Britain's average daily commute is ONE HOUR AND 38 MINUTES

[yorkie]

For a while I used to do a 90 minute commute, which involved 2 trains, though I was only actually on a moving train for around 35 minutes or less. On some occasions I was able to get a lift, which presented both a time saving and a huge money saving (as rail fares are disproportionately high here).

My current commute is only 10 minutes

I would say 90 minutes is too long and should not be done except if there is no other option, and not long term.

 

[Rapidash]

Takes me (roughly) 1h30 from Brixham to Exeter, sometimes longer in the evening due to fewer IC services headed to Paignton in the PM.


Still much quicker than when I worked in Newton Abbot and got the bus every day - regularly took over two hours each way.


......what? There's not much in the way of decent wages in Torbay!

 

[Ploughman]

Leave home in car at 7.38 arrive work at 7.45
Maybe I should take a bit longer and walk it.

 

[miami]

For a while I used to do a 90 minute commute, which involved 2 trains, though I was only actually on a moving train for around 35 minutes or less. On some occasions I was able to get a lift, which presented both a time saving and a huge money saving (as rail fares are disproportionately high here).

My current commute is only 10 minutes

My commute is 15 steps. This tipples if I go make a cup of tea first, otherwise my secretary brings me one about an hour into the day

I would say 90 minutes is too long and should not be done except if there is no other option, and not long term.

My shortest commute in London was 35 minutes walking (longer on the bus or tube), my easiest was 65 minutes -- 55 minutes of that on the central line, plus an average 50 minutes wait, and 2 minute walk at each end, and my nicest was about 90 minutes, 45 minutes on the train, 10 minutes bike at one end, 30 minutes bike at the other.

I'd far rather commute for 110 minutes each way on an Electrostar from say Battle to Charing Cross (a 90 minute train ride, assuming an office in a 10 minute walk of CHX and a house within 10 minutes of Battle), or an LM350, then I would on a 50 minute ride from Twyford to Ealing and back on those horrendously overcrowded trains with a 5 minute walk at each end.

I'd rather a 110 minute commute on the Battle/London line than an 80 minute drive in rush hour too, or a 60 minute walk in the pouring rain (uphill, both ways, in the snow, with a hole in my shoe, after a 28 hour day down t'pit)

Length of commute doesn't tell the whole story.

 

[TheNewNo2]

Leave home in car at 7.38 arrive work at 7.45
Maybe I should take a bit longer and walk it.

You remind me of that Simpsons episode where Homer joins the Stonecutters. He gets to use a fancy express lane on the motorway, but ends up in the car park right behind his house.





My personal commute is a roughly 8 minute walk. I honestly don't know how people who do proper commuting manage it - I had to use the DLR from South Quay to Bank for two weeks in the morning peak and despised every moment of it.

 

[Crossover]

I'd rather a 110 minute commute on the Battle/London line than an 80 minute drive in rush hour too, or a 60 minute walk in the pouring rain (uphill, both ways, in the snow, with a hole in my shoe, after a 28 hour day down t'pit)

Length of commute doesn't tell the whole story.

I think you've just said similar to what I was thinking, but somewhat more succinctly!

 

[Flintstone]

Commuting by car is worse than train. There's a lot of responsibility when driving in traffic and it takes me 70-90 minutes per day to cover the 35 mile round trip.

 

[hassaanhc]

The 98 minutes in the thread title is the higher end of the 90-100 minutes it takes me to go from home to uni, which is one side of London to the other (Southall to Beckton). However, I'm usually more than happy to extend that to 2 hours by using a longer but much quieter route. I actually live in uni accommodation, but journey time to/from home is only a very small consideration (if at all). Sick and tired of the people who think I'm stupid for not commuting to uni just because I'm from London; telling them the journey time usually shuts them up .

 

[robbeech]

I travel around a lot for my job so there isn't always an actual commute. The "office" so to speak is 25-35 minutes away by car. There is a train station in the village which i use to go places like London via Nottingham or Worksop/Retford and there is a train station in Mansfield where the "office" is. However, it's a 15 minute walk to the station here, and a 30 minute walk or a £5 taxi or 2 lots of 10 minute buses from the station in Mansfield to the "office", with 1TPH finishing just after 10pm it makes driving the only logical way. As for the regular driving bits to events and gigs for my job, it can often be as much as the rest of the job time wise. Often drive to the south coast, (Maybe 5 hours), do a show, maybe 8 hours worth of doing and only 2 hours worth of show itself and then drive back (Maybe 4 hours as it's night time).

I travelled to Frankfurt a couple of years back and was talking to a pleasant chap waiting at Birmingham airport. I can't remember what job he did but 3 and sometimes 4 days a week he drove around 25 miles to the airport, got on a flight to Frankfurt, did his job and then flew back that evening. I think he said it was around 20 minutes from the airport, i'm not sure what transport method he used. Sure enough, that sounds like a long long commute but realistically it's probably less than some people do within the UK.

