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Calling all London Commuters !

st albans is lovely and only 20 minutes out. House prices are rather savage but you might find something.
 
Hi Gareth,

I'm currently looking at places in and around Hertfordshire. I start work in the city in October so will need a commute into the St. Pauls/Bank/London Bridge area. A lot of the places in Hertfordshire offer a commute time into a London terminal within about 40 minutes which I think doing twice a day would be far enough for me - if you can stick a 3 hour a day round trip commute you're a better man than I!

As for getting back home, I'm sure Herts to Cheltenham wouldn't take more than a couple of hours, less if you're prepared to do it late at night. I guess it's a question of how often you plan to do the journey. I'd definately take a shorter daily commute and compromise with a longer once-a-week journy.

A monthly train ticket from places like Hemel Hempstead and St. Albans is between £200 and 300.
 
Siliconslave said:
hey mate,
personally i wouldn't really recomend reading, not the nicest of places to live i'm afriad :( some very dubious bits too it and a pretty stale night life (imho, i'm sure some others will disagree)

Completley disagree with the above. I've lived in Reading for the past 8 months and I can't fault it.

To get into the details of it the worse part of Reading is the Oxford Road and the surrounding area but that really is it.

The shopping facilities are good and the night life is busy on Fridays and Saturdays. That said I far prefer a nice pub with some mates but that's just me.

Anyway I don't know what you'll be looking at in terms of home ownership as I rent, but for where I live its a very good deal.

As for the travel, I do Reading to Slough / Burnham usually taking the stopping service around half seven and its never that busy. I think you're only going to hit busy trains on the way back.

Think thats about everything I can offer atm.
 
sounds like you asking all the right questions - but 150k doesn't go a long way within 50 miles of london - and even less within reach of a decent commuter station :(

Just check an estate agents site and £150k will get you a good 2 bed flat - or small two bed house - result ;) not sure on good/bad areas. you'll have to do research.

try this link - it costs money to view searchs but some house even appear twice so you can see real growth on specific properties (if changed hands in last 4-5 years)

http://www.mouseprice.com/
 
I think from all the posts here, it seems that Reading is the best place for you to go, with regards to travelling into Victoria and Cheltenham.

Guildford is beautiful. However, its very expensive. I think it will be out of your price bracket and would be tough to travel to Cheltenham, from there.

Chesham. Oh the lovely sleepy town of Chesham. Living in London most of my life, I'm used to City life. I was shocked to see that a trip on the underground can get me to a place that has such a village atmosphere. I loved it. There is a bakery there that does some of the best food you will ever taste. I wanted to move there, but I found the commute into Baker St (at around 1hr) was too much for me, so I settled for Harrow-on-the-Hill instead. House prices in Chesham and Amersham are very agreeable btw, for anyone considering living on the outskirts of London and need to be served by an underground station.
 
I'm just about to move to Rotherham and will be working in London. The season ticket to Kings Cross from Doncaster is £7.5k on GNER, and is a touch under an hours and 45 minutes door to door. (counting time taken to get to the station).
 
Paddington is a real pain in the but to get to some places in London from, and silly as it sounds its actually a very long walk at paddington from the Reading platform to the tube.

I'd want to double check my London office location, and try the journey at least once before comitting to commuting through Paddington.
 
Chelmsford for the win ! £3,000 (ish) season ticket price - I pay more cause I get the local bus included as well. Into Liverpool street within 35 mins (fast train). House prices are ok but like anywhere there's cheap areas and expensive areas.
 
I just remembered the following link I have saved in my favourites... good for looking at property to buy or rent:

http://ononemap.com/

You can browse a map (powered by google maps) with properties marked on, and can filter by price and distance from a train/tube station.
 
sunama said:
I think he wants to commute in between Cheltenham, Victoria and his new place. Befordshire (luton, et all) would be a bit out of the way.

I think Slough is also close to Reading, though parts of Slough do have a slight reputation.

Reading is good to get to from Paddington and if you dont mind the long commute, then Reading isn't bad at all.

I seriously suggest against the commute from Slough to London Paddington. I do it every morning at unless like me you are sad enough to know where the train door is going to stop you won't get a seat. The train is slow, packed and hot. In the other hand, Reading, which is twice as far away as Slough, gets the super fast, cool and reliable trains that don't stop anywhere and get you there in exactly the same time as the Slough ones do.

Plus Reading is much nicer. I shall shortly (once I've saved enough) be moving from Slough to Reading.
 
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SiD the Turtle said:
Plus Reading is much nicer. I shall shortly (once I've saved enough) be moving from Slough to Reading.

Quoted for truth.

I've got to disagree on the commute from Slough - London. It really depends on what time.
 
z0mbi3 said:
Quoted for truth.

I've got to disagree on the commute from Slough - London. It really depends on what time.

Were you on the commute this morning? I could barely breathe :p

I get on the train beteen 7:30 and 8

PeterNem said:
I just remembered the following link I have saved in my favourites... good for looking at property to buy or rent:

http://ononemap.com/

You can browse a map (powered by google maps) with properties marked on, and can filter by price and distance from a train/tube station.

Also, best link in the universe ever. Thanks for that.
 
cheers for all the posts guys (nice to see the motors boys dropping in !)

sadly the car is going, so im really reliant on trains until I get something really cheap to replace it. Getting on the property ladder is rather important now, and with the projected payrises that ive been shown, i'll get something special pretty soon :)

I'll keep everyone posted on this, and let you know what I go for...
 
holy thread ressurection !

Just a quick update, im going to live in reading for 3 months as of the end of september as a trial and go from there !
 
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