If you worked in London

[LondonIsCalling]

And live 40 minutes away from the job, would you drive or take the train?
Job is at a London hospital

Commutet coach?

Given that you're on a consultant's salary, and it takes the same to drive in or go by public transport I'd drive and pay the parking fees.

Train
In addition to congestion charge, ULEZ there is Local low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) that have roads blocked to cars. Depending on the direction you come from will depend how badly you are hit by these. Rush hour traffic in central London has been increasing so is going back to pre Covid nightmare times and the LTN’s have increased this. Many councils are pushing for these to be permanent to decrease personal car use except in exceptional circumstances.
Then there is parking costs
The local council have given a discount/exemption due to Covid for on street parking however they are looking to remove this soon.
This also applies to the current congestion charge exemption/reduction.
As there is a big push to get people back on public transport due to environmental impact
Depending on your role you may have on site parking privileges but that is not listed as a generic staff perk

www.chelwest.nhs.uk/about-us/work-with-us/why-choose-us/staff-benefits

No-one can answer that question without knowing how far it is and whether you can a. find a parking space reliably and b. are happy to pay the cost.

In 99% of circumstances you would probably struggle to actually find somewhere to park and even if you did, it would be £££s for a full working day, which is why nearly everyone uses public transport or cycles.

If Google is telling you it is a 40 minute drive just before 9 am, then you must live only a few miles away, so if you don't fancy public transport for whatever reason, and you don't have access to a reserved, discounted parking space, have you considered cycling? If you don't have a bike, your employer probably has a bike to work scheme, where you can pay for a bike monthly out of untaxed income.

For 9am to 6pm shift at Chelsea and Westminster hospital I'd take the train as it's cheaper and quicker.

Train 100%. Traffic around C&W is awful.

Don't drive to Chelsea and Westminster! I know the area well and traffic is horrific. It's often quicker to walk than drive, and I'm not exaggerating.

Public transport, or better yet, cycling, is the way to go.

I don't understand why anyone would consider driving to work in London. I used to commute to Oxford St from Croydon in the late 1970s, and the traffic was horrendous even then.

Public transport is plentiful and frequent. Leave the car at home.

Train, without a doubt!

I used to commute to a central London hospital to work and couldn’t imagine driving for one minute. Sit on the train or tube and read the Metro.

Train/ public transport every time - dont be so bloody selfish bringing pollution into our city!

If 40 minutes is accurate OP must live close - managing to average as much as 10mph at 8-9am on a weekday would be pretty good going.

It can take me that long to get not all that far across London!

I wouldn't. Google says 40 minutes but I'd actually do a few trial runs, both morning and evening to check reality. As pp have said, where can you park? How much would that cost and is a space guaranteed.

Where does your train go into?

Is it a fairly reliable line?

Are there alternatives if strike or something?

I would never drive into a central London job and I've never met anyone who does!

I'm now wondering, if no-one would normally drive in London, what's causing all the traffic?

Depends on where you live ana where the workplace is

I worked in central London for 15 years, door to door was just under an hour using London transport, for most that's the normal thing

Buses
Delivery vans and lorries for all the food and retail outlets
Black cabs
Roadworks v common. Burst water mains. Collisions and criminal incidents.
Closures sometimes due to something suspicious or actual
Rich people getting chauffered about
That sort of thing

In general though the fact that the tube etc is v good and the charges leads to it not actually being too busy in town proper. At least the bits I know/ have worked in.

Where I work though the driving conditions would be tricky with scooters cyclists pedestrians motor bikes etc nipping in and out all over the place. I wouldn't fancy it.

When congestion in London is mentioned it's generally in the areas outside Central London. Where there isn't such good tube etc. And it's more residential. People doing school run or driving to more local job.

North circular for example. Shunt on there and it's screwed for ages. And the traffic is often extremely heavy.

Different ball games.

No one would normally drive in London more central because the public transport is so good.

If it were sparse and unreliable people would drive.

Fewer cars in town is a good thing.

Train . Even if you are able to get a staff parking permit finding a space with a 9am start might be a challenge .

I drive to my NHS non hospital job 30 minutes away, but I can park for free. If I could t I would get the bus. I used to work in a hospital in south london, but paid for a parking pass at £80 a month and that was nearly ten years ago. Nothing is cheap in London unfortunately.

I think I’m a minority here and I drive to work from east London zone 3 to NW London zone 1. But only because

1. I have free parking
2. Times are tight in the morning and I drop off my child to nursery on my way
3. Car is quicker than public transport for my journey - usually
4. No congestion charge
5. I have a ULEZ compliant car

You have to do the journey in real life though. Google maps says my journey takes 35 minutes but it usually takes an hour most days. I also have a buffer where I can be up to 30 minutes late without it being an issue.

Most rat runs and shortcuts have been cut off since the pandemic to create low traffic neighbourhoods (fair enough!) so don’t bank on finding a secret back way to get there either (I used to be able to save 10-15 minutes this way).

I worked at CWH 10 years ago. My boss used to drive. The car park was great, but she wax always late. I took the tube to Fulham Broadway and was pretty much always on time. If you were starting early ie 7am I would consider driving, but otherwise no.

Train for a plethora of reasons. London traffic is awful as is the style of driving compared to outside of London. I used to live in Notting Hill, I love driving but can’t say I enjoyed it in central London. I now live rurally, which has its own challenges driving wise, but London driving is shit. Too much traffic, manic, crazy drivers who don’t indicate, pull out in front of you, take too many risks, aggressive cyclists everywhere with no road sense.

Train every time if travelling is to central London

And the roads are getting narrower - so many lanes are being taken for bike lanes (Park Lane is a nightmare now as it’s gone from 2 open lanes to one car, one bike and one bus).

I have seen this happening a lot in London (to encourage us not drive) and last weekend drove along what was a 4 lane road - which is now a 1 and a half (the 2 car lanes aren’t really wide enough for 2 larger cars to pass).