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?

IME = in my experience.

You could have a look at the bus map to see where is covered by 24 hr/night buses.

Here's the map for most of the areas that you were looking at inside London
londonmap360.com/carte/image/en/south-west-london-bus-map.jpg

Thanks, kpo and loopytiles.

I'm already a sahm/home educator as we home ed at this stage, and dh likes an hour's peace to listen to a podcast he's already got downloaded - I think this could work ok for him/us for a few years, and then we have options of him looking for work in Guildford or Brighton where there are opportunities in his line of work too, if the London commute becomes too much of a chore.
There's a heck of a lot to research re regular trains and journey times etc.

Well worth doing the research, as it’ll be a lot of hours and a lot of money spent on trains, and on the way to and from stations.

I personally wanted to avoid villages. Am in a town and teen DC have limited independence until they cab drive IMO.

What did you not like about a village? I am seeking a real community spirit, where people are friendly and know us.

What do you mean your teens have limited independence, despite living in a town - do you not have a decent bus service and trains?

Have you looked out along the metropolitan/Chiltern line? Still in London zones until Amersham/Chesham. There are some lovely villages/small towns around and if you got the Chiltern line from say Chalfont & Latimer it's about half an hour to Marylebone and about 20mins from there to Vauxhall on the tube. The metropolitan line is v slow but good to have an alternative as well.

When I was looking to move out I found the website www.commutefrom.com really helpful as if you look at the map function you can click on stations and it tells you time to get places, frequency, average house prices etc. You can also do searches on what places are within a certain time to get to your destination station.

I've looked all over to start with, then felt like homing in on Surrey a bit - ease of access to the south coast, close to airports and also there are a fair few companies in the industry my husband works in around that area too, so while this currently is a move for London commuting, that might not be forever and a job move to Guildford/Brighton could happen - and it would be good to not have to move house again. But thank you - I am not ruling it out.

Have you considered Reigate/Redhill and surrounding villages. Main advantage here is you are on the line towards Brighton and there is a line from Redhill round to Guildford. Guildford definitely has more going on, but if you are willing to consider Dorking, Banstead etc then it might work.

I have seen a few properties I love in Dorking, but I heard the trains were dreadful from there.
Also got a property saved on RightMove in Banstead as well as Merstham - any info on those areas? Any other particular villages around Reigate/Redhill that you can recommend? Thank you.

Merstham has lots of M25 noise but otherwise a cheap. Good regular commute. Driving to Merstham station is easy though. You could consider Bletchingly or Nutfield.

Merstham very much depends where you are looking at - there are 4 main areas which straddle A23/M25. Service is much more reliable than it was although Redhill has more trains.

Thank you!

Weekend service patchier as they have been upgrading the line. Not all is noise affected.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-59835321.html

Within mile of the mainline at Redhill

Thanks, both.

Definitely focusing on detached only; can't deal with the potential of noisy neighbours and various other limitations.

Trains from Dorking are fine, not sure what all the fuss is about! I did that commute for a few years. Note that Dorking has 3 stations (bizarrely!), which are: Dorking, Dorking West and Dorking Deepdene. Dorking is the main one, direct trains to Waterloo or Victoria, which is handy if there's a problem with one, you can normally get the other! Takes around 55 mins, and you shouldn't have trouble getting a seat. It's a beautiful area, close to Box Hill, and lots of lovely surrounding villages.

Just throwing Petts Wood in there - Zone 5 but feels quite villagey and lots of woods, parks and fields around so very green. Doesn't feel like London at all and crime is low.

For £650k you could definitely get a 3 or 4 bedroom house - there are a lot of semis here, but some detached come up in that price range as well.

I commute to Vauxhall and it's really easy. Train to Brixton and 2 stops on the tube - under an hour door to door. My travelcard costs about £1,400 per year for zones 2-5. Part of the reason we moved here was the train links - direct trains to London Bridge, Cannon Street, Charing Cross, Victoria, Kings Cross, Blackfriars etc...

Further from station and a more true village location

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-69291211.html#_full-description

There are plenty of villages around Haywards Heath. Haywards Heath has lots of trains to London and Brighton.

You may find a village pretty isolating as they empty for most of the day if they are in the commuter belt and are unlikely to have many activities for children.

There is plenty going on in the villages around Redhill/Merstham, 15 min drive can access most activities although traffic can be tricky around school drop off/ pick ups. School places can be competitive but not an issue for you by sounds of it. The first house linked to is up a fairly steep hill and not built yet!

Ha, nextnamechange - I've already got that one favourited! Thank you!

Ok, well that is very encouraging about Dorking - I do feel like I have gravitated towards that region, for some reason. Thanks.

Off to look at Petts Wood. Thank you!

Thanks everyone!

Petts Wood is on an incoming flight path which is due to be discussed in near future.

Thanks for info, LlZS.

Is that a new/changed flight path LlZS?

Any thoughts about Caterham?