Commute Cost Comparison Calculator
Compare driving, train, bus and cycling side by side — cost per day, per month and per year — and see how much switching from your current commute could save you, invested.
Estimate only. These are estimates based on the figures you enter — actual fuel prices, fares, parking charges and fees vary and change over time. Always check current prices before deciding.
| Mode | Per day | Per year |
|---|---|---|
Car | £7.31 | £1,681 |
TrainPriciest | £14.00 | £3,220 |
Bus | £4.20 | £966 |
CycleCheapest | £1.60 | £368 |
Swapping from Car to Cycle — your cheapest option — could save you this much a year, at your commute pattern.
Redirecting £109/month into an investment growing at your chosen rate could add up to:
Grown from £13,133 paid in, plus £3,861 in growth.
| Years | Paid in | Total value |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | £13,133 | £16,994 |
| 20 | £26,266 | £44,984 |
| 30 | £39,398 | £91,082 |
Illustrative only, not investment advice — growth isn't guaranteed and this doesn't account for charges or tax.
- Park-and-ride hybrids: driving part-way and taking the train or bus for the rest can combine cheap parking with avoiding city-centre congestion charges and parking fees.
- Ask about an employer season ticket loan — many UK employers offer an interest-free loan to buy an annual season ticket upfront, which is usually the cheapest way to pay for rail or bus travel.
- Every work-from-home day compounds: dropping from 5 to 3 office days doesn't just cut costs by 40% — it can tip the cheapest mode entirely, e.g. from a season ticket to pay-as-you-go fares.
- Check whether your route falls inside a Clean Air Zone or ULEZ — an older, more polluting car can add a daily charge on top of fuel and parking that this calculator doesn't include.
How each mode's cost is worked out
Car cost uses your one-way distance, fuel economy and fuel price to work out a return journey's fuel cost (the same formula as our Fuel Cost Calculator), plus any daily parking. Train and bus each take a single "cost per day" figure — for train this can be a genuine daily fare or a season ticket price divided by the days it covers; for bus you can enter a flat daily fare or switch to a weekly price cap, which many UK bus operators offer and which often works out cheaper than paying per journey. Cycling has no fuel cost, just a small maintenance estimate per mile. Multiplying each mode's daily cost by your commute days per week and working weeks per year gives the annual comparison.