Get a motorbike! I do 200 miles a week to/from work and about another 20 just pottering about and it costs me less than £20 a week in fuel. If a bus could compete I'd use it.
Actually, the train works out only marginally more expensive, about a fiver a week more, but it takes me nowhere near where I need to be. To get trains and the buses at the other end would double my costs and travelling time. Public transport will never compete with private unless its more attractive than having your own vehicle. And this is from someone who went 10 years without a vehicle of their own.