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Has anyone had to do such an extreme commute?
Yes and it was not nice. 2hrs each way that was.
Fortunately i only do half that, wouldn't fancy doubling it!
Yes, for a few years. It varied as it was different client sites. 1.5hrs (each way) was a short one, 3+ hours was a long one. Did London on a motorbike for 6 months, that was just under 2 hours (each way) but it would have been over 3 on the train.
You get used to it and it's better than staying in hotels, but it is nice when you stop.
facing a drive of 1 3/4 hours each way but more like 2 hours with traffic
Pretty much 3 hours a day here, but the bike part of that is only about 15 mins (Boris bike). Car, train and foot make up the rest 🙂
did a 1 hour each way commute for 7 yrs
glad it was no longer.
but if you eat and sleep well, boy you would get very very fit.
facing a drive of 1 3/4 hours each way but more like 2 hours with traffic
There are worse things.
Used to regularly do Chester to Birmingham which could get to 2hrs+ if there was traffic, didn't find it too much of a problem. Currently do 45mins-hour. The worst part of any commute is the traffic, heavy traffic, traffic jams and idiots will kill a 15min commute. Open roads and a couple of hours will fly.
I cycled Cardiff to Bristol for a bit. Couldn't manage it every day but did it 2-4 times a week. That took 2-2.5 hours each way 🙂
About 10minutes by bike here, although it has taken me an hour in the car on occasion 😯
I cycled Cardiff to Bristol for a bit. Couldn't manage it every day but did it 2-4 times a week. That took 2-2.5 hours each way
Blimey!!!!
Yeah, it got hard. I overdid it and had some kind of virus or something too and it laid me low for a while.
4hrs a day, 20hrs a week commuting. Id have to seriously consider moving closer or activly seeking alternative employment if that was to be a permenent arangment. Theres way more to life surely. I understand you may just have no option but thats a lot of commuting.
Spent 3 years commuting from Derbyshire to London 5-6 days per week. First class on the train wasn't too bad, and you get to be a "regular" and the train staff look after you well. You kind of get into a groove with it. Drive to Derby station, 1 1/2 to 2 hrs on the train, then a walk or tube to the office.
Was quite good for killing the work email in-box on the journey down, and having a read of bike mags/newspapers etc on the way back.
About 3.5hrs door to door, so 7 hrs a day. Hate staying in business hotels, especially in London.
Work at home most of the time now, so the difference is amazing.
On and off I've done it; taxi-train-tube-walk and also by car.
I've also whenever possible used a motorbike, and this means at least that the journey is pretty much always the same length of time, irrlevent of traffic.
4hrs a day, 20hrs a week commuting. Id have to seriously consider moving closer or activly seeking alternative employment if that was to be a permenent arangment. Theres way more to life surely. I understand you may just have no option but thats a lot of commuting.
Nice places to live are rarely near well paid jobs. I'd take 4 hours commuting a day rather than 24 hours a day in a city.
I do 3 hours by car or 6 by bike or 4 by bike and train
We are moving - city life was shite only we moved a bit far out the city as I base my commuting time on the time it took me in the summer when it took 35/40 mins - soon a the schools went back it doubled - thankfully I did 4 months in africa so disnt have it all winter . But we were 4 miles from the mrs school.
She has to find a new school For next year anyway so she's been tasked with looking for schools in areas where we can live 10-15 miles from my work ! 2/3 hours a day by bike is ok 3 hrs in the little hate box that is the carisn't on !
Nice places to live are rarely near well paid jobs. I'd take 4 hours commuting a day rather than 24 hours a day in a city.
If your talking about very highly paid jobs in the capital then your probably right, I wouldnt want to live there either. Thankfully, theres plenty of other citys in the uk that have good Jobs and are close to some great trails and loverly places to live.
Work is about 24 miles away. So I can cycle 1:20 , drive 40mins or bike_train_bike 1hr. Usually do a mixture, maybe cycle all the way in then train and bike home. It's nice to mix it up tho hard not to do car if its gash weather! 😀
One hour each way in the car - thank goodness for audiobooks and R4!
Forgetting time, how much do we all spend on our commutes?
glad I work from home these days. I don't think I could afford the 2+ hour daily commute any more!
On a good day, my total commute time is realistically 2hrs 20mins.
On a day where the traffic is cak, someone's binned their car into a ditch/barrier/another car it can easily be over 3hrs.
I've done it for getting on for two years now and it is starting to get a bit much.....I try and leave as close to 5 as possible, but lately it's been nearer 5:30 at the earliest. Getting in at 7pm is rubbish as you are over-tired and by the time you've prepared dinner, eaten & cleared up there isn't much time to do anything else....
Varies, I've spent 13 hours in the car this week, that's working 3 days.... bit shit to be honest.
5thElefant - MemberNice places to live are rarely near well paid jobs. I'd take 4 hours commuting a day rather than 24 hours a day in a city.
but travelling for 4 hrs a day means there is no point going home so you may as well rent a room near work and go home on the w/e.
One day a week I do 20min drive + 2hr10m train + 15min cycle, twice. Which I 'spose is 5:30 in the day.
But it's lucrative and worth it for the benefit of working from home for the other 4 days of the week.
Although this week has been exceptional with 3 trips up as I've dropped onto a new project. Not enjoying it, but making enough cash this week and over the next few to put my feet up for a while. Just another week or two of this to do 🙁
I live 20 miles from the office and when I drive this takes around 90 minutes to get in and around an hour to get home. I usually ride to work and time wise over both journeys I save a bit of time riding although I do get home a bit later. I couldn't do a 4 hour commute every day in the car on a regular basis.
