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Before I started renting the workshop at the open-air museum, I would crawl out of bed in the morning, get dressed and go straight into the garage, which I'd converted into a studio. Now I get the train and a bus, so I have to get up early..."
What does she mean by the train and a bus? Why isn’t it “a train and a bus” or “the train and the bus” or “a train and the bus”?
In context, the speaker is comparing her former commute--walking to her own garage--to a new commute that requires one travel segment by rail and one by bus. I wish I knew more of the source for the speaker in the original article (which appears to be p. 8-9 of McMillan coursebook Ready for First) as this usage may be colored by her background and the nature of the transportation network in her region.
First, I disagree with the other answers claiming that "I take the train" is a reference to a specific train or train time. That just means the rail network. For instance, in NYC dialect, "the train" is the most native way to refer to the subway system. Prior to COVID-19, I would have described myself as "taking the train to work"--even though on a given day I might choose any of six or seven different trains running on three different lines, departing at three- to seven-minute intervals. (In NYC, the vast plurality, 40%, of commuters use the subway; taking the train is just a background assumption for daily life. I believe this is true in most US cities that have decent rail/metro systems.) You'll see this in broader/non-regional usage as well wherever bus systems are common: without further context, the expression "take the bus" refers to using the bus system generally, not to a particular bus line or departure time ("A: Should we drive to the game? B: Nah, I wanna have a few beers, let's just take the bus"). In fact, if I wanted to emphasize a departure time or a particular bus, I would probably say "my bus"--example: "Hurry up and get your shoes on, if we don't leave in the next five minutes I'll miss my bus."
So that leaves the question of why "the train" but "a bus." I read "a bus" as emphasizing an unusual extra burden of multi-modal commuting, which is expressed as a discrete additional task to be accomplished. I perceive this speaker as saying "If it wasn't bad enough that I have to commute by train, once that commute segment is finished, I also have to take a bus" or "Even after I've taken the train, there's still a bus ride I have to take."
Thus "the train" is just referring to using a particular transit network, but "a bus" is an extra thing added on. Using the indefinite article 'a' highlights it as task to be accomplished, instead of just making use of a particular type of transit system. Think of it as making the bus the "straw that broke the camel's back".
Edit 2020-07-13: Some answerers and commenters have mentioned that repeating either 'the' or 'a' for the pair would be disfavored for reasons of prosody--that it "just doesn't sound right" to repeat them. However, Google NGram for the combinations of these phrases does not support this assertion: "the train and the bus" and "a train and a bus" (using the same article for each) are roughly equally common with each other, and both are far more common than "the train and a bus" individually. This suggests that using "the" and then "a" must have some sort of more precise meaning; the choice wouldn't be automatic. I can't point to a rule or a study that says my reading is the correct one--and certainly others are possible!--it's just the context and psychology that seem most obvious to me, in trying to explain a phrasing choice that is not the result of any explicit rule I was ever taught.
This would mean that there is only one train she can get, but several possible buses.
It is a bit hard to explain as it is highly contextual. I am explaining using an example:
Imagine the situation where one train leaves the station at each hour. Therefore when you have a ticket for 6:00 am, you should get the train that leaves at 6:00 am (you are talking about a specific train). On the other hand, you don't have a specific bus in mind when you are talking about your plan after getting off the train. You are going to find a bus afterwards and continue your travel.
It signals your certainty about the entity (bus or train) that you are talking about. If I had no ticket and had a relaxed and tentative schedule I would say that I am heading to the station get a train first and then get a bus. My suggestion is to see which article (the or a) sounds and feels better in the context of your text.
I have a different explanation. "Get the train" probably doesn't here mean "get a specific train", it means "Use the train network", the same way you would say "take the subway" in NYC or "get the tube" in London (who says "get a tube"?). For instance, if asked "How do you normally travel from London to Birmingham?" the answer might be "Well I normally take the train"; clearly there isn't only one train and it does not therefore refer to a specific train.
Similarly you can say "take the bus" (or, perhaps less often, "get the bus") to mean use the bus network - consider again the London to Birmingham example above. Similarly "take/get the coach" and "take the plane".
