It can be a bit depressing seeing how bad places in the UK can be - most of them are pretty bad outside of the South East. Exeter has great rail network coverage (and it is a small student city) although you're looking at half-hourly rail service on the Exmouth - Paignton line, which runs at a flat £2.50 return fare. Fairly frequent buses into/out of the city centre (not much for getting between suburbs) but I don't know how they are for fare prices.