Calculating Commuting Costs (London/Home Counties)

[Yoozanaim]

Hello

We are looking to relocate for work, job will be in London, I am looking at homes within zone six, but also outside as obviously we will get more space for our money - but I am trying to work out commuting costs and it's a bit of a headache!

So, for homes outside of the Oystercard zone, prices seem to jump significantly?

I've started looking at Guildford or Woking or Sevenoaks (or similar areas/distance out), and the travel costs are such a huge hike once out of zone 6. Unless I am looking at it wrong.
Are all z6 stations the same price from a central spot or does it depend if they are on the underground or not?
It seems to me, that if we can get to a tube station and travel in from there, it would be a big saving? Do people do this? Am I missing something obvious?
Any tricks to keeping the commute costs minimal, yet not living within z6?

Thank you for that heads up.

I really want to be somewhere safe, with low crime, villagey, easy access to London! Too much to ask for £6-700k, perhaps.

Perfectly possible in that area. One of the Banstead properties linked to was in a nice residential area near the station but away from town centre. You just need to evaluate each on merit and your priorities.

Thank you. I'll come back and ask on specific areas once we are nearer to moving.

Any info on Upper Norwood?

I know you mentioned chessington south - trains into Waterloo are only every half hour on South Western Trains, you would be better going via Epsom as you get the choice of Southern and South Western Trains and a much higher frequency.

Having lived in Banstead it's not the greatest for trains. It is on a single line part of the track and the frequency was half hourly at most .

In my day there were also no trains on a sunday but that may have changed!

As you are looking at going into Waterloo have you considered further out say the Basingstoke area, in a village such as Oakley your 600K would easily get you what you are looking for.

I don’t think your will get the house you want for that money in Guildford / Woking

Maybe Pirbright, Brookwood, Normandy..... not huge choice at your budget, but tend to get more land, bit more rural, and can cycle to Brookwood or Worplesdon stations, or drive to Woking or Guildford. Most commuters round here tend to work from home, once or twice a week.

This is all good info thank you and I will have to check all frequencies of trains, latest trains home, costs, likelihood of getting a seat etc!

My DP gets a seat every morning from Basingstoke. At least 2 trains an hour, but in peak hours a lot more. Fast train 45 mins to Waterloo. Last rain is late not certain how late.

Thanks.

Any info on Warlingham - does it feel too close to Croydon?

Warlingham feels separate to Croydon but not villlagey, Woldingham better imho.

Many thanks!

Hello again!
I've been busy on RightMove.

I have found several homes within (ish - if negotiable!) budget in the following areas and would love some local insider information if anyone has any please?

Key requirements are:

• Village vibe (or nice friendly community feel)
• Decent connections to London (regular at commute times, within around 45 minutes to London) - any extra info on whether these are on notoriously bad lines etc.

• Bonus if they are close to a great swimming pool (slides, rapid river, waves, diving boards etc)
• Bonus if extracurricular clubs (gymnastics, dance, football etc) are not oversubscribed with impossible wait lists
• Not under the flight paths
• Ok to get home to on a nightbus once my kids go clubbing in London and miss the last train home (I know night buses won't go to most of these places but if they go close, to help cut down on a huge taxi fare).

Areas I'd love info on please:
Kenley
Cheam
Sanderstead
Wallington
Pyrford (near Woking)
Woking itself (this is a big town, yes?)
Dorking

So, I can do Sanderstead for you:

• Village vibe (or nice friendly community feel)

Yep, lots of community, a local RA, plenty of activities held at the local church, good high street, park with cafe, village pond, etc etc.

• Decent connections to London (regular at commute times, within around 45 minutes to London) - any extra info on whether these are on notoriously bad lines etc.

Sanderstead station is down the hill from Sanderstead proper, but it's definitely cycling distance (and there are bike sheds). There are two trains every hour to Victoria, two to London Bridge at peak times, and it's also within walking distance of Purley Oaks. It's a fast train - it's under 20 minutes to Clapham, 30 to Victoria.

