Journey time to school - important?

[Spry]

How important a factor should journey time be when deciding on secondary schools?

A secondary school we like very much is a long way away. Getting there would involve a 10 minute walk to a bus stop (v safe walk at all times of day) then a 40 minute ride on a frequent public bus, which drops off right outside the school.

Another school, which seems fine but not great, is just under 2 miles away - so could be reached on foot (up a v steep hill) or via a short bus journey. It's not a safe route to cycle alas.

None/very few of our twins' friends would go to either school (we live a long way from their primary) so they'd have to make new friends if they went to either of these two schools we're considering.

DS’s school was a 5 minute walk, then a 20 minute bus ride (plus time waiting for the bus) then a 20 ish minute walk away. For an 8:30 start he was out of the house by 7:30. It wasn’t a problem for him and we didn’t find after school activities problematic. But we are in London where this sort of journey is more common. And public transport is good, so meeting up with friends outside of school not so difficult.

From an entirely selfish point of view for me, the longer journey for him also made my working life (when I had to go in the office) a lot easier.

Thank you very much for such thoughtful comments everyone. Yesterday evening, I had an absolutely terrible journey (our city's usual bad rush hour congestion was exacerbated by heavy rain and localised flooding). It reminded me just how unpredictable trips by public transport can be, and how much extra time you have to factor in, if you absolutely need to be somewhere by a certain time. I think my son could manage the associated stress of a longer journey by bus to school but I think my daughter would struggle with that. For that reason, I think we're going to go with a school that they can walk/cycle to, even if that doesn't tick all the other boxes. Again, I really appreciate everyone's input on this.

Plenty of kids do it, particularly those in rural areas and those who go to independent schools. Knowing some in both those categories I would say that a frequent public bus service should help as many are reliant on parent lifts or the school bus only does school hours so they need a lift if they stay for after school clubs. It does also mean that friends can be quite some distance away so I'd factor in how easy it would be for them to get to places to meet up - if you're in or around a major city that's probably less of an issue but in some parts of the country it could be tricky to easily meet up with a friend who lives 40min in the opposite direction.

I went to secondary school in the next town. It was either three buses or two 15 minute walks and a longer bus journey. To be honest it was fine most of the time. I has my friends for the first bit, then my sister for the second and often did some homework on the bus. My school had a very wide catchment and some people came much further than me.

The downsides were it was a bit grim in winter - dark by the time I got home often soaked (Mum didn't drive at the time and Dad was often working away). We had a longer school day then. Perhaps more importantly, it meant I didn't really have close friends in my own town and when we were older and socialising more, it was a bit of a trek for everything. I did make local friends when I started my Saturday job, though, which helped.