A colleague commutes from Rugby to Staines every day, 96 miles each way. The cost and time don't even bear thinking about, up at 5 home at 7-8 every day. His monthly fuel bill is more than my mortgage, and I live in London. I'd have to consider moving my family in these circumstances.
I spent a year and a half travelling from darlington to chesterfield. That used to cost me 2 tanks of diesel a week, 3 on a 7 dayer, but then i was getting paid £205 a week for that tax free. Could have stayed in digs but was nice to be home every night in my own bed. Good for weighing through the ipod too! And the other half appreciated me being home 🙂
We talking 4 hours in total travelling or 4 hours riding a day?
I do not too far off 3.5 hours all told but only a portion of that on the bike - 50 to 60 minutes ride to the station first thing, followed by 40 minutes on the train into work. Coming home about 35 minutes on the train and between 1hr and 1.5 hr on the bike. All dependent on the weather and what route I fancy taking home.
In the summer I tend to spend even longer on the bike and less on the train - I can get that part to about 20 minutes by rail each way into and out of London and in total about 3.5 hours on the bike. I can't do this every day mind you - 4 hours daily, 5 days a week would properly hurt...
Last summer I lost about 1.5 stone and was the fittest I'd been for years, now looking forward to upping the miles again and losing my winter padding...
I have some 25 miles each way on a motorway, takes 30 mins door to door. Or if I leave too late, 1.5hrs. I can't cycle nor motorbike as I have little Miss Hairychested with me at all times and Mrs Hairychested on the way back home in the evening. Won't move as our town is so much nicer than Swords, besides - I'll be having two offices soon, one in hometown 🙂
Oh yeah, you reminded me. I did a contract in Exeter once whilst living in Cardiff - 2 hours by car or train. I initially stayed in a B&B which was ok for me (I was single, took laptop and PS2 with me - sorted), but then I sort of fell out with the B&B and decided to train it every day. 10 min ride to the station; 45 mins snoozing to Bristol Temple meads; 20 minute change so enough time to walk to Starbucks for a coffee and a cake; then an hour or so on a very quiet big train where I'd start work on my laptop. The same in reverse sans the coffee. Got into work at 9.30 or so, leave at 4.30 but because I could log two hours on the train it worked out ok.
There's a big difference between a long train commute (assuming you're on a route where you'll get a seat) and sitting in a car for 2hrs each way. The former I'd consider, the latter, no way.
As you say clubber, I get my 2hrs on the train sat down. Usually get myself a bacon roll for breakfast and then go back to sleep on the way out. On the way back listen to radio and music, can of beer and surf the net/doze. There's worse ways of travelling.
For just over a year I had around 1h45 to work (short car journey, 1h15 on train, then short walk), and then the reverse on the way home, but with a half hour walk instead of the short car journey, so spent a total of about 3h45 a day commuting. It was bearable, but didn't leave much time to do anything in the evenings. I'd leave the office at 6pm, get home at 8pm, so by the time I had dinner and washed up, there was jut a bit of time left to slob on the sofa.
It is definitely do-able if you are on a train, but it's great now have a 25 minute walk instead, as I get to go riding midweek. Having an iPhone kept me entertained with the STW forum and the news in the morning. I had grand plans to work every now and again, but rarely did.
I have done. It got a bit much - S Manchester - Aston and then shortly thereafter S Manchester - Nottingham for about 12 months. Got to the point of stopping with friends a more manageable travel time away and occasionally biking it to/from client site whic hwas a load better.
If it's the job of your dreams I'd be thinking about a 'pied a terre' in town and maybe stopping there 3 nights/ week or so. The driving got a bit much for me and I realised that I was driving badly too often due to fatigue.
I stopped commuting so regularly when they took Concorde out of service.
For a year I did Portsmouth - Croydon. This was before the A3(M) was dual-carriageway most of the way (in fact, the road works for that slowed me down considerably.) Took about 1hr 45 each way. In a Peugeot 305 1.1L (company car! Thanks!), which I wrote off on the journey.
I hate driving and wasn't pleasant to live with. Never again that's for damn certain.
[edit] Only tapes of John Peel show made it bearable!
Portsmouth - Croydon
Grim.
You're not wrong !
I went from a 6 mile round trip cycle commute to a 3 hour round trip car commute, and have to say its not good. Although, I do listen to a lot of podcasts and such and have a travel mug of good coffee, so not too bad. And I did manage to watch three movies on my iphone when I was stuck in the snow this winter for 11 hours!
Given the choice though I would defo do without the commute
I do 4hrs, 4 days a week - 1hr on the bike, 1hr on the train - repeat in the evening, often extend the ride to 1.5hrs.
Southampton to London is 2 hours each way by the time you add on the tube travel.
Not great but bearable. Never worked within a hours of where I live for the last 20 years. Not planned but it happened.
Just over 4 hours, 4 days a week, with regular trips to London for fun which are 6 hours. Thankfully half of that regular commute is on the train. I wouldn't consider commuting any further though, but I'd rather commute than stay overnight.
Takes me just over 2hrs each way on my off road route to work. I wouldn't do it more than twice a week as it just eats too much flexi/family time and utterly wrecks you. Makes the 1hr road trip seem much more pallatable though.
1hr min each way (M1 to MK) but usualy more like 3 to 4 hr min, 🙁
All this to work in London, O and I drive it to.
househusband - Member
One hour each way in the car - thank goodness for [s]audiobooks and R4[/s] [b]pipes and slippers[/b]!Forgetting time, how much do we all spend on our commutes?
Nothing.
Did it while i worked in london.