What moment did you realise it was time to move out of London?

[Queeva]

Did you have a particular moment where you realised you'd fallen out of love with the city?

Yes, it is a whole new thread I suppose. I've found that the big trade companies are unaffected but small sole traders like my semi-retired handyman with older vans had to stop working immediately as soon as ulez came into force because it was impossible to afford a compliant vehicle.

I don't understand why so many Londoners drive - we don't have a car, rent one if need one and it's a lot easier

@Themsthebrakes

I guess it depends what you mean by ‘Londoners’. We’re out in deepest darkest zone 5, and daily life without a car here just isn’t feasible. We do our best - walk the half mile to school and back, always walk into town for shopping (even bought one of those pull along trolley things) and so on, but public transport here isn’t anywhere near as efficient, pleasant or joined up as it is in the centre or inner suburbs.

A decade ago we deliberately bought our house 5mins from the overground station so we could make the most of everything in central London - but normal services never resumed post-covid and now all we have is a slow/stopping service every 15mins on weekdays and half hourly at weekends, if the drivers actually turn up (which is a rarity as it’s all run on overtime - constant last minute cancellations ). As a result journeys in can be a logistical nightmare and we now feel much more cut off from the central London than we used to. I took my mum to Stratford Westfield the other week and it took us the best part of two hours to get there.

Plenty of buses but they’re overcrowded and plagued by antisocial behaviour so I don’t really like taking DD on them - the last one we caught together was stopped for ages and the police called due to a fight between school kids on the top deck.

Our neighbours moved here from Hackney, having lived happily car-free there. Two years and a second child on they’ve crumbled and bought a car as they just couldn’t make it work.

Also because of where we are many people here, especially families and older people, look to Hertfordshire as much as they do London for leisure purposes, and a car is a must-have if you want to visit anywhere outside the M25. We are starting to feel a bit trapped in our borough, which is a significant factor in our plan to eventually move.

As you say, though, the car/public transport debate is worthy of a whole other thread!

@TempsPerdu That sounds really challenging. I live in zone 2 where there is an abundance of buses. I never realised that the overground services had been compromised to that extent as we often use it to get across London (zones 2 and 3) and we absolutely love the journey.

I totally understand your point regarding the buses. We were on a bus at Christmas where the driver was coordinating with the Police to arrest a woman who was on the top deck. The driver was singing Christmas songs through the loudspeaker and giving Oscar-style speeches about how much he loved his passengers (completely OTT). When she got off, she was greeted by several police cars and policemen with handcuffs and there was the expected standoff.

As for protecting the feelings of the other passengers, many did not seem too bothered (especially those who started filing the arrest on their phones) 🙄

@Themsthebrakes Ha yes, buses aside (which sounds very similar) it’s a totally different ball game out here in the ‘burbs!

We suffer from being on an overground line where we are bottom of the heap whenever there’s any kind of issue - any delays/engineering works/driver shortages/whatever the mainline train services and stations further into London are prioritised, while ours are cancelled. Lots of our friends and neighbours have given up on travelling further into London at all, or now drive there if they do.

My mum’s friend, who lives out in Herts, can get to Stratford Westfield in 20 minutes as she’s on a direct line - meets friends for coffee and shopping there regularly. The trip with my mum was a scouting trip to see if she could join them - almost two hours for us! (Admittedly that was a particularly bad journey, but would easily be over a hour on a ‘good’ day).

Can I ask which station that is or at least which overground line? *AM lucky to be on a reliable overground line train every ,7 or 8 minutes. Hope your previous service is resumed!

• I did take an overground from hatch end a while ago and was amazed how long it took to get to Euston.

For me it was being woken up in the middle of the night by neighbours playing ping pong in the garden having come in from clubbing. When we had moved to our area it was cheap, a bit rough, but generally fairly family friendly. It then got massively trendy and we ended up with lots of anti-social neighbours. By then we had DS and realised we were too old to live in that neighbourhood. We cashed in and moved to a much bigger house with a big garden in Surrey.

I feel like we get the best of both worlds now - it's much more family friendly in our new area but we are close enough to London to still go there for dinner/see friends etc. There are things I miss about my old area but in general I am happy I moved. The only way I'd be tempted to move back is if we had a massive amount of money to buy a proper house in a decent area.

@pendleflyer Sure, we’re in Enfield and on the Hertford loop, which is notorious for having mainline trains diverted through it while suburban services are cancelled or delayed.

And, having now mentioned this thread to DP, he informs me that it’s even worse than I thought - off-peak weekday trains are every 30 minutes from our station, rather than every 15 (which is now rush hour only).

Recent news article about the reduction in our service since the pandemic.

https://haringeycommunitypress.co.uk/2023/05/09/extra-trains-for-alexandra-palace-but-bowes-park-still-at-pre-pandemic-service-levels/

That's unbelievable! I don't even consider Enfield to be that far out.

I don't understand why so many Londoners drive - we don't have a car, rent one if need one and it's a lot easier

with dc school, activities & work we defo need a car. I also know people who live 25 mins from a station & there isn't a bus route. Plus post covid lots if services reduced to 2 an hour. Transport is also very unreliable.

@troubg Glad it’s not just us with the rubbish service! Worst of both worlds where we are at the moment - all the issues of London with increasingly few of the benefits!

I grew up in z3 & the majority of families have cars. As I said on another thread getting from SW to SE is often much quicker in a car.

I'm in z4 now but our transport is ok. I drive to work most days though.

Ta - am clearly lucky - SE london - frequency same at weekends unless shut for works. I much prefer oground to tube.