Long distance commuting to London

[stevefreestone]

I did get a job offer in London some years ago which would have meant a commute from Retford or Newark. Not as bad as most, I just couldn't do it. 4/5am starts just to get to a railway station just to get to work might be good as an one off now and again, but not 5 days a week. Nah not for me. I did that at when I was at university when i was much, much younger.
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I know of people who comute from manchester. Stocport and Stoke to London

Theres an old documentary on Youtube (from late 80s / early 90s) about the East Coast Mainline which shows a lot of commuters regularly doing it (oh er) from Leeds to London.

Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyyYeIuaNik

 

[ValleyLines142]

The longest I know is someone who commutes from Preston to Euston daily, at 2 and a half hours each way, which is unbelievable!

 

[chorleyjeff]

I agree. When you think Peterborough is 75 miles roughly from Central London, but it's takes the same time as it does to get the tube out to Upminster!

But only about 20 minutes from Fenchurch St

 

[The Barlow Boy]

There do seem to be a few who commute regulary from Swansea to London Paddington which can be up to 3 hours 30 minutes if you take the 03:58 Swansea - London Paddington service which arrives into Paddington @ 07:32.

There are a lot more who commute to London from Cardiff and Newport.

I suspect when journey times are cut by electrification there will be more people perhaps opting to commute into London from places like Bristol ( which will be more attractive having 4tph from Temple Meads and the same at Parkway. With Swansea to London reduced to 2 hours 45 minutes there may be a few more hardy souls who might elect to commute the full distance

I suspect that the journey times will be cut to what they were in 1977.
London to Reading = 22" Fastest now 25"
London to Swindon = 48" Fastest now 54"
London - Bristol TM = 90" Fastest now 99"
Remember, the line has been resignalled, the track out of Paddington has been straightened - Westbourne Park (BR) was removed to facilitate this yet the trains are now slower than they were over thirty years ago. Granted there is now one more coach in an HST set but there's no justification for the trains taking minutes longer.

 

[MCR247]

Apart from by making services more reliable, making the train more attractive...

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Taunton to London is more common than one might think- back during my time living in Somerset's County town my own commute was to Weston-Super-Mare, but I remember seeing the same faces each day waiting for the service just after 0700 that omitted Reading and ran straight through to Paddington.

 

[Pumbaa]

I can do Liverpool - London up to 5 days a week. But I also do Liverpool - Manchester, Liverpool - Leeds, Liverpool - Milton Keynes and Liverpool - Geneva in varying amounts. Sometimes I'll just work from home!

In a month, I'll typically visit London about 15 times, Manchester and Leeds 3/4 times each, Milton Keynes once and Geneva once. Varied and I like the travel.
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The longest distance regular (ie all week every week) commutes I can think of between my colleagues are one who does Liverpool - London on a 4 day week, and one who does mid-Cheshire - London 5 days a week. Everyone else I know does mid-Lakes or Pennine area to London/SE on a weekly basis.

 

[bewildered]

I knew a lass who used to do Wakefield to London everyday whilst studying to be a doctor at Kings (I think). To start with the main reason was cost of living in London. Her grant covered the annual pass and parents accommodated her at home. However it worked well for her as she had two hours each way a day to study.

My worst was a period of six months doing regular commutes for work but t was a strange pattern. It went:

Monday : Leeds to Newcastle
Tuesday : Leeds to Birmingam
Wednesday Leeds to Liverpool
Thursday : Leeds to Glasgow
Friday : Glasgow to London for one two hour meeting then back to Leeds

 

[howittpie]

I seem to remember reading a few years ago in the standard of a guy that commuted from the Isle Of Wight to London.

 

[HST Power]

I've known people coming out of King's Cross who are going all the way to King's Lynn, which is about 1 hour 45 minutes, more if the train goes via Letchworth and Royston. Some of them are doing it on a frequent basis. That's the longest I know of - but hats off to some of the commuters on here, it's incredible what people have done!

 

[jon0844]

I was 25 when I started, and 35 when I finished.

Wow, that was a seriously long journey.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

I seem to remember reading a few years ago in the standard of a guy that commuted from the Isle Of Wight to London.