Rob

 

[Kite159]

49 Minutes, so roughly Basingstoke to Waterloo, doesn't seem that unreasonable when you consider property prices being a lot cheaper outside London, but the jobs being in London.

(Coming from prime commuter territory, the number of smartly dressed commuters waiting to board the 06:59 from Grateley [arrival into Waterloo at 08:20] is quite a lot)

 

[HarleyDavidson]

And it's these oinks, who've prevented the likes of me and thousands of others from getting their own homes in the areas where they grew up.

I can never afford a property where I am, the last decent one went for £1.2m! And that's on a main road and next to the village pub.

 

[Kite159]

And it's these oinks, who've prevented the likes of me and thousands of others from getting their own homes in the areas where they grew up.

I can never afford a property where I am, the last decent one went for £1.2m! And that's on a main road and next to the village pub.

I know, local property prices in this area are higher than surrounding areas

Although any new builds have got to set aside a number of houses for "locals" to build, but they are snapped up by local buy-to-let people and rented out to commuters until they can be resold (at a large margin)

 

[alb1]

My commute is roughly 1hr 50min in the morning and 2hr 30 home (due to train/bus times). I absolutely hate it, especially of an evening, but I work in a specialised area and there aren't any jobs closer to home. I need a job so I have to do the commute, as that's what I'm trained to do.

Hopefully I'm going to be working from home more in future, but I think that's also going to have its down side.

 

[deltic]

The actual average daily commute is just under 60 minutes based on the far more authoritative National Travel Survey rather than some dodgy poll by a company wanting to get its name in the papers. This time has increased by around 10 minutes over the last decade

 

[The Box Photter]

I think it's worth anyone having a look at the season ticket calculator on NRE.

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/seasonticket/search

I'm sorry, but when you put in some of the destinations, such as Swindon, Bath, Southampton etc, I'd find it very hard to justify paying anyone some of the sums involved to travel in from such distances.

Make sure you're sitting down for some of the one's to London!

You seem to be labouring under the misunderstanding that employers pay the cost of commuters' season tickets. I think you'll find that most, if not all commuters pay for their own season tickets out of their taxed earnings.

I live 40.5 miles from London & my commute takes 1.75 to 2 hours each way because my office is in Canary Wharf. Oh, and it also costs £5,048 per year.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Three times in the last week I have taken a spotless ten car set out of the depot form the morning commute and within two hours it was full of rubbish with half empty coffee cups strewn on tables and the floor plus the detritus of various fruits left on the tray tables and over the heating vents etc, all this despite there being at least one bin next to almost every door.

Some of these people pay thousands to travel and yet behave like animals sometimes.

I agree 100% with this comment. Many passengers seem to have an innate form of blindness that prevents them from seeing litter bins when provided. I've seen the usual half-empty coffee cups strewn across tables as well as the habitual "feet on seats opposite". Some people seem to think there's an army of cleaners waiting to spruce up their train in time for their evening journey home.

For me, the worst culprits are the people who stick chewing gum on the seats, or under the table as well as those who think it would be a good idea to try growing an apple tree by pushing their apple core down between the side of the seat and the side of the train. Animals.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Used to commute daily from Ore to Brighton, which was about an hour and twenty minutes each way on the stopping service. I enjoyed it - gave me a chance to catch up on books or work without the risk of me distracting myself.

For a week I commuted Milton Keynes Central to Brighton. That was... an interesting experience.

 

[miami]

many trains don't have bins, and they were often removed from stations in the 90s too.

To compound expectations some tocs like VIrgin do have people who pass through the train collecting rubbish.

 

[The Planner]

If it is really 98 minutes then dont try and apply for a job at NR in MK, seen plenty of adverts on the internal list with a 90 minute limit. It may be less the lower in the salary bands you go. We were certainly limited when we moved to MK in 2010.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

My daily commute (Newport to Cathays in Cardiff) is:

15 minutes walk from home to the station; approx. 10 minutes wait for the train; approx. 15 minutes train to Cardiff; approx. 10 minutes wait for the train; approx. 5 minutes train to Cathays; 5 minutes walk to the office - say approximately an hour both ways all told.

When it works, it's not too bad ... I've been doing it for nearly 40 years in one way or another, so I'm used to it by now!

I don't get a subsidised season ticket, but I do have an advance on my salary for my annual season ticket, which saves me quite a bit, even allowing for holidays and weekends etc..

 

[westv]

My commute is about 3h 40m each way (door to door). Fortunately I only do it twice a week (once there and once back)

 

[SPADTrap]

many trains don't have bins, and they were often removed from stations in the 90s too.

To compound expectations some tocs like VIrgin do have people who pass through the train collecting rubbish.

Bless them having to take responsibility for there rubbish :razz:

 

[bb21]

If it is really 98 minutes then dont try and apply for a job at NR in MK, seen plenty of adverts on the internal list with a 90 minute limit. It may be less the lower in the salary bands you go. We were certainly limited when we moved to MK in 2010.

That "98 minutes" claim seems to be referring to the round trip. One way for the paper (I hesitate to call it a paper even) to dramatise something that is nothing special.

