Living in Norwich, but commuting into London once per week?

[Keyw007]

I have been offered a new job in London, paying around £7k/year more than my current job in Norwich, and I think it will be a great experience to help be gain new skills, and finally a small amount of line management experience.

The plan in my head would be to do this role for 2-3 years, and then possibly look for work back in Norwich at a higher level than I am doing now.

I love living in Norwich however, and being close to my friends and family. It's my home, and the place I want to stay in.

This new job also offers a chance to finally get into the property ladder in Norwich, due to the higher salary. My commute plan would be to catch the train at 6:48am in Norwich, arrive at work by about 9:20am. Then catch the train home at around 4:30pm, and arrive back in Norwich at 6:20pm.

Just wondering what opinions are on this kind of decision?

It sounds doable once a week but that’s a very very short work day, would your employer be happy with that?

Have you factored in the cost of your train ticket too?

Is that extra £7k before or after tax?
How much will your weekly train ticket be?

Those hours if only going in once a week… wouldn’t impress surely?

Very doable. But you may find that you have to be a little flexible with your train times. But one day per week, easily doable.

I used to have a client who did this every day (pre Covid, when WFH was a rarity). His office was an easy walk from Liverpool St. So it is clearly do-able. But I can't imagine many employers being happy with your one day p/w in the office being 9.30 -4, so I'd factor in a later train home than that. It will eat into your pay rise though, and I'd be wary that there might be extra trips required which would make costs add up.

@Marmitemarinaded

Those hours if only going in once a week… wouldn’t impress surely?

It is a public sector employer, and my team is based in offices all around the country. This is just a case of showing my face really, and as long as I do my core hours (10am-4pm), there shouldn't be a problem. I can also work an hour extra the following day using the flexi-work policy.

@ReviewingTheSituation

I used to have a client who did this every day (pre Covid, when WFH was a rarity). His office was an easy walk from Liverpool St. So it is clearly do-able. But I can't imagine many employers being happy with your one day p/w in the office being 9.30 -4, so I'd factor in a later train home than that. It will eat into your pay rise though, and I'd be wary that there might be extra trips required which would make costs add up.

The thing is the team is based throughout the country (so wouldn't see anyone face to face anyway), and there are core hours of 10-4, but other than that, I believe there is the option of using flexi-time to work an hour less one day, and work slightly longer the day after etc.

I guess you and another comment are correct though, and I'd probably need to factor in perhaps getting an earlier/ later train if this does in reality begin to be a problem for my employer. Thanks!

Where abouts in London are you working, Op?

I live in Norwich too and have always wondered about doing this!
Would you work from home the other 4 days? If so, I think it's definitely doable. Although how much is the train? As £7k extra a year isn't loads and loads.

Have you costed it? The vast majority of that £7k will be taken up with rail fare (I live in Norwich and used to travel regularly to London)

@Sleepyquest

I live in Norwich too and have always wondered about doing this! Would you work from home the other 4 days? If so, I think it's definitely doable. Although how much is the train? As £7k extra a year isn't loads and loads.

The train ticket 2-3 weeks in in advance would cost about £20, or even slightly less with my railcard. If I leave it until the day before, it's more like £60! So I will have to be disciplined in remembering to book my tickets.

The main thing about the higher salary, is that after checking with my bank, they don't consider commuting costs when applying for a mortgage. So it would allow me to get onto the property ladder. I think even if my monthly take home isn't too different to start, it could be worth it for this reason, and the experience alone. Longer term (2-4 years), i'd want to work back in Norwich again.

But I used to do around a day a week in London and it was fine. Bit crap in Winter.

Also factor in parking near the station if you need to…

@H8H8H8

Have you costed it? The vast majority of that £7k will be taken up with rail fare (I live in Norwich and used to travel regularly to London)

If you book around 3 weeks in advance, it's pretty easy to get an advance ticket for around £20-30 (before railcard discount). I think I would need to be very disciplined though when it comes to remembering to book.

@Motnight

Where abouts in London are you working, Op?

It would be central London, around the Trafalgar square area.

The train ticket 2-3 weeks in in advance would cost about £20, or even slightly less with my railcard. If I leave it until the day before, it's more like £60! So I will have to be disciplined in remembering to book my tickets.

I wouldn’t bank on it being that price at all… in fact, I used to get similar trains and never got it for anything like that amount.

Regularly that price, I mean

I think if you planned it so that your day in the office was a Friday, those hours would be very acceptable. It may not seem so on a Monday, however.

You can work on the train, however? The new GA trains look pretty good for that.

@H8H8H8

The train ticket 2-3 weeks in in advance would cost about £20, or even slightly less with my railcard. If I leave it until the day before, it's more like £60! So I will have to be disciplined in remembering to book my tickets.

