Still the same! Although no complaints from me, stations with barriers, hate the things.
Cheapest station for parking in Surrey (was £1 per day). Most are £12-14! Limited through so you need to get the early bird train
Commuter towns to London
- Thread starter Diddums
- Start date
Still the same! Although no complaints from me, stations with barriers, hate the things.
You've been gone a long while then, the Apple store opened there in 2011.
Plenty of roundabouts and **** pubs still there though.
I agree about the comments above, Reading is a much better option, or Farnborough. Farnborough has some REALLY lovely properties walking distance to the station.
[edit] https://www.rightmove.co.uk/propert...&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY
Last edited:
That's mega!
Ok you found 1 40 min train. I don’t see any 25 min ones like what was being claimed.Erh, no, it isn't.
- Joined
- 9 Apr 2012
- Posts
- 13,159
I already said I was wrong and happy to do so again
I’m not a fan of quoting just the train time. There’s a lot of travel either side. When I tell people it takes me 35 mins to get to the office they are very quick to proclaim their commute is quicker because it’s 30 mins completely neglecting the fact they need to travel to the station and then get on tube or travel from the station at the other end. Suddenly it goes to over an hour very quickly once it goes door to door. I’ve never fully understood why when people move out of London they suddenly only quote the time it takes the train to get to London.
Last edited:
I commuted daily into central London for 25 years from numerous places, Woking, Brookwood, Basingstoke, zone 3 , Barnet, Redhill, Ashford and Wye. Here's the advice I give anyone who ever asks me from my experiences. Consider the following things:
Cost
For both your current situation and desired future state compare housing and commuting costs together. Sounds obvious but people forget bits. Particularly first timers out to the suburbs forget things like the parking charges at the station that you don't incur if you're used to London and public transport only. Also sometimes forgotten is the increased maintenance costs at home. Sure for the same rent/mortgage you'll get a bigger place. But it costs more to heat, needs more maintenance etc. I recall a big shock for me was the fact that my lovely new big garden needed either money to pay someone or a day of my time every single weekend Spring - Autumn keeping on top of it! I love the dozens of trees surrounding the house but I hadn't factored in the £3K every five years to get them lopped nor appreciated the cost to replace the fence around the perimeter of a third of an acre (that's £5K+). Suddenly the ground rent and service charge of a leasehold flat that I detested paying so much didn't look too unreasonable.
Door-To-Door Time
Forget the headline train time alone. At the "home" end, how close is the car park to the platform? How long is the drive there from your house? How much buffer do you have to give yourself to catch a particular train? How many interchanges on the tube when in London? How long is the walk from your final tube stop to your place of work? How many trains an hour in case you miss one etc.
How important is time in London to you?
Do you enjoy a drink after work or to go to a show? If so then consider, do you need to be within painful but not impossible cab distance back home after a bender? If you like a drink is there a cab rank at your home station or how else will you get home? How will you pick up the car at the car park the next day? What time is your last train home? Will you go into London at the weekends? If so how does the train service deteriorate at weekends? How much extra will it be for the family to join you?
What will you do at home when not working?
Many, many commuter towns are just depressing, particularly if you're used to the buzz of London. Guildford, Brighton and Cantebury are about the only ones I know of that have something about them. Wherever you pick you need to be up for enjoying things that are not urban-centric. The seaside, the countryside, dogs, touring national trust properties or whatever. Of course there's more than that but if you don't get some joy from a non-urban lifestyle then don't do it.
Quality of Commute
The most often over looked thing I think. I moved from a 13 minute train journey as part of my commute to 40 minutes. (door-to-door changed from one hour to one hour and a half). But I am much, much happier doing the longer journey. Why? It's on HS1. Everything is air conditioned, the journey is smooth, all the seats are international class with leg and elbow room, I always get a seat with power and a table and it rarely breaks down because old rolling stock doesn't use the line. I enjoy the 40 minutes to catch up on a TV show as opposed to being jammed into a tin can elbow-to-elbow hoping I can contort myself enough to read the sports pages in the Evening Standard or Metro. I arrive at my destination relaxed. The frequency and quantity of interchanges in London and tube line you use also play a part in this. For example I can now get to the West End door-to-door in an hour and I have only the High Speed and an air conditioned spacious (comparatively to many lines) tube trip changing at Stratford onto the Elizabeth Line which is an easy walk through a shopping centre.
Also consider being one station out form the main hub at your home location. It's been mentioned a few times here but trains sort of stop and then are fast from a certain point onwards. Being one stop out can often mean the difference between a seat and no seat in the mornings. I found this when I commuted from Brookwood (one stop out from Woking). It was much more pleasant getting a seat at Brookwood than standing room only from Woking and only added 5 minutes to the journey. Closer to town on that line, easier to get a seat at Walton and Hersham than at Surbiton etc.
What will you do if your job changes?
You can plan for current circumstances but what will you do if things change? The terminus you arrive at and area you live in play a big part. For example in the IT industry I think I'd feel much more secure commuting from the M3/4 corridor since I would have both London and the corridor itself as places of employment.
Now interestingly I actually worked and commuted to a location not so dis-similar to yours OP. Baron's Court as opposed to South Ken but on the same lines. And I commuted to it from Woking, Dulwich and Wye in Kent at various times. Kent made me the happiest. HS1 is such a joy comparatively to travel on other train lines and a simple change at St Pancras onto the Piccadilly line made for an easy commute that would let me relax with one TV episode (train) and one podcast (tube). I live in a country house in a village rather than flat (London) or semi (Woking 'burbs) and I enjoy being less than 30 minutes to the coast and being able to walk out into fields and orchards. Not without its downsides - commuting cost was huge (£900 a month - but I don't do it anymore) , could never be spontaneous in London (cab £300 home, trains stop quite early and get infrequent quickly after rush hour) and uber/delveroo are non existent locally. Also not pertaining to me but I think if I had a family then you'd have less time with them in the weekdays which I would think is a down side.
