Commute from Oxford to London?

[retawcinot]

Dd is going to start her masters at LSE next year. She needs to go in for classes on 2/3 days a week.

Her boyfriend lives in Oxford. They would like to move in with each other soon ish.

She ideally would like to live in London. She has high standards, and is used to living in decent places. So the thought of spending £800-900 a month on a room in a grotty student house does not appeal to her.

Alternatively, she could share a large room or a cheap flat in Oxford with her boyfriend for around £500 a month.

What do other people think of this commute if you have/do it?

It's 90 minutes by train/tube but she will need to add on another 20 minutes to get to the station from almost anywhere in Oxford, plus 10 minutes at the station, so a 4 hour round trip each day, however, it's doable.

Would the boyfriend be relying on her for the flatshare or does he already have somewhere? Ideally, I would suggest that she does a term in London, settling in, getting ahead with the work, getting to know her way around the libraries, if she can get a student room for 3 months, visit the boyfriend at weekends and then plan to live in Oxford from Christmas onwards.

Living in a grotty flat share in London is part of the fun of growing up - I'm assuming your daughter is young and not, like, 53. In any event, standards are there to be dropped.

It's a small and do-able commute.

Commuting from Oxford won’t be cheap, and may end up significantly more expensive than paying a higher London rent. £800-£900 will get her something pretty decent in a nice house share in a nice area.

And from a non-property point of view: her idea puts an awful lot of focus on her boyfriend and the assumption the relationship will last. There’s a lot of value in her living close by to her classmates / new friends she’s going to make through university rather than her having to get back to her boyfriend every day. Whilst for MA students there may not be the same focus on bonding as for new younger freshers, she’s risking isolating herself and not obtaining the full experience if she can rarely join friends for a proper night out because she has to get the train home, or has already left for Oxford straight after her classes when friends decide to go for lunch together etc.

Think masters is a bit different than undergrad in terms of getting a lot out of house sharing etc. people doing masters tend to have more established lives.
I live just outside of Oxford and my husband goes in to London for 2/3 days a week and tends to stay over. Can get a hotel in central London these days £50ish. Depending on what time she needs to be in and if she’s staying consecutive days, that sort of set up might be easier. Depends if she minds a night away each week

I don’t think with train fares/ potential hotels etc it would work out any cheaper prob, but would mean she could live in Oxford, if that’s what she wants.

Have you looked at the Oxford Tube timetable? It's a fast , all day, express coach service, using the motorway, between London and Oxford. Commuters use it. Might be the answer, depending where she needs to get to both ends.

@ComtesseDeSpair

Commuting from Oxford won’t be cheap, and may end up significantly more expensive than paying a higher London rent. £800-£900 will get her something pretty decent in a nice house share in a nice area.

And from a non-property point of view: her idea puts an awful lot of focus on her boyfriend and the assumption the relationship will last. There’s a lot of value in her living close by to her classmates / new friends she’s going to make through university rather than her having to get back to her boyfriend every day. Whilst for MA students there may not be the same focus on bonding as for new younger freshers, she’s risking isolating herself and not obtaining the full experience if she can rarely join friends for a proper night out because she has to get the train home, or has already left for Oxford straight after her classes when friends decide to go for lunch together etc.

Yes, I agree with this and she won’t be able to get anything decent in Oxford for £500 a month. It will be grotty and in an unsafe area.

Will she be doing a full 9-5 day at LSE when she's there? It is doable 3 days a week but much nicer if you can avoid rush hour.

Yes, I agree with this and she won’t be able to get anything decent in Oxford for £500 a month.

Presumably, it will be £500 x 2.

I used to commute from Oxford 2 days a week in similar circumstances.