I wouldn’t bank on it being that price at all… in fact, I used to get similar trains and never got it for anything like that amount.

I guess the worst case scenario would be having the commute, and only taking home the same kind of salary as now.

I had a look on the greater anglia website, and ticket prices for certain times didn't really seem to go below £40. Although this could be different after covid has fully settled down.

I've done that trip for work a lot. Because I needed to travel peak times (your home journey would be peak after either 4 or 4.30pm up until 7pm) my ticket used to be over £100.

Slight saving for choosing set trains but I couldn't often do that as work meetings overran and it was simpler to buy an open one day return than a set train and miss it and buy a single.

Plus the underground and the fuel to the station and car parking if needed.

I used to buy as soon as the meeting was in the diary, so maybe there were cheaper 3 weeks in advance, but often the cheaper advanced tickets were limited in number and gone for the times I needed.

Yes, I was about to say, I wonder if the price difference is COVID related.

The commute once a week is definitely doable. Especially at those times.

If your employer is happy and you’re not worried too much about ticket prices/WFH policy changing, I’d say it’s worth the gamble.

There were a fair number of people who'd work on the train too. Good plugs. WiFi patchy. It's nearly 2 hours so plenty of time for laptops to come out.

Might help if your employer would count an hour of your journey as work time if you can log in? Unless it's very confidential given how crushed the trains get get pre covid.

@dryersheep

I've done that trip for work a lot. Because I needed to travel peak times (your home journey would be peak after either 4 or 4.30pm up until 7pm) my ticket used to be over £100.

Slight saving for choosing set trains but I couldn't often do that as work meetings overran and it was simpler to buy an open one day return than a set train and miss it and buy a single.

Plus the underground and the fuel to the station and car parking if needed.

I used to buy as soon as the meeting was in the diary, so maybe there were cheaper 3 weeks in advance, but often the cheaper advanced tickets were limited in number and gone for the times I needed.

Ah yeah, you're absolutely right when it comes to open returns. I'd need to be careful to make sure days with late meetings, I choose a later train.

DH was doing this with trains between Edinburgh and London, for a while a few years ago. He had alarms and reminders set all over the place at the 13-week point to try to get the cheap trains, but he only managed it about a third of the time. The workings of TOCs are a mystery to me but I understand they are not obliged to offer the super-cheap tickets all of the time, just some of the time.

Also when trains get cancelled and I used to live in Cambridge so was getting either Liverpool Street or King's Cross trains regularly it's massively disruptive.

Another thing getting between Liverpool Street and Trafalgar Square will be another whole journey in itself, with added cost your best bet would be to get the Central line to TCR and then walk down from there. (And reverse at the end of the day.)

I think it's doable, but will be more expensive, awkward and time-consuming than you think even if you plan down to the Nth degree. But for a couple of years to build experience, especially if there's flexibility around working hours and you only have to be there once a week, probably worth a shot.

(On that, it's worth getting a cast-iron guarantee that the employer won't at some point airily announce that everyone needs to be back in the office full-time. A lot of companies are doing this at the moment, even while they're publicly making noises about hybrid/WFH working.)

A peak time train into London for £20?? For an almost 2hr journey. That's a bargain!

@BeetleyCarapace

DH was doing this with trains between Edinburgh and London, for a while a few years ago. He had alarms and reminders set all over the place at the 13-week point to try to get the cheap trains, but he only managed it about a third of the time. The workings of TOCs are a mystery to me but I understand they are not obliged to offer the super-cheap tickets all of the time, just some of the time.

Also when trains get cancelled and I used to live in Cambridge so was getting either Liverpool Street or King's Cross trains regularly it's massively disruptive.

Another thing getting between Liverpool Street and Trafalgar Square will be another whole journey in itself, with added cost your best bet would be to get the Central line to TCR and then walk down from there. (And reverse at the end of the day.)

I think it's doable, but will be more expensive, awkward and time-consuming than you think even if you plan down to the Nth degree. But for a couple of years to build experience, especially if there's flexibility around working hours and you only have to be there once a week, probably worth a shot.

(On that, it's worth getting a cast-iron guarantee that the employer won't at some point airily announce that everyone needs to be back in the office full-time. A lot of companies are doing this at the moment, even while they're publicly making noises about hybrid/WFH working.)

Oh wow, how did he manage the journey from Edinburgh? Doesn't that take around 4 hours?

Yeah I think the part of the journey within London will be the worst part honestly! I don't mind sitting on a train so much (I don't do anything productive at home anyway really), but the London part sounds stressful.

They've released an official policy, and I guess I just have to hope they don't revert on that. If they do later on, then I guess I will have to choose to stick it out, or move employers. At least either way, I'll be on the property ladder (which will be cheaper than rent equivalent now anyway).