One of the car examiners at Stonebridge Park used to commute from Bembridge. One Sunday morning after a night turn due to engineering work he had to get a replacement bus to Queens Park, tube to Waterloo, train to Woking, replacement bus to Guildford, train to Havant, replacement bus to Portsmouth Harbour - where he just missed his ferry connection so decided to head back to work and get a few hours sleep there before starting his next shift.

 

[stevefreestone]

I seem to remember reading a few years ago in the standard of a guy that commuted from the Isle Of Wight to London.

David Icke used to when he worked for the BBC!

 

[edwin_m]

David Icke used to when he worked for the BBC!

...and look what it did to him.

 

[Bedpan]

There was - in B.R. days - a Driver based at Waterloo who lived in Crewe.

Yes, that would have been in the early to mid 1970s, I knew somebody who worked with him. The rationale was that unlike many places, Crewe had trains to London through the night so there was no risk of having to catch the last train the night before in order to get to work on time for an early shift, and of course he would have travelled on a priv ticket so expense would not have been such a factor.

I've known people coming out of King's Cross who are going all the way to King's Lynn, which is about 1 hour 45 minutes, more if the train goes via Letchworth and Royston.

I'm racking my brains to think of another, quicker way from Kings Cross to Kings Lynn without going via Royston. The only other reasonable way I can come up with is tube from Kings Cross to Liverpool Street and then going from there to Cambridge and on to Kings Lynn.

 

[theboywho]

I'm sure I remember hearing of a tube driver who used to regularly commute from Newcastle. Whether this was daily or not, I do not know!

 

[Monkey Magic]

It's the time and the cost that is the killer. A long commute on a slow train stopping everywhere is far worse than long commute on a relatively fast train.

I've commuted London to Bucharest weekly in the past.

Cotswold line to Paddington this year is not so bad, you are far enough out that you can get a seat. Downside is that the last train home is very early 9.50 (my old commute the last train was after midnight), also the trains are not exactly frequent so if you miss one you are screwed.

That said, I know people who've commuted Leeds - London, Sheffield - London, Amsterdam - London and Paris - London.

 

[Tibbs]

It's the time and the cost that is the killer. A long commute on a slow train stopping everywhere is far worse than long commute on a relatively fast train.

I can sympathise with that. I used to do 1:30 mins (for a 20 mile journey as the crow flies) going Windsor line to Waterloo then Victoria from Vauxhall to Euston. I lasted 4 months before I had to move. At least I got a seat.

Now I'm doing a 45 minute journey for basically the same distance, much better for my sanity.

 

[Lrd]

I see a lot of commuters on the first ferry from the Isle of Wight at 0545, most of whom are heading for London. The ferry takes an hour and a lot of people prefer to take the slow ferry instead of the Red Jet as it's more reliable.

 

[rogger13]

In the late 80s I did Leighton Buzzard via Euston to Seven Sisters for 3 years, 2hours door to door............mad. When I moved and had a 1 minute commute in the north, I missed the long commute. I went home and slept,like I was on the train.....weird.

 

[Monkey Magic]

I can sympathise with that. I used to do 1:30 mins (for a 20 mile journey as the crow flies) going Windsor line to Waterloo then Victoria from Vauxhall to Euston. I lasted 4 months before I had to move. At least I got a seat.

Now I'm doing a 45 minute journey for basically the same distance, much better for my sanity.

I think if you lived on the far end of one of the underground lines and had to commute in that would be a killer.

I had a friend who lived in Manor House and it was a 20 minute walk and then a long journey into the centre of London from there. I worked out that my journey from further away was only about 15 mins longer than hers.

 

[anti-pacer]

I think if you lived on the far end of one of the underground lines and had to commute in that would be a killer.

I had a friend who lived in Manor House and it was a 20 minute walk and then a long journey into the centre of London from there. I worked out that my journey from further away was only about 15 mins longer than hers.

I don't the journey from Manor House into Central London is that long, certainly not by tube.

My brother, who lives in Coventry, has done the following from there;

Farringdon
West Kensington

 

[Hellfire]

The longest I know is someone who commutes from Preston to Euston daily, at 2 and a half hours each way, which is unbelievable!

