Cars three timesas expensive as buses

USING your car in France can cost three times as muc as using public transport – and that’s before the cost of petrol, which reached its highest ever at €2 a litre for SP95 in Paris recently.

A study by transport users federation FNAUT found for trips of up to 80km – the vast majority of everyday trips – each kilometre by car costs €0.25 per person as against €0.09 on average for each person on public transport.

The costs change slightly in the provinces, where public transport is dearer, costing €0.13 per person as against €0.11 in Ile-de-France – while using TER trains cuts the bill to €0.07 per person.

This makes the TER six times cheaper than the car for a journey such as from Lyon to Saint-Etienne.

FNAUT economist Jean- Marie Beauvais said they found one surprising fact in calculating car costs, including insurance, depreciation, maintenance: it is now three times less expensive – in real terms – to travel 100km by car than 30 years ago.