Quite why the speaker has decided "get the train" but "get ... a bus" I don't think we know. They carry a slightly different implication (use the train network, catch a single bus) but perhaps it just sounded good to her?
Most replies are over-thinking it. The author considers it poor style to repeat either 'the' or 'a'. So she uses one of each. That's all. They're interchangeable. As a native English speaker I see no difference between them.
I live within walking distance of two bus routes. I might 'take the bus' or 'take a bus'.
There's also a rail station, offering both suburban and national services. Again, whichever I was using, I would 'take the train' or 'take a train'. No difference.
I could also take the bus to the train station, then take the train. Or use 'a'. Or one of each.
No difference.
What I MIGHT do if travelling to a destination on a branch line is 'Take the train' to Sittingbourne then 'take the little train' to Sheerness-on-sea.
Londoners also differentiate between 'the train' (local services on mainline track) and 'the tube'/'the underground' (the metro system), though as integration of the two systems progresses the distinction may die out. (To complicate matters even further, we also have the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) and the Croydon Tramlink. And in New York you can 'take the A train'. I guess you can 'take an A train' too?)
Consider the following situations:
Now I get a train or a bus: this implies that now you can get any train(not specified which train) or any bus(listener doesn't know which train or a bus you're talking about)
Now I get the train and the bus: this is used when you're highlighting the specific bus or a train. (The listener knows which bus or a train you're talking about)
Now I get the train and a bus: Here there's only one specific train and multiple choices of buses to choose from.
Please read the entire answer. In English (at least in the USA, but I think elsewhere), for transportation that uses fixed routes, like trains, we normally use the.
I took the train to work.
There is no "specific train" being referenced, but the railway that is fixed, upon which or by which trains run on, on a fixed route.
If we refer to transportation that does not usually run on a fixed route, we generally use a
I take a taxi to work.
Taxis are usually not limited to fixed routes.
How about the bus?
Buses (or busses if you prefer) usually run on a fixed route; thus we would expect
I took the bus to work. (Compare: I took the bus to Miami.)
Again, this refers to the fixed route, along which travel several buses a day.
However, as stated elsewhere, the author can choose to say 'a train' or 'the bus'. English gives you plenty of options. In fact, it could mean the traveler (or traveller) takes a bus on one of several fixed routes, but this seems to me to be trying to forcefit the language (even if into the general usage stated here).
Obviously, one could say
I took the taxi to work.
But this is a different usage. Now the speaker assumes his interlocutor knows which taxi he took (maybe he has mentioned it before).
The X means the question which X is important. A(n) X means the question which X is not.
the train
It's important that you need to know which train to take.
a bus
It's not important that you need to know which bus to take.
Reasons why this could be:
There's only a few trains and you can't get to the same destinations on each train
The bus goes to the same destinations as other buses, so you don't need to worry so much about which bus.
There's many buses on the route you need to take, so you don't have to be worried about which bus (on a specific time) you need to catch. Whereas you have to be worried about which train (on a specific time) you need to catch.
It's totally possible for a given city/place you might say a train and the bus.
While training as an English teacher in the UK I was taught to use 'the' when referring to public services, which in this case includes buses and trains. What I wouldn't do is mark down somebody for using 'a' instead of 'the' since it should be obvious to the listener that saying, 'I took the bus...' is implying that only 1 bus exists (similar when saying, 'I went to the hospital',another public service. However buses and trains have defined routes/destinations whereas, say, taxis do not. So saying, 'I took the taxi to a friend's house' suggest that there is only 1 taxi service to that destination, which is wrong. If the original poster did make a mistake, it's being inconsistent with the grammar.
I would interpret this as a very subtle hint about how the author feels about both methods of transportation and about how familiar they believe the reader is with them.
The train implies that this is a train (line or system) well known by the author and they expect the reader to be familiar with the train system they are talking about. As in the train that most people take to work every day.
A bus sounds like a slightly pejorative way of referring to the bus, implying that it's some random bus line in a random suburb, that the author doesn't expect the reader to know about because it isn't really worth knowing. As in a bus that happens to run in that part of the city.
