TWaT commute from Edinburgh to London

[midweekchallenge]

Anyone else doing three days in London? I’m starting a role shortly that is London office based 3 days a week so will be down Tuesday am and back Thursday pm. I know a few people who do this but have travelled paid for by employer…I sadly will not as it’s a London based job. (I would love to get an Edinburgh based job but there are fewer and fewer of those.) Any hints and tips on how do this as cost effectively and efficiently as possible without staying in a hovel and spending 12 hours a week travelling?

DH used to commute Edinburgh to London full time. Down on the crack of dawn train on Monday and back on the late afternoon on Friday. His company provided a flat and train fares. I’ve known people do the Sunday night sleeper as well, if they needed to be there for 9 am. You would maybe need to do Monday night sleeper and back on Thursday evening. Not going to be cheap. You used to be able to buy multi trip sleeper tickets which made them cheaper, I don’t know if they exist now. Flying is a bit quicker, but not that much once you allow for getting to the airports, checking in etc.

What time do you need to be in work on Tuesday morning? And what time can you leave on Thursday? Also where in London is the office?

Flights with Easyjet take around 1 hour 20 to 40 minutes, but you have to take into account getting to EDI for check in then getting through Stansted and from there to the office, and the other way round for the return journey.

When I did this I started late on the Tuesday (10am) and finished early on the Thursday (4pm) . I worked late Tuesday and Wednesday to make up the hours.
I booked Ryanair flights months in advance for buttons and rented a room. I agreed with the person I rented from I could leave stuff there and use the washing machine etc so I was able to travel light every week. It was 10 years ago but rent was something like £700 a month for the two nights per week and flights were ridiculously cheap if booked in advance so I was probably spending £1k a month overall.
it does get tiring though and travelling so much increases the chances of delays.
some weeks were stress free and easy but often there would be some travel delay.

Depending on where in London it’s not too bad. I did the early flight from Glasgow to Stansted, Stansted express into Liverpool Street and a 5 minute walk to the office. Stayed in a basic hotel 3 nights per week and left a small roll on case with toiletries etc in the office over the weekend. It wasn’t cheap in as much as nowhere is cheap in London so I’d be looking for a very strong salary to cover costs.

Lumo train is cheaper than Lner and pretty much equal in terms of reliability I've found.
But it's not going to be cheap to keep travelling and staying in London.

I had a friend who took a spare room as a lodger in London. That was cheaper than a hotel and she didn't have to keep trailing luggage up and down every week.

I wouldn't fancy being a lodger though, but maybe you wouldn't mind?

You can do a search on spare room for Monday to Friday (or less time) lets, I would do something like this

eg

'Mon-Friday Double in N16 Family Houseshare ' Room to Rent from SpareRoom

'Single room Highbury Islington 2-3 days per week ' Room to Rent from SpareRoom

'2/3 nights per week' Room to Rent from SpareRoom

(if you look in the advanced search section you can specify mon-fri)

Thanks all so much for your replies…this is super helpful. I’ll be looking to be in for around 9am on Tuesday and leave around 4 on the Thursday. The sleeper looked to be more expensive than the BA flight to LCY when I looked but that was last minute so likely better to book ahead. The spare room midweek listings are, I think, exactly what I didn’t realise I needed so thank you for that! £700 a month is infinitely preferable to £400 a week.

What’s TWaT?

Bad for the planet but if you live reasonable commute from Edinburgh airport, the flights in City are reliable and you land in an immediately well connected spot, also, the airport is so tiny it’s much quicker. You can make the most of air miles with BA, but I imagine it’s still quite a sum of money. Work won’t cover anything?

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Thank you 🤦‍♀️😂

the downside of Lumo is if delayed, you have to wait for their next service which can be hours on, whereas LNER obviously has a lot more trains going. Ofc depending on saving you can buy a LNER ticket additionally in that event if next Lumo is much later.

OH did it for a while at his own expense. Rented a room in a flat that was convenient for work so only took a small item of hand luggage each week. Booked a few weeks in advance but that meant he had no flexibility to change work plans or sometimes lost money if he needed to stay longer (and also sometimes ended up in London when he didn’t really need to be). He did an easyJet annual pass thing that included priority security, boarding, seat selection etc and typically flew into Luton as its cheaper. It’s tiring though and impacts your Mondays and Fridays more than you might think. I did it myself for 9 months years ago and it was a killer!

It used to be so common that there was an acronym - Works in London, Lives in Edinburgh - WILLIE. I think fewer people do it post-covid.

I suspect fewer people do it now thanks to being penalised by higher Scottish taxes.

i do like the acronyms though! So I’ll be a WILLIE TWaT. I feel like my kids would appreciate 😂

Have you checked to see if there’s any rail cards you meet the criteria for? I have a veterans rail card which saves me a fortune on the trains. If you found another WILLIE TWaT you could share a two-together rail card (but would always need to travel together)

If it’s delayed you just wait for it surely? If it’s cancelled there should be and usually is ticket acceptance in place so you can jump on an LNER. I would definitely choose train over flying for a London commute from Edinburgh, it’s not going to be any faster by air when you factor in the airport and travel at each end.

So would I - I was told I could not jump on LNER last time I had a Lumo though.

Alas not eligible for railcard and I think the 2-together would be a bit too restrictive even if I could find someone. To be honest, the last three times I’ve taken the train to London, one was delayed by 2 hours, one stopped at Peterborough as the line was closed beyond that and the return journey on the third was cancelled entirely thanks to a landslide closing the line in the north of England somewhere. I just don’t have faith in the rail system…plus it would be a struggle to get to the office for 9am and the sleeper is just the same cost as a flight (and it’s easier for me to get to the airport than Waverly). I have faced delays on flights before too but less frequently. Fog at London City is the more common than you might imagine!). I do wish the trains were better…when they work as planned they are great

Oooh can’t wait to tell DH he is a WILLIE TWAT! He goes Monday night sleeper bzck up Thursday. Often Thursday lunchtime train and works on the train. Sometimes flies into city. A friend’s partner goes weekly and books flights months in advance. Luckily my husband’s work pays for his travel.

Many, many moons ago I did something similar. I flew and booked lots of staggered flights and then used different leg combinations. It unlocked much better air fares. Good luck!

PS many companies offer a season ticket loan. I wonder if you could approach them about help for paying for travel? Do you have a job offer or are you thinking it through ahead of an application?