Moving further from city - commute time ?

[decisionschoices]

Hi there.

We are buying our first home and it will be just under 1 hr by train to our jobs in the city and a little more walking time on top of that. Currently, we live about 30 mins away from our jobs.

I am curious to know how far your commutes are?

We are thinking it will be worth it overall to live further away to escape city life but also slightly concerned about the time we will spend travelling!

just depends how reliable and frequent that train is

if you've moved to something that only goes once an hour, it will be a mare. More frequent trains will probably be ok

I have a 15 mins commute into a London terminal but then have to get across London as my office miles away from there. Adding in walking time either end, it ends up taking me just over an hour each way door to door.

I commute 70 miles a day which means a 1-1.5h drive at 6am... but I can work from home two days which makes it far more bearable. Is that an option for you?

My commute is 25 min walk, 1hr train, 10 tubes and 10 min walk to the door. I only have to do it 2 times max per week, usually I go in once a fortnight.

I quite like the commute, I listen to podcasts for the walking bits and work on the train. Usually I'm surprised when we get to our station and I've been immersed in a document.

But I do live a long the track so I always get a seat. 2 stops down and I would probably hate the train as I'd have to stand.

10 mins on tube. Not 10 tubes!

Mine is 10 mins drive to near station, 5-10mins walk to station, 40mins on two trains and 5mins walk to office just round the corner from station. The same in reverse but with another 5-10mins as the walk from station to car is an up hill climb.

I love my commute. It is about an hour of podcasts and audiobooks before I am back home to my noisy kiddos.

I have a 1-1.5 hour drive to work, but it's only two times a week, so manageable. And we couldn't afford to buy any nearer to work, it's so expensive. DH is a lot nearer work so takes on more of the household tasks and DDog appointments etc., otherwise I would struggle.

1hr 10 door to door, but if you finish at say 530 and the train is at 7 that's a pita. I have four trains an hour, they're usually late but it means I can get on one.

35-45 mins door to to depending on trains.

I prefer a smaller house & shorter commute to a bigger house & longer commute. Commuting time (especially by car or standing on a train) is dead time that you can't use for anything and can never get back. if you aver commuting 10 hours per week (1 hour each way per day), that is 10 hours of family time or leisure time that you've lost every week.

I've done a 3 hour a day commute (walk, train, tube, walk) and a 2 hour a day commute (driving). It's tedious doing it day after day especially when road works, accidents, train strikes etc make it more complicated.

Got fed up with both so relocated somewhere I can walk to work!

I have a 20 min walk or 1 stop on the Elizabeth line / 2 stops on the tube.

But in order to have this, it means I've had to make sacrifices on where I live (less space, lots of noise, people everywhere all the time).

I do 10 minute walk, 30 minute train 10 minute walk. Which is about 20 miles. It used to take me longer to do 7 miles when I lived in London.

I am with you on this.

Having done epic 3hr one way, 6hr return a day commute, I will never commute for more than 45min door to door.

The commuting time is dead time. Lost family time. The train fares keep going up. My friends who live in Kent, Surrey and Hertfordshire are paying between £4-7k p.a. for trains that might not turn up.

As a working couple, putting that £14k train fare a year into a house in central London is more financially sensible. Our stress level have gone down noticeably without the long commute.

National Rail is unbelievably unreliable. The official journey time, if the trains were all working, and the train operator not slowing down the train to protect the tracks, is supposed to be 2.2hr one way. During my days of 3hr commute, I had been stranded numerous times in the middle of no where. They blamed the fallen 🍂 and rain.

You really need to weigh it up seriously, and also account for delays. Ultimately it's your time, which is priceless. I would never want to have to have more than an hour commute door to door

My current commute is 1hour 15 minutes, to 1hour 30 minutes, depending on how trains run. Due to where I currently live and work, I'm planning a move to the Elizabeth line which would be a game changer as my journey time will be cut to 35 minutes!

Mine is 1hr 30 mins door to door on 3 trains, but if I miss one of the connections it's a 30 minute wait until the next train so it can be 2 hours as trains are so un reliable

Make sure you price up the annual cost of that commute. I used to drive an hour to work. Now I cycle 30 mins. I would never go back to the long commute due to time but also cost

I’d be far more worried about the cost, assuming that’s a daily commute. I drive 40 mins currently but only 2-3 times a week. I used to commute 1hr15mins in train and tube and it did get exhausting and the season ticket cost more than my rent!

And you said “our jobs” assuming two of you doing that commute that could be very pricey.

Same here. We’re moving now and have chosen less house but closer to work and good public transport

I used to commute 1.5-2 hours with traffic into work, five days a week. If you left after 6am it would be 2hrs+ and risky so the only way to get in for 8.30 meant getting in an hour early! Trains were unreliable and wildly more expensive than driving and parking (as I'd have to drive to the train station anyway at not a dissimilar time to driving). It was too long for me - draining! I'd probably be able to do it 1 or 2 times a week, but not 5.

Now I have a 15 minute commute twice a week, it's changed my life. I get back 7 hours a week of travel time - I'm not as tired in the evenings, I do more in my personal life etc. I couldn't go back to the long commute personally!

How busy is the train? If you can get a seat, then an hour on the train is OK. You can read a book etc. Much more pleasant than driving IMO. Although if it's every day, I would be reluctant to commute over 1 hour. A couple of times a week is OK.

Currently my commute is 45 mins (15 min train) down from an hour, which is great! DH used to do 90 mins (1 hour train) twice a week but wouldn't have wanted to do it every day.

I’ve had various commutes over the years, about 40 mins was the maximum comfortable ones.
More recently I’ve had 10 years of a daily 12 min cycle ride to work. Lovely!
Then the company relocated us out of town, so now it’s 5 min cycle, 15 min train, 5 min cycle there, and a nice 55 min cycle home.
I only go in once a week, with WFH now the norm.
I could drive, but the traffic is terrible.
Personally a max 40 mins is ‘ok’ if you have regular hours and can be relaxed about when you get home. If you have a dog or kids or need to vary your hours, then over a hour is a bit too much.

My longest commute pre - covid was 2 hours each way from home station to main London station five days per week.

You need to plan the cost of the commute as well. My season ticket then was 7.5 k per annum including the tube element.

Also if you rely on a car to get you to the station from home you need to factor in the cost of an annual parking ticket.

My commute now if I am not WFH is an hour door to door.

Agree with this too, train would be definitely preferable to driving which is actual dead time, whereas train at least its semi productive where you can at least read or even just do nothing and relax. You just have to think about it in the sense of it's 1-2 hours a day where you could be sleeping, doing chores etc and is that really worth it. Might be ok for you where you are in your stage of life (it used to be for me, but now I wouldn't do it, unless there was some huge trade off, like mansion with a swimming pool and no neighbours)

At one point I had an hour in the car commute. It was ok, but then I was young and single. I wouldn't do it if I had a family.