Tried the bus and then train instead of the bus then ferry. Almost wish I hadn't.

(The plan had been to give one route a couple of weeks, then try the other for a fortnight before settling on one. Can't really experiment with the motorcycle option!)

Not off to a great start when checking the timetables I find there's only one bus that connects sensibly with a train. The timing on it is a bit better so that I'd arrive at work around 8.30. With the two choices if I have if go via ferry one gets me there a bit early and one a bit too close to 9 for comfort.

The first snag was getting to the station to discover I couldn't buy a weekly ticket without a photo. Well, I can remedy that but with a strike bracketing the weekend there wasn't much point even if I could have purchased one. Perhaps I'll give it another try next week.

In the meantime I bought a day return which cost half the price of the weekly via the ferry. (The bus ticket of course is the same either way and I'm still using the annual I purchased to get to TheOldPlace.) What's more the weekly ticket costs just about twice as much as the weekly ferry. Buying annually would reduce that to half as much again.

Upsides of going by train though: slightly less of a walk at the library end and much more comfortable journey.
Downsides are the much higher incidences of strikes or delays, the longer (about 10 minutes) overall journey time (it might be comfortable but it has to go further!), and the more limited options timewise thanks to the poor bus service between home and train.

Of course, what would be ideal would be an integrated ticket that would include ferry, bus and train and let me choose which way I wanted to go on the day itself. And wouldn't cost an arm and a leg as separate tickets would. But that would be far too sensible.