• Bonus if they are close to a great swimming pool (slides, rapid river, waves, diving boards etc)

Oxted pool is about 25 minute drive away, there are other, more local pools, but that one has the fun stuff.

• Bonus if extracurricular clubs (gymnastics, dance, football etc) are not oversubscribed with impossible wait lists

Yep, plenty going on at the local schools and halls. There are at least three football clubs I can think of (and my children don't play football!) and there's definitely dance stuff in Warlingham, up the road.

• Not under the flight paths

I can't see any aeroplanes? 😁 We're half an hour from Gatwick and I have never noticed plane noise (or in fact, planes particularly!).

• Ok to get home to on a nightbus once my kids go clubbing in London and miss the last train home (I know night buses won't go to most of these places but if they go close, to help cut down on a huge taxi fare).

So, we do still occasionally go out in town (babysitting and energy levels allowing 😂). Trains run all night from London Victoria to East Croydon and then it's £8 in a black cab or uber from there, or it's £30 all the way home from the west end in a uber, or the N64 runs all night to Selsdon which is maybe a 15 minute walk down the road from Sanderstead. And there are night buses which go into Croydon for the interchange onto the N64.

Oh that is wonderful, LB0CS2, thank you so much for all your time. Really appreciate it.
By 'lots going on at the local schools' - is this solely for the children of those schools? We currently home educate and I can't see that changing til secondary age (if at all) - so I'd need to be able to access various clubs for my home edded kids - especially trampolining and gymnastics.

Where do you/DP need to get to? You mention Vauxhall which is in both zones 1 and 2, so can save half the annual commuting cost by getting a season ticket to zone 2/Vauxhall only.

Woking is a reasonable town, decent arts centre, and excellent fast trains into Waterloo as well as slower ones. Dorking is nice but despite having three stations, the trains to London take forever (colleague cycles from there as the 90 minutes isn't that much longer, he says). Sanderstead and Purley might suit. Wallington is a small town like many others in Surrey with a half-hourly train service.

Job will be close to Vauxhall, walkable.

90 minute cycle to London?! Wow! Well, DH does love cycling (hence considering Dorking in the first place), so he actually might be up for that in the summer - but I would be very VERY anxious about how safe that is though.
Why are the trains to Dorking not good? Do we think they might improve?

Thank you for your input.

As I said, I do Vauxhall and it's 45 minutes door-to-desk (albeit I work practically in the station, so it's not far the other end!). It's a bit of a bugger in terms of the change but I almost always get a seat from Sanderstead so I don't mind standing the last three minutes Clapham Junction - Vauxhall.

I don't know about whether the schools would allow non pupils to their lessons but there are three or four local church halls with things going on, Croydon High School has a very good sports centre with lessons for the public and the local sports facilities are also both accessible and well equipped.

The advantage of being here is that you also have extremely easy access to everything Croydon and Bromley offer, so if you can't find a club locally, there's going to be one within a 15 minute drive.

Thanks - I currently do a 15-20 minute drive for many of their clubs and activities as it is, so as long as the traffic isn't a problem, I don't mind a drive of that distance.

• Cheam does feel very villagey and nonsuch park is really nice
• It has plenty of trains to London. If there is any issues, you can get a fast train to Sutton and then a quick bus ride to Cheam

• Cheam's Leisure centre is unexciting, though it does have a pool. There are other more exciting pools nearby which aren't too hard to get to
• I don't know how many activities are in Cheam itself, but there are certainly plenty within a short bus ride away
• You can very occasionally see planes, but they are really tiny in the sky and you cannot hear them
• you can get back home from central London by either 2 night buses or the tube and a night bus

Commuting costs and times really vary. Cheaper lines often slow and infrequent. Parking availability and costs, train frequency good to investigate too.

And consider the negative impact on quality of life of commuting - there are studies on this.

it’s not usually possible to work on trains due to connectivity and crowding.

Most people where I live can’t hack two parents commuting, especially if you have one car, and the mother v often ends up taking much lower paid, more local work or SAH.

IME London is v much out of reach public transport wise (trains stop early, no night buses) and taxi wise (cost).

London at night that is.

@loopytiles

What's IME London?