Cost of commuting

[Asosbabe]

Do other countries pay these commuting costs? We're 25 miles from central London and flexible ticket is over £23 a day. Car park is £12.90 a day , no bus to get to station. Parking restrictions for about a mile around the station and people that park just over a mile away get their cars keyed by pissed off locals. Is this the same in other capital cities?

Agree prices are extortionate, though it does come down to housing costs vs commuting costs.

We are in zone 6, live a 5 minute walk from the station, pay £15 per day to commute in to central London (still too expensive imo), but we have a mortgage of £2600pm for a bog standard 3 bed semi.

I assume in most cases, those with very high commuting costs have much nicer, bigger houses with lower mortgage/rent payments.

I suppose we all just pick our poison.

£48 a day for us with a travel card - also from Kent. I buy an annual ticket now that costs £5386 but covers all my travel including weekends and balances out to be approximately £25 a day as I use it lots. But I get dirty old networker trains, frequent delays and poor timetabling for that money. It’s really not worth what they charge

Northamptonshire to St Pancras...3 years ago ..£900/month for the train, then £100/month for a car park. I spent a third of my monthly income just getting to work! Plus unreliable crowded trains. I lasted a year lol

It’s this and the money they get from the Barnett formula - payment for being party of the UK. Scotland spends £2k more per person than it raises in taxes. Not that the Scottish government will ever admit this!

London weighting is a joke.

I lived in London for a while and now live in the north east. Some of DS friends are moving there and get very excited about the London weighting.

Poor lambs.

An integrated Public Transport system, with realistic pricing, would make a world of difference about when / how / where people work.

Andy B is trying up here, with the BEE Network .. our buses are now in Public Control, and are integrated with the Tram Network. Bus journeys are capped at £2. Some (not all) train car parks are free (the ones near me are). There is a cost cap on the Trams as well.

I think he would like to bring the trains in as well, which may be possible once the trains move back to public ownership.

There is now a better App / Payment system.

More regions should be looking at this sort of model

Yes going to work has become increasingly expensive: travel, clothes, lunches etc yet people who work are expected to pay more and more and ever increasing tax. Using the train to get to work is too expensive when you add in cost of parking, extra time to get there, delays, no seats etc. it’s disgusting how people hard working people are treated in this country.

I pay c£60 a day to commute to London from the Midlands, I go off peak and get 1/3 off with my rail card. Thankfully only go in a couple of times a month, if they increase the office mandate, I’m out of there!

I travel into London from the Cotswolds generally 1 day a week; 10 mile drive, £5 to park - then if I go in at peak it would be £106 return.

However, I have a network railcard which whilst not valid on morning peak, is valid after 10am, and that saves min. £18 per day (card cost is £35pa), so worth it. I buy my ticket as 2 singles. I often try and do meetings after 11am so I can get the first off peak train I can use the railcard on as that saves more.

I would also say though that luckily my company pay my travel, and for the railcard, which I can then also use personally. Otherwise cost wouldn’t be sustainable. I wfh the other days.

We paid over £7 to park for 4 hours near a seaside town in East Sussex (not even Brighton!)

Parking used to be reasonable, but they tripled the price. So many people in town, so it hasn't put people off.

The train fare to London has increased massively - I commute and I’m just over a hour from London and my monthly ticket has gone from £450 to £780 in 2026 with the next increases in about 3 years. My salary hasn’t risen to match this. I’m exploring buying an electric car to see if it’s cheaper.

Aren’t Labour in process of nationalising the trains?

Was in Paris at Easter. Staying outside the city but on a train line. Free parking. Train in was 2Euros.

we could take the table seats and work out whether we should cry or laugh together

Hove to London is like £5k a year. Things are a bit better now it's 2 days a week in the office. Plus I walk from the station so do not pay for the tube travel which helps. From where I am now it's £27 a day.

A lot of the rises in commuter route costs are down to a deliberate choice by the last Tory government. Commuter routes are price regulated and subsidised by the tax payer (these are expenaove routes to run) but Chris Grayling decided deliberately to shift more of the costs on to passengers and away from the tax payer. His view being it was fairer for better off SE England commuters to pay rather than all tax payers many of whom did not have access to these trains or the London job market.

Now I disagree, but that was his thinking.

£4k a year season ticket from Hampshire to London plus £9.20 a day parking.

I think some of the high fees are tickets bought on the day. Advance tickets are much cheaper. I’m in three days now so whilst it may be cheaper to keep buying individual tickets I opted for a season.

Train travel in this country is so expensive but that was factored in when we decided to move. I have a 2 hour commute but go home to a bigger house then I would otherwise be able to afford in the country.

Don’t forget…. trains fares are expected to rise 5.8% next year 😩

This thread is eye opening! Surely you should all be asking your employers for a bigger contribution to travel and if they refuse look at jobs nearer to where you live? These costs are beyond reasonable.. understandable though given we’ve just come out of a long period of Tory government and a general sentiment of underfunding public services in favour of private. In many eu countries where fares are lower / subsidised, people and employers are paying higher tax and this is what money is being spent on.

Combination of privatised travel and too many people who 'can only work in London', which isn't always the case but that's the path they've found themselves following in life.

Means that public transport is oversubscribed and they can charge what they like.

Are you defending the high cost of travel here? We have the most expensive rail costs in Europe (and some of the most expensive child care in the world). University costs are crippling whereas some European countries it’s free (and in Denmark they pay you to go!). The fact is everything here is very expensive and we get cut no slack. We shouldn’t be defending it.

I am lucky as can catch a bus to work so £6 round trip and £30 a week. I have only done this since the bus fares were capped and it makes a big difference to the cost of the commute.

These costs are insane. I can't believe what some of you have to pay just to get to work. You're being fleeced. Is anywhere in the world more expensive for rail travel than the UK?

I'm in Sydney and the costs are about $50 for a week of travel, basically anywhere in the city. And because a lot of our roads are tolled (don't get me started on that!), public transport is a necessity. People moan about it, but I think it's brilliant.

My line was renationalised a year or so ago and it’s continued to get more expensive. Hasn’t got any more reliable either. UK tracks and central infrastructure have been been state-owned for ages. I’m pretty sure privately owned/state owned makes no difference.

👋 waves to fellow Manc , i agree the trams are great value for money esp if you can use them off peak . Unfortunately they don't go where I need them hence the £800 annual bus pass , which tbf considering I get a minimum of four buses per week day and could go anywhere in Manchester isn't bad

East Anglia to London, commute in roughly twice a week. I have a flexi season ticket so £400 for 8 journeys a month. Mostly I can make this work but some months I need to be in more so the cost of an extra ticket adds up (£50 a day). I have to travel on peak time trains as I start at 9am and buses round here in the early mornings are a figment of the imagination so I mostly end up driving to the station. They’ve recently put the parking up to £16 a day and I expect another rise in the new year. I know it’s designed to discourage people from driving but there’s not much alternative at 6am plus in all honesty it feels safer as a lone woman on the dark mornings.

I got a large pay rise with this role and am settled in my home so I accept that as someone said upthread, it’s a case of pick your poison. But with the costs of tube and daily London living on top of just getting there it does feel extortionate. If there is any type of full return to office or even an increase to three days then I’ll have to consider things again.