I do Preston to Euston every week but I stay over. Fastest journey time is actually 2 hours but most trains take 2hrs 10 or more.

It's not just the journey times. To be in London for the start of the business day you really need to get the 0600 from Preston and that's a Voyager so less comfortable than a Pendo. Assuming you leave the office at 5 you won't be back n Preston until well after 7.30 in the evening. Gruelling schedule every day even if you can afford FC

 

[A-driver]

I'm racking my brains to think of another, quicker way from Kings Cross to Kings Lynn without going via Royston. The only other reasonable way I can come up with is tube from Kings Cross to Liverpool Street and then going from there to Cambridge and on to Kings Lynn.

I think he is referring to the peak trains which call at LGC and Royston as opposed to the off peaks which run through non stop. Although the stops only add a few minutes to the journey.

Kings Lynn to London is a commuter route though and there are no shortage if commuters who do it every day-places like Norwich have a steady commuter flow into London as well as Lynn.

 

[mrmartin]

I did get a job offer in London some years ago which would have meant a commute from Retford or Newark. Not as bad as most, I just couldn't do it. 4/5am starts just to get to a railway station just to get to work might be good as an one off now and again, but not 5 days a week. Nah not for me. I did that at when I was at university when i was much, much younger.
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Theres an old documentary on Youtube (from late 80s / early 90s) about the East Coast Mainline which shows a lot of commuters regularly doing it (oh er) from Leeds to London.

Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyyYeIuaNik

Is there a working version of this? says youtube has taken it down :/

 

[dk1]

I think he is referring to the peak trains which call at LGC and Royston as opposed to the off peaks which run through non stop. Although the stops only add a few minutes to the journey.

Kings Lynn to London is a commuter route though and there are no shortage if commuters who do it every day-places like Norwich have a steady commuter flow into London as well as Lynn.

Some peak Lynn trains split at Royston. Rear 4 of a 12-car then follow on all stns to Cambridge. What was the middle 4 detach there with the front unit continuing on. One service runs forward with 8 but cannot stop at Waterbeach, Littleport or Watlington due to short platforms. This is followed by a Liv St - Lynn which does the honours at these stations.

Although several travel daily from Norwich the real commuting starts from Diss.

 

[Hellfire]

I think if you lived on the far end of one of the underground lines and had to commute in that would be a killer.

I had a friend who lived in Manor House and it was a 20 minute walk and then a long journey into the centre of London from there. I worked out that my journey from further away was only about 15 mins longer than hers.

Manor House is not a long commute by any standards. It's possible to get from there to Oxford Circus in less than 20 minutes if you change onto the Victoria line at Finsbury Park.

However, if you do live at the end of an underground line, say somewhere like Epping, that is a dire journey. 45 minutes into central London and an uncomfortable trip in a sardine can that would be all standing by Leytonstone in the rush hour.

 

[DiscoStu]

I do Northampton to Euston then onwards to Baker Street quite a lot. The funny thing is it takes almost as long to get from my house to Northampton station as it does to get from Northampton to Euston (Walking or catching the bus take similar journey times to the station).

I do think, though, that the advent of smart phones and iPads have revolutionised the commuting experience. You can browse news sites, check emails, play games, watch films, work, listen to music etc,. Half the time I don't even feel like I'm on a train. It's the hassle of getting through the crowds at Euston and on the tube that really bug me.

 

[calc7]

I do Northampton to Euston then onwards to Baker Street quite a lot. The funny thing is it takes almost as long to get from my house to Northampton station as it does to get from Northampton to Euston (Walking or catching the bus take similar journey times to the station).

Have you thought about investing in a bike? That would cut the hour-ish trip to the station to less than 20 minutes.

 

[RochdalePioneers]

I spent 2 years commuting from Edmonton to Kings Cross. Either a 10 minute walk to Edmonton Green then 50 mins on a 259 bus (slower than train & tube but much cheaper) or 45 mins to drive 8.5 miles to what at the time was free on street parking 5 mins walk north of Kings Cross.

A new guy started commuting from Leicester. With a 5 minute walk from his house to the station his commute was quicker than my bus option. So long distance doesn't have to mean longer time than a local commute.

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