I used to get the coach instead of the train - from my grotty houseshare in East Oxford it was a lot easier to pick up the coach without having to go into central Oxford. The coach was cheaper than the train and ran very frequently, every 20 minutes or so, it even ran all night (but was a pain when there was lots of traffic, or when the coach was full up and you couldn't get on). It took a good hour and a half, but that was still quicker for me than walking or getting the bus to and from Oxford station (especially from - uphill all the way!)

I always got off the coach at Marble Arch, and walked from there, as I worked nearby - but lots of buses down Oxford St in the right direction or the Central line direct to LSE, so that might work ok.

I don't know what it's like now, this was years ago (though I would expect most affordable house-shares to still be in East Oxford.)

Agree with PPs - the cost of commuting might well mean it isn't worth it.

Has she considered her own flat but in a student halls? I did my masters in LSE and stayed in a halls - a friend I met there had her own little flat in the halls which was lovely, with her own separate hallway, living room, bedroom and bathroom (I didn't have as much money to burn so had my own room but shared my halls flat with others). I found that living in halls was also a great way to meet other postgrads at LSE, people of all ages stayed there (and even if you had your own flat like my friend, you could still meet others in the common areas easily). Look up Lilian Knowles House if you're interested, it's in a great area and I would often walk to campus (some other LSE PG accommodation isn't as nice from what I've heard so definitely research other options thoroughly!).

I had a long distance BF at the time so often wasn't around after class or at weekends. This did impact on me making friendships and social groups though I still had a solid group for when I was in London. From my experience (back in 2017) I'd say it will be helpful to be in London for the masters (unless your DD really wants to live in Oxford) and if anything I wish I had been around more.

I hope your DD loves LSE! I attended when I was straight out of my undergrad and met such a wide variety of people and ages, many my age but many older too. Best of luck to her

if she lives in Oxford but has to be in London 3 days per week, she might be able to get a room as a lodger to stay for 2 nights & save on both the time & train fares. there used to be a website called Monday2Thursday.com which was for midweek lodgers.

a friend in similar circumstances did it - stayed midweek with a divorced older woman who let out her university child's room in the week but wanted the room free at weekends. it worked out well for everyone.

DH and I commuted to London via the Oxford Tube (coach service) for about eight months when we were finishing postgraduate degrees and working/interning in London. We were living in a deeply grotty but central Oxford houseshare which meant we could pretty much stagger straight out of bed onto the coach, but all that grot is now glitzy prime residential property, so I don't know where she might get a properly cheap flat anywhere close to the Oxford Tube/X90 route these days, or whether such even exists any more.

In her shoes, I wouldn't compromise my London postgraduate experience -- taking in commuting costs, it's unlikely to be signifcantly cheaper.

In her shoes, I wouldn't compromise my London postgraduate experience This. It's London. Other places are nice too but there's nowhere like London. Commuting's for later.

In theory the Oxford Tube bus gets to Marble Arch in 90 minutes. In practice I commuted from central Oxford to Hillingdon (on the western edge of London) for a few months using the Oxford Tube bus. On a good day it took ~45 minutes (in keeping with the 90 minute time to central London). On a bad day (bad traffic, or lots of people getting on at every stop) it could easily take 45 mins to get out of Oxford, close to 90 minutes to Hillingdon. So I wouldn't rely on it unless she's always going to be travelling at quieter times.

After that I commuted from Oxford to central London on the train a few days a week. It's not cheap, and you need to allow at least 20-30 minutes to get anywhere from Paddington or Marylebone after spending ~55 mins on the train, but it's doable. My experience was that the Marylebone route was better for quieter trains at rush hours and for avoiding delays through Reading. My experience is probably a bit skewed though as I lived in a flat literally 5 minutes on foot from the station. Further afield and you need to walk, cycle or drive to the station. Oxford traffic is horrendous, and not much fun in the dead of winter.

Whereabouts in Oxford are they looking? If in North Oxford or Kidlington that would be close to the Oxford Parkway station, convenient for the Marylebone line and cutting a few minutes off the journey while also being a short bus ride or cycle away from central Oxford.