15min commute to over a hour

Only you can answer if a 1 hour commute is worth it for you.

My drive to work take me around 1 hour each way, 5 days a week.
I can cycle it in 1 hour 30mins, but public transport takes 2 hours+

It's not great pay, in fact I took a pay cut & lost my company car from my old job,
but prospects at my current job are much better, plus I love the job.
 
For 7 years my commute was just over 2 hours each way. Then for the next 5 years it was an hour and a half each way.

For the last 6 years it's only 45 minutes which is bliss.

I'm not sure I could hack going back to a 2 hour each way commute as when I was younger as the tendancy is I work 5 to 10 hours more each week than I used to anyway.

People used to think I was mad doing 2 hours each way but I said so long as I enjoyed the job and got paid enough, it didn't matter.

The way I always judge jobs is that your time is not your own from leaving your house to returning at night so as long as your pay is enough to cover those hours, it doesn't matter.

For example:

Which job would you take?

a 40 hour per week job with 15 minutes each way for £20,000 or the same working hour job with a 1.5 hour each way commute which paid £30,000?

1st job is 42.5 hours including travel = £9.05 p/h and the second is 55 hours including travel = £10.50 p/h

I suppose it depends if you want to "work" for 55 hours though.

EDIT: adjust cost per hour for any additional transport costs, for me it was none as I always had a company car with private fuel.
 
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Mr^B said:
14 hour day? Junior doctor?
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He didn't say she worked from 6 till 10pm ;)

I would imagine it goes like this:

Up a 6am, shower, makeup, breakfast
Leave at 7.30am
One hour commute:
Arrive at work at 8.30am
Leave work at 4.30pm
One hour commute:
At home at 5.30pm
Enjoy time with bf including dinner until 10pm
One hour "personal" time with bf in bed
Go to sleep at 11pm
Repeat
:p

When I was commuting 2 hours I had it that I could be up and out of the door within 10 minutes every morning so only got up at 6.20am to be at work for 8.30am ;)
 
don't do it! i've done leicester to nottingham, then nottingham to chesterfield. in terms of distance they're not far, but time wise it took an hour each way on a good day. i now have a new job where i can walk in 30mins, get a bus or drive in less than 10minutes. you don't realise how valuable time is until it's gone!
 
My current commute is 1hr 10 by public transport and 1hr 30 by bicycle. The public transport option is ok, but cycling is the highlight of my day.

An old boss of mine used to commute from MK to London and he used to do 6 months driving, get annoyed with the the traffic and then do six months on the train before he got six of that and went back to the car.

Commuting up to an hour and a half is ok. It's not the time that can be an issue, but the reliability, crampedness and lack of work / entertainment to get on with.

Mate of mine used to commute from Bristol to London every day; he just got used to falling asleep the moment he got on the train and waking up when he got to the other end.
 
I commute from Milton Keynes to Slough 3 days a week, don't be weak. I also did London for 6 months every day which wasn't that bad.
 
I used to think my hour and half commute was bad enough that this thread has really brightened my day!! :D

Would prefer something closer but nothing much local to me :(
 
I get around said:
I wouldn't do it on public transport, sitting next to some smelly person for an hour on a train, or some annoying ****er, then having to get off and most likely use the tube full of tramps and stuff or maybe the bus, full of dossers off to the chav church (job centre). No thankyou, public transport is terrible.

Doing it by car then yeah I'd do it.

I used to do a 45 minute commute by bus, awful. Hated it, now i'm driving it's a bit quicker and a much nicer journey.
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You do realise that most of the people, in the original posters case, who will be commuting to a job from Milton Keynes via Train will be fellow business people or young professionals. I used to commute half that journey myself on the West Coast mainline and that's how it is.

The Tube isn't full of tramps either, they simply can't affoard it.
 
I get around said:
I wouldn't do it on public transport, sitting next to some smelly person for an hour on a train, or some annoying ****er, then having to get off and most likely use the tube full of tramps and stuff or maybe the bus, full of dossers off to the chav church (job centre). No thankyou, public transport is terrible.
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At a fair few grand a year any commuter route is (funnily enough) going to be full of commuters.

