"David Wright" wrote:

Yes, but fuel isn't most of that. And if it weren't for taxes fuel
there would cost what fuel here does. OTOH they have effective
passenger rail transport, we don't.

Less of the here and there, I'm in the UK!

No, we don't have effective passenger rail transport

It takes 5 hours to travel from London to Edinburgh by train, at a
cost of around £80 ($160). Whereas, book early enough, and you can fly
from London Luton (about 30 miles out of London) to Edinburgh with low
cost carrier easyJet.com for around £20 ($40) in just under 50
minutes.

The train is scheduled at 4.5 hours, and Easyjet at 1.25 hours. I found
Easyjet fares for tomorrow at £140, and if you book early enough on the
train, you can find fares as low as £12.50.

The choice of mode really depends on where you are, and where you are
going. If you are in central London, you can arrive at KX only 15
minutes before departure, and be on your way. If you need to go to Luten
or Stansted to catch Easyjet, you need to start out at least 2 hours
ahead, to get to the airport in time to catch the flight. Transportation
to and from the airport adds to the cost, of course. Plus it takes 45
minutes to get into Edinburgh when you arrive at the other end.

Any way you look at it, the trip is still pretty long.

Now, if you lived near Luton, Stansted, or Gatwick, it would be a whole
different calculation, or if you were destined to a place part-way to
Edinburgh, like York or Newcastle.