I take it that the "90 minutes" requirement refers to a one-way journey as per normal practice in job adverts?

 

[30907]

I worked at Waterloo Station around 1980. My daily commute from 10 miles out at Shortlands with a 10min walk took 55 minutes. So did my Dad''s, to his office near Goodge Street tube - as it had since the 30s!

So 49 minutes is nothing unusual for London - which explains why around 1990 places like Cononley (where I happened to live) became an attractive location for civil servants relocated from London to Leeds...

 

[EbbwJunction1]

One of my civil service jobs in the 1980s involved liaison with other government departments, some based in the centre of London.

I quickly learnt that there was no point in ringing (no e-mails then!) certain people before about 10.00am because they wouldn't be there. When I asked one of them, he replied that he lived in Brighton and travelled by train every day.

To avoid the crowds, he always travelled in after 9.00am and returned after about 6.00pm. His day started much later than mine, but also ended later as well - he was still in work when I got home!

 

[Dr_Intoxicated]

I used to commute from Feltham to just outside Abingdon , it took just about an hour by car and 2 hours by rail via Reading and Didcot Parkway (Company shuttle from Didcot). I chose rail as I found 2 hours of Motorway driving a day to be too stressful compared to a nice quiet rail journey going against the prevailing rush hour traffic.

Also as I was travelling against the normal traffic flow I could take advantage of off peak fares and a weekly ticket from Feltham to Didcot was about £17 (not bad considering the distance).

I now travel from Feltham into the city. I normally take the slower via Houslow loop service in the morning so I can get a seat and in the evening by getting to Waterloo at a reasonable time before departure I can use the faster Windsor or Reading services.

So it is 1:30 in the mornings and 1:10 in the evenings (door to door)

 

[EbbwJunction1]

I'm sure that I've seen something recently (although I can't remember when or where) that there's quite a few people living in Europe and commuting to the UK to work.

Apparently, when they take into account the cost of air fares, housing where they live and the cost of a flat / hotel in the UK, it's cheaper for them to live abroad and travel to the UK for work. The drawback (which they accept) is that they don't have much of a social life if they're travelling every day, as some people do.

I see their point, but it's not for me!!

 

[Gareth Marston]

My daily commute (Newport to Cathays in Cardiff) is:

15 minutes walk from home to the station; approx. 10 minutes wait for the train; approx. 15 minutes train to Cardiff; approx. 10 minutes wait for the train; approx. 5 minutes train to Cathays; 5 minutes walk to the office - say approximately an hour both ways all told.

When it works, it's not too bad ... I've been doing it for nearly 40 years in one way or another, so I'm used to it by now!

I don't get a subsidised season ticket, but I do have an advance on my salary for my annual season ticket, which saves me quite a bit, even allowing for holidays and weekends etc..

Credit to you sir I would imagine that many of your colleagues could do similar but instead have angst about winning a space in the underground car park or arrive very early to secure parking in nearby streets.

 

[Bald Rick]

My daily commute (Newport to Cathays in Cardiff) is:

15 minutes walk from home to the station; approx. 10 minutes wait for the train; approx. 15 minutes train to Cardiff; approx. 10 minutes wait for the train; approx. 5 minutes train to Cathays; 5 minutes walk to the office - say approximately an hour both ways all told.

When it works, it's not too bad ... I've been doing it for nearly 40 years in one way or another, so I'm used to it by now!

I don't get a subsidised season ticket, but I do have an advance on my salary for my annual season ticket, which saves me quite a bit, even allowing for holidays and weekends etc..

Fair play. However you could save nearly 20% of your travelling time by leaving home 9 minutes later...

 

[Kite159]

One of my civil service jobs in the 1980s involved liaison with other government departments, some based in the centre of London.

I quickly learnt that there was no point in ringing (no e-mails then!) certain people before about 10.00am because they wouldn't be there. When I asked one of them, he replied that he lived in Brighton and travelled by train every day.

To avoid the crowds, he always travelled in after 9.00am and returned after about 6.00pm. His day started much later than mine, but also ended later as well - he was still in work when I got home!

Not that surprising, have your working day start at say 10:30 so you can use off-peak tickets [i.e. arrival into London after 10am], stay longer and travel back when the trains are a bit less busy, and could escape with paying off-peak day returns rather than anytime day returns.

 

[Bromley boy]

The original figures seem high to me. Especially as they are nationwide whereas I had always assumed (perhaps wrongly) that commutes were longer in the south east due to housing costs and the high concentration of jobs in central London.

From a London perspective, in my previous life my commutes ranged from 5 minutes - crossing the road to the office (high fare savings more than offset by extortionate housing costs!) - to commuting from Epsom to Holborn for an 0830 start. This worked out around 1:40 door to door and was pretty gruelling. Although close to the average figures quoted, this was far longer than ideal and not something I would care to repeat.

I found that around one hour door to door was my preferred maximum. Ideally with the fewest number of changes possible as switching between modes of transport seems to make perceived time pass far slower than actual time.