I used to commute door-to-door about 1hr45mins but it just became too much. The train service was awful (First Great Western). The train journey into Paddington was only 52mins but for example in one week I had 102mins of delays. On the way back the last fast train back was at 20:30! Since I was working shifts it just didnt work. If I missed that it would take 2.5hrs to get home. Ridiculous. And I paid £100 a week for the privilege.

So I moved into London and it takes me about 1hr door-to-door. It still takes a while, but I live in a nice area and at the end of the line so I always get a seat. Since my career is going to have me based in Soho or Covent Garden I dont have much choice, and until I get really rich my commute isn't going to be much shorter anyway :p

To the OP, have you worked out your times properly? Dont forget it's unlikely you'll be going for the train that gets you into London at 8.55am. For a starter you'll need to add on time in case of delays, so you'll end up going for the train before the one you should be getting. Then add on time for the tube, and time in case of delays. For a journey that you could do in an hour if it goes smoothly, you could quite easily end up doing 2hrs ''just in case''.

If it's a good step up then go for it. It'll be a shock for a bit (get used to sleeping on the train), but at the end of the day anyone commuting 15mins to work is spoilt. You cant do that forever, you'll never move on with your career.
 
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Kami said:
Bus is completely different to a train, also have you ever spent 1hr + twice a day in slow moving traffic, it's boring/frustating and frankly costly. I do that currently and i'd much prefer to be able to get public transport to work, which I will in a few weeks when my boss gets me a pool car to use during working hours. :D
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Sorry but i feel much more relaxed and more comfortable in my own car.
Like to sit back, stick a bit of pink floyd on and enjoy the ride, have a few smokes, just chilling back.

On a bus or a train I'm just there like "Christ am I not there yet" it's so damn boring.

And being a commuter doesn't mean they aren't going to be smelly or boring or whatever.
 
If it's a good step up then go for it. It'll be a shock for a bit (get used to sleeping on the train), but at the end of the day anyone commuting 15mins to work is spoilt. You cant do that forever, you'll never move on with your career.
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Beg to differ :p

Live in Limehouse, 15 minutes into the City, my flatmate works in t'Wharf and so has the trials of a 15 minute walk to work :p \o/

One thing I'm not looking forward to about moving Californee-way - having to frickin drive everywhere :mad: *spits* :p
 
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Rich_L said:
Beg to differ :p

Live in Limehouse, 15 minutes into the City, my flatmate works in t'Wharf and so has the trials of a 15 minute walk to work :p \o/

One thing I'm not looking forward to about moving Californee-way - having to frickin drive everywhere :mad: *spits* :p
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limehouse, not looking for a flat mate are you :-)
 
My commute by car can be as quick as 20-25 mins, or at worst up to an hour. I would never want to do a job with anything more than 45 minutes average commute time. Maybe 1 hour max. My friend commutes 1hr by train every day plus a drive to and from station. It makes his day into a 12 hour day with 3 hours travel. By the end of each day he's knackered and the weekend is just a recovery. I could not live like that.
 
Rich_L said:
Beg to differ :p

Live in Limehouse, 15 minutes into the City, my flatmate works in t'Wharf and so has the trials of a 15 minute walk to work :p \o/

One thing I'm not looking forward to about moving Californee-way - having to frickin drive everywhere :mad: *spits* :p
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I'm sure working in the City is an exception, given the sheer amount of companies in one small area.

Are you moving to CA to benefit your career? If so you just proved my point :p

Really what i'm saying is that if you commute 15mins to work at the moment, and try to stick at that for your next job, you're severely limiting your chances of moving on with your career.
 
Heh yeah it is a bit :p

Alas no, it's at best a career step sidewards but what can you do - the wife is Californian so over I go :p

Really what i'm saying is that if you commute 15mins to work at the moment, and try to stick at that for your next job, you're severely limiting your chances of moving on with your career.
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Aye, all part and parcel isn't it, I've so far managed to never commute on the Tube despite 3 jobs in London in 6 years and this is the easiest commute yet - I think I'm going to cry when I'm stuck in traffic jams in LA (unless I have a super-sweet convertible, lol)
 
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