Longest Commute by Rail (Split from a thread in the Railway Jobs and Careers Forum)

[richw]

My commute is 20 miles and that is long enough for me, I am looking to move nearer to work in fact.

 

[Chapeltom]

Just been reading a post about how long your commute to work is and what TOC's will allow to consider you for a position with them.
I have a friend who commutes daily from Burnley in Lancashire to York.
Depending on his start time it can take over two and a half hours.
Even in the early hours it can take an hour and 40 mins.
I just wondered if anyone knows of a longer commute that they have heard of.
P.S. He has done this for over 15 years!

Bit off topic, but a mate linked me to this post about commutes...

Chinley to Mossley Hill - 3 days a week. 2hr 30 to 3hr 10 door to door
Chapel en le Frith to Mossley Hill - once a week. 2hr 50 door to door.

Thats what I do for Uni.

 

[Crossover]

About 27 miles each way, on a good day about 40 mins. That's in the car (on mobile newest threads so I may be off topic)...by rail it would be very difficult and a lot longer timewise. It reduced by about 10 mins after moving house the other week...wouldn't really want to be any further away (winter over the Pennines could be interesting!)

 

[Wath Yard]

I did New Milton (Hants/Dorset border) to Canary Wharf... for 3 weeks until I decided I'd rather eat my own spleen and moved closer. It involved getting up at 05:00 and getting back home approx 20:30.

 

[Ivo]

Does anyone here commute by air at all?

 

[MattRobinson]

Takes me about an hour and a quarter to get door to door from Sandal and Agbrigg to Sheffield university, so not bad compared to the commutes mentioned higher up...

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[heart-of-wessex]

Anyone remember the fisherman report in a magazine (RAIL?) who used to do Aberdeen to Penzance and back on the HST? I forget if it was once a week or something, certainly a HST top man!

 

[WCMLaddict]

2-3 times a week Wigan NW to Euston.
2,5h door to door
Plus additional trips to Glasgow every other week.

I have had few weeks of around 2k miles

 

[Lee_Again]

Before 9/11 I did Welwyn Garden City to Edinburgh (via Luton/Easyjet) every day for 3 weeks. Left home at 7.00 for the 7.50(ish) flight, office before 9.00am. Got the 18.15(ish) flight from Edinburgh, in home before 20.00. No chance of doing that now. The days of parking outside Luton, running in to check-in, driving to car park, running back to board just as the doors close are long gone.

Job now takes me all over the country/world so could be anywhere. Have reguarly done things like Bristol (mon), Newcastle (tue), London (wed), Belfast (thu), York (fri). And nearly always going home each evening.

Bit older and wiser now so 'control' my own diary where possible. Daily commutes are quite limited now but have done international destinations for a week at a time. Plenty of places in Europe, and some in Africa. Out Sunday/Monday, home Friday.

Writing this whilst in Nigeria. Home next Thursday evening. Back here again on the 7th for two weeks then back again on 6th(dec) for two weeks.

 

[Tomonthetrain]

My other half does Stourbridge to Cardiff daily for work via Gloucester outwards and hereford (for cider from relatives) on the return. I just do Stourbridge to Stourbridge (5 minutes walk)

 

[Steads]

I live in Lincolnshire and work in London!!! However, I only do the Kings Lynn to Kings Cross with FCC twice a week as I stay with parents whilst working. One of you mentioned using a London address is applying for a London TOC so luckily I can use that one! Would hopefully like to work out of Boston with EMT but have never seen them advertise for trainee train drivers. Peterborough or Kings Lynn with FCC would be a touch!
While i'm on here has anyone been on the 'how 2 become a train driver' one day course in Kent? I'm going on mine in November. It's cost me £105 so I hope it's ok!!!

 

[westcoaster]

I live in Lincolnshire and work in London!!! However, I only do the Kings Lynn to Kings Cross with FCC twice a week as I stay with parents whilst working. One of you mentioned using a London address is applying for a London TOC so luckily I can use that one! Would hopefully like to work out of Boston with EMT but have never seen them advertise for trainee train drivers. Peterborough or Kings Lynn with FCC would be a touch!
While i'm on here has anyone been on the 'how 2 become a train driver' one day course in Kent? I'm going on mine in November. It's cost me £105 so I hope it's ok!!!

More chance of winning the lottery than getting in at Lynn I'm afraid all old shoes there.

 

[Be3G]

When I went to uni in Egham (Surrey) I commuted from my home in Enfield, North London. A typical journey would take me about 2h 15m door-to-door, and would consist of bus–train–tube–tube–train–bus. Fortunately it was normally only four days per week, although I had to do eleven days in a row starting in freshers' week as I had weekend activities too.

A 9am lecture meant setting the alarm for 5:30am – round about when I think many students were just falling asleep…

 

[DavyCrocket]

A colleague of mine lives with his family in Scandinavia but rents a room in London when he's in the UK. Other colleagues and managers come from Bath, South Coast (Hastings to New Forest) and some from Lincolnshire!

 

[craigwilson]

When I went to uni in Egham (Surrey) I commuted from my home in Enfield, North London. A typical journey would take me about 2h 15m door-to-door, and would consist of bus–train–tube–tube–train–bus. Fortunately it was normally only four days per week, although I had to do eleven days in a row starting in freshers' week as I had weekend activities too.

A 9am lecture meant setting the alarm for 5:30am – round about when I think many students were just falling asleep…

That's what halls of residence are for!! So you don't have to subject yourself to that nightmare!

I used to commute Navigation Road to Chapel-en-le-Frith a few years ago - about 1h45 mins door to door, including a 20-25min walk from Chapel station to my workplace.

