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?

The trouble with that mentality though - this attitude of “well you picked that job” is someone has to do that job. I think it should be the responsibility of employers paying more, but we know that might not happen as they’re gonna try and save as much as they can, and with that in mind I do think the gov need to regulate prices a bit more. I commute one day a week for a corporate mental health position and it’s not that well paid considering… I am going to be putting a request in for a pay rise as the cost of living in the SE of England in general is extortionate.

Thankfully I no longer commute to London and DH is 99% from home.

When we have travelled into London for a day trip with DD we are always shocked at the price. It was £80 once, for all 3 of us and she was about 7! And we are only an hour on the train from London. So before you've paid for the days activities, food etc you are down £80! It's so out of reach for many people.

Last time we went to London we drove to a zone 4 station, paid for all day parking £7.50. DDs tube travel was free and ours was minimal! Just puts us off ever going into London at all.

If DH suddenly had to start back in the office on a regular basis I don't know how we would afford it.
And companies wonder why people are so against going into the office!

Exactly! It’s not worth it.

I just depressed myself by looking at annual season ticket- 9k!!! (£105 a day inc parking)
wild. I buy flexi monthly or try to game system based on known workdays/ leave to maximise weekly tickets.
I’m in 3-4 days a week.
sometimes I don’t get a seat.
on a good run it’s 2 hours each way (drive- train/ tube/ walk)
4 hours commute a day
768 commuting hours a year, 34 full days a year.
i have a sideline collecting delay repay payments too as service is shit.
#fucksoutheasternrailways

Oh wow I don’t know how you stand a 4 hour round trip commute 3-4 days a week! That would kill me!

So I thought I was bad living in North Wales and going in to Manchester, 1-2 times a week at £40 per day. But surely, how much do you need to earn to make that worthwhile? How often do you need to go in?! I feel like I can barely spare money and I thought I was frugal but I must be wrong?! 40K single income household here. I came to this thread looking to see if my expectations were unrealistic but I actually feel better, lol!

“Last time we went to London we drove to a zone 4 station, paid for all day parking £7.50. DDs tube travel was free and ours was minimal! Just puts us off ever going into London at all.”

Sounds reasonable, why would that put you off?

That's mad money. I'm in Dublin where train fare from surrounding counties is around 13 euro. In Dublin itself you can go anywhere for 2 euro for 90mins. And we still cant persuade people out of their cars !

£60 a day plus £10 parking from Basingstoke to Waterloo. Plus £4 fuel/ wear & tear to get to the station.

I took a local job and a £15k pay cut, but after not commuting one day a week, less tax & NI, lower cost of lunch etc, my take home pay is the same. And it saves me 2.5 hours a day travel.

What a relief😊

Be very careful what you wish for if you try and get an employer contribution towards commuter costs, because if they are paying, they can dictate your presence.

I prefer to pay my own way (about £50 a time) and maintain limited and flexible days in office, rather than work pay and be made to go in every day/days of their choice.

Maybe the poster means they wouldn't drive into London since the method described above is much cheaper?

Yeah, it is a lot cheaper but the trains are absolutely rammed full. So there isn’t space for more commuters at rush hour. And the buses are worse than they used to be while transitioning to the new hub and spoke system and new routes. With a lot of ghost buses that never turn up.

I agree, its very flawed but at least affordable

UK public transport is a joke - used to cost me £34 return a day to travel from 40 miles outside London to the office - which then jumped to something ludicrous like £67 a day when my railcard expired

£78 per week spent on commute for me for train and bus for in office days. Not in London. And I'm lucky if I have a week where the trains run on time or run at all!

Yes. Privatisation.