Many Year Ago,

in the UK, British Rail came up with the slogan,

 'Let The Train Take The Strain', an admirable sentiment, but in this day and age cripplingly expensive, take the travel plan of 27-year-old Tom Church, from London, he wanted to visit a friend and colleague in Bristol, just 100 miles away, but was put off by the high cost of a train ticket, after seeing a photo of a £218 ($311) train ticket for the same route he was interested in, posted on Reddit, Tom was both outraged and inspired to come up with a cheaper alternative, after doing some research, he figured out that it would actually be cheaper to buy a used car for the trip, did I just read that correctly?

“I found the car on Gumtree,” Tom Church said, “The lady I bought it from, was basically selling it for scrap. It’s a very old car, 1997 Honda Civic, but the MOT was fine, plus, the engine was small enough that I could get the cheapest road tax, a minimum of six months for £81.38, the total cost was £206.81, less than just one train ticket, and I still have a car at the end of it!” the car itself cost just £80, but he also had to spend £81.38 on road tax, £20.43 on insurance for one day and £25 petrol, a peak-time return ticket from London to Bristol cost between £210 – £218.10, so his way was actually a few pounds cheaper,

it just goes to show if you have no alternative, how rail travelers and tourists in the UK are ripped off daily! but what an amazing example of thinking outside of the box.