A valuable lesson I’ve learned about travelling to uni

I LOVE trains. Always have done. And when the Glasgow to Edinburgh main line was electrified in 2016, it seemed things were on the up.

Shiny new trains, more seats, faster journeys – it all sounded great. Never again was I to feel like landfill in a rail carriage.

So you would assume I’d be ecstatic at the prospect of returning to rail travel when university life gets back to normal. Well, not exactly. In fact, I will be sitting comfortably. In a car. My car.

This is because the issues that put me off rail travel in the first place have only been compounded.

It appears that adding more carriages to trains is like adding an extra lane to a motorway. The additional space is simply filled by extra traffic, and the initial problem of overcrowding comes straight back to your doorstep. Like junk mail.

Why don’t I just take the bus? It’s much easier with its door-todoor stop-and-go action, right?

Well, no. Crowded, cramped, noisy and uncomfortable sum up double-decker despair. And it’s not worth the money either.

By contrast, a journey in the blissful comfort of your own car can be quite a soothing experience – although with many roads as bumpy as farm tracks, driving is in no way therapeutic. And I say that as a bona fide motoring enthusiast.

What it is, though, is reassuring.

Too hot, too cold? Fix it at the twist of a dial. Uncomfy

Road Record recently revealed that nearly half of Scottish students have driven to their universities to start the new academic year. Here, Glasgow University geography and business undergraduate JONATHAN BRYCE, 20, explains why he ditched public transport for his own four wheels en route to Glasgow’s west end – and has no intention of doing a U-turn. seat? Adjust it and bowl along to the beat of your very own soundtrack through a proper speaker system.

You don’t have to abide by timetables, most of which aren’t followed by the train and bus companies that create them anyway.

You don’t have to suffer the pouring rain or howling wind, and, perhaps most importantly, if your car achieves more than 9mpg, the money you spend on fuel over the course of the year will be much less than you’d spend on a season ticket.

And you can take that to the bank.