 

[Be3G]

Hah, to be fair it wasn't too much of a nightmare. Well, except for when NXEA were playing up, which was frustratingly frequent. (I once had a week where nearly every train of theirs that I caught was delayed.) The reality is though that I like travelling; it was nice to be moving about and not stuck in one place. The uni I was going to was a small/quiet one so people who lived there often found themselves yearning to be somewhere more lively before long anyway!

 

[philjo]

Someone at my work used to travel by train every day from Canterbury to Potters Bar (before the HS1 service started)

 

[Jimini]

About 10 years ago I used to commute from the outskirts of Reading to an office just off Purley Way in Croydon. 35 minute walk to Reading station, train to Paddington, Bakerloo / Victoria line tubes to Victoria (or 36 bus if I was early and the traffic was ok), train to East Croydon, tram to Waddon Marsh and then five minute walk to my final destination. Used to take about two hours dependent on the many connections.

There was a Reading > Clapham Junction > Waddon alternative but it took forever on the rattler from Reading. Same goes for the District line to Wimbledon then tram route. No chance of me doing a crazy journey like that these days!

 

[Bald Rick]

I did Sutton Coldfield - London for 4 years, including all through the post Hatfield malaise when it was regularly 4hr door to door. Each way. Followed that up with 6 months of York to London which wasn't as bad as it sounds. I know a number of people who still do that trip.

 

[tsr]

My commute is exceedingly irregular. At the moment it is anywhere between 65 and 90 minutes by a mix of Southern or FCC trains and various Tube trains or Barclays Cycle Hire.

Fortunately, my commute has never gone really badly wrong, as I can generally be quite flexible with regards to sneaking around disruption incidents. My worst tube delay has only ever been around 30 or 40 minutes, and even on NR, severe delays are generally kept under 90 minutes. On another commute I once did, I got stuck on a tram that was delayed by overrunning engineering works for 27 minutes!

I remember that a relative was delayed by about 270 minutes during the first major snowfall of December 2010, which nicely coincided with a "full-on" commute out of London in the evening peak.

My longest delay at any single point on any given journey (a sort of extended commute, so it counts!) was at Flitwick station during the second snowfall of the aforementioned month, which resulted in around 6 FCC services, running at a half-hourly frequency, cancelled. In an air temperature of just -14ºC, that was NOT a fun wait!

 

[ATW Alex 101]

I travel 20 miles a day to school, 10 miles each way, 40 minutes as it's mostly motorway but on a double decker. Before my dad retired, he traveled from Ellesmere Port to Manchester Airport for 19 years he was up at 5:30 and back in at 19:45 ish. Some days he went by car some by train.

My uncle used to Work in lincoln and lived in Burton and my cousin lives in Kirkby-in-ashfield and travelles every day to Birmingham. A family friend of ours lives in the countryside in Essex and works in Croydon

 

[monty9120]

stourbridge to london.

mostly by car but sometimes by rail. shuttle to stourbridge junction. stourbridge junction to moor street.

walk to bham new street. train to london euston and then tube to edgware

 

[anthony263]

Up until a few months ago I was doing the following:

Out of bed at 04:45 & leave my house at 05:35 arriving at Pyle station at 06:00 then:

06:08 Pyle - Cardiff Central (Arr 06:43)
06:55 Cardiff Central - Grangetown (Arr 06:59)
Into work at 07:10

Leave work at 16:15 and then

16:23 Grangetown - Cardiff Central (Arr 16:28)

16:48 Cardiff Central - Bridgend (Arr 17:09)

17:24 Bridgend - Pyle (Arr 17:32) Always overcrowded between Cardiff & Bridgend which is why I got the hst from cardiff about 15 minutes before.

Home at 18:00.

Now that I am using one of the companys delivery trucks to get to/from work I leave home at 06:10 and arrive into work at 06:45 before finishing work at 17:00 and leaving at 17:10 arriving home at 18:00 (Because of stupid rush hour traffic out of Cardiff.)

 

[Rich McLean]

For a whole week, I did Plymouth to Paddington and back on a daily basis. Leave Plymouth just before 6, London by 9. The back on the 1803 to Plymouth and arrive back at half 9. Never again

 

[anthony263]

I feel for those who commute to Reading and London on the 04:00 service from Swansea

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Wimbledon to Andover for a while - 15 min walk - 0618 to Woking , connect into 0700 ex Waterloo (then a class 50) , return via Waterloo - Wimbledon for 1900+ return. Nearly killed me - never again !

 

[Yew]

When I went to uni in Egham (Surrey) I commuted from my home in Enfield, North London. A typical journey would take me about 2h 15m door-to-door, and would consist of bus–train–tube–tube–train–bus. Fortunately it was normally only four days per week, although I had to do eleven days in a row starting in freshers' week as I had weekend activities too.

A 9am lecture meant setting the alarm for 5:30am – round about when I think many students were just falling asleep…

Last year my weekly commute involwed clocking off tesco at 9:30, then off to uni at 5:30.

 

[scotsman]

My "full time" uni course is currently two days a week on campus. Involves a 35 min train journey, then a 25 minute bus ride across the city. It's not great, but bearable when it's only two days...

 

[hwl]

I currently do south London to north Yorks 2 days a week, takes just under 4 hours door to door. (Usually in 1st on the 0700 from KGX). That makes a very long day. Also do a town outside Brussels once a fortnight which is quicker!

In a previous job I did a weekly commute to Moscow.

 

[parkender102]

A friend I worked with in London (who hails from the Netherlands) now lives somewhere in the Czech Republic and used to commute weekly from there to London on a Wizzair flight costing in the region of £65.00 return. Which was cheaper than my weekly Monday to Friday return from North Wales by Virgin Trains at £74.20! :roll: