 5 and a half. My perspective of my fellow humans was radically altered on both journey from “isn’t is lovely to meet new people and chat away” to “GET OUT OF THE MIDDLE LANE YOU ************” (fill in the missing blank with any word you feel appropriate.)

As for monetary cost, train booked the day before £99 + £14 for tube passes, total £113. And the car, £85 petrol plus 600 miles added. I used www.co2balance.uk.com to work out my carbon emissions for both journeys. On the train it was 0.05 tonnes and 4kg for the tube and by car 0.18 tonnes, more than 3 times as much.

All in all, for my sanity, time taken and carbon emissions, it was far more preferable to get on the train. Even though it was nearly £30 more, it was money well spent. And to be fair, I booked the tickets the day before I travelled, had I been a bit more organised, it would have been cheaper to get the train too.