Plan a journey! Activity 2

By Car to Tottenham Court Road
Start destination: Bedford, MK41, Bedfordshire
Date to go by car: 19/9/07
Time to go: 12:30 PM
Estimated mileage: 57 miles
Estimated time: 1 hour, 35 minutes
Estimated finish time: 14:05 PM
Costs: Petrol (£15.00 estimate), the map (£5.00 estimate),
Sources used: Laptop/computer, internet, The AA.com route planner, maps

By Rail to Tottenham Court Road
Start destination: Bedford, MK41, Bedfordshire
Date to go by rail: 19/9/07
Time to go: 12:25 PM
Estimated mileage: -
Estimated time: 1 hour, 36 minutes
Estimated finish time: 14:01
Costs: £20.00 plus return
Sources used: Laptop/computer, internet, firstcapitalconnect.co.uk

In these two sets of results, I had to use internet services to tell me how long it would take me to get to Tottenham Court Road via car and rail. By looking on the internet, I was able to find out that taking the car would by the fastest option, without any guarantee there won’t be traffic along the road. For the car journey, I had to look at the AA.com route planner to find out the mileage and the estimated time. As an example of an online service, this website was a lot more helpful when compared to the firstcapitalconnect.co.uk website in which I had to go through registration processes to see train times and costs for Bedford Railway Station. Advantage although, the website allowed me to book tickets online and provided a guarantee of reservation on the train. For real-time information on timetables, the firstcapitalconnection.co.uk website allowed me to access the relevant times I was looking for as well as the amount of changes the train would take during the course of the journey.
In both cases of the journey, I had to rely on the internet to research my ideal times for leaving and arriving, and costs of the journey. But in the case of traveling by car, I would have had to buy a map of the area to find out how to get there.This plus the cost of petrol for the car, added up to more expenses than traveling by train. Therefore, the train service has proved not just to be a reliable and user-friendly site, is a lot more convenient with expenses such as costs and fuel.