Cost
For both your current situation and desired future state compare housing and commuting costs together. Sounds obvious but people forget bits. Particularly first timers out to the suburbs forget things like the parking charges at the station that you don't incur if you're used to London and public transport only. Also sometimes forgotten is the increased maintenance costs at home. Sure for the same rent/mortgage you'll get a bigger place. But it costs more to heat, needs more maintenance etc. I recall a big shock for me was the fact that my lovely new big garden needed either money to pay someone or a day of my time every single weekend Spring - Autumn keeping on top of it! I love the dozens of trees surrounding the house but I hadn't factored in the £3K every five years to get them lopped nor appreciated the cost to replace the fence around the perimeter of a third of an acre (that's £5K+). Suddenly the ground rent and service charge of a leasehold flat that I detested paying so much didn't look too unreasonable.
Door-To-Door Time
Forget the headline train time alone. At the "home" end, how close is the car park to the platform? How long is the drive there from your house? How much buffer do you have to give yourself to catch a particular train? How many interchanges on the tube when in London? How long is the walk from your final tube stop to your place of work? How many trains an hour in case you miss one etc.
How important is time in London to you?
Do you enjoy a drink after work or to go to a show? If so then consider, do you need to be within painful but not impossible cab distance back home after a bender? If you like a drink is there a cab rank at your home station or how else will you get home? How will you pick up the car at the car park the next day? What time is your last train home? Will you go into London at the weekends? If so how does the train service deteriorate at weekends? How much extra will it be for the family to join you?
What will you do at home when not working?
Many, many commuter towns are just depressing, particularly if you're used to the buzz of London. Guildford, Brighton and Cantebury are about the only ones I know of that have something about them. Wherever you pick you need to be up for enjoying things that are not urban-centric. The seaside, the countryside, dogs, touring national trust properties or whatever. Of course there's more than that but if you don't get some joy from a non-urban lifestyle then don't do it.
Quality of Commute
The most often over looked thing I think. I moved from a 13 minute train journey as part of my commute to 40 minutes. (door-to-door changed from one hour to one hour and a half). But I am much, much happier doing the longer journey. Why? It's on HS1. Everything is air conditioned, the journey is smooth, all the seats are international class with leg and elbow room, I always get a seat with power and a table and it rarely breaks down because old rolling stock doesn't use the line. I enjoy the 40 minutes to catch up on a TV show as opposed to being jammed into a tin can elbow-to-elbow hoping I can contort myself enough to read the sports pages in the Evening Standard or Metro. I arrive at my destination relaxed. The frequency and quantity of interchanges in London and tube line you use also play a part in this. For example I can now get to the West End door-to-door in an hour and I have only the High Speed and an air conditioned spacious (comparatively to many lines) tube trip changing at Stratford onto the Elizabeth Line which is an easy walk through a shopping centre.
Also consider being one station out form the main hub at your home location. It's been mentioned a few times here but trains sort of stop and then are fast from a certain point onwards. Being one stop out can often mean the difference between a seat and no seat in the mornings. I found this when I commuted from Brookwood (one stop out from Woking). It was much more pleasant getting a seat at Brookwood than standing room only from Woking and only added 5 minutes to the journey. Closer to town on that line, easier to get a seat at Walton and Hersham than at Surbiton etc.
What will you do if your job changes?
You can plan for current circumstances but what will you do if things change? The terminus you arrive at and area you live in play a big part. For example in the IT industry I think I'd feel much more secure commuting from the M3/4 corridor since I would have both London and the corridor itself as places of employment.
Now interestingly I actually worked and commuted to a location not so dis-similar to yours OP. Baron's Court as opposed to South Ken but on the same lines. And I commuted to it from Woking, Dulwich and Wye in Kent at various times. Kent made me the happiest. HS1 is such a joy comparatively to travel on other train lines and a simple change at St Pancras onto the Piccadilly line made for an easy commute that would let me relax with one TV episode (train) and one podcast (tube). I live in a country house in a village rather than flat (London) or semi (Woking 'burbs) and I enjoy being less than 30 minutes to the coast and being able to walk out into fields and orchards. Not without its downsides - commuting cost was huge (£900 a month - but I don't do it anymore) , could never be spontaneous in London (cab £300 home, trains stop quite early and get infrequent quickly after rush hour) and uber/delveroo are non existent locally. Also not pertaining to me but I think if I had a family then you'd have less time with them in the weekdays which I would think is a down side.
Last edited:
I know squat about London but my youngest and husband are moving from a flat near Streatham to a detached in South Norwood, she works near Waterloo and i know, including the walk the commute is easier , their reasons include the country park and lake, she jogs a fair bit, the house looks amazing for anywhere in the country tbh.
Last edited:
- Joined
- 9 Apr 2012
- Posts
- 13,159
Norwood is still London though and has the advantages that come with it. Just a short Southern service to Balham or Clapham
Soldato
- Joined
- 13 Apr 2013
- Posts
- 12,981
- Location
- La France
I think they invented Basingrad just to give Bracknell residents somewhere to look down upon. Of course, Bracknell has declined far faster over the last 20 years.
Nice road and area that bit just down the road from Farnborough college. I would call that the Cove bit of Farnborough, I know of someone that lives down there.
You only have to go literally down the road to arguably the roughest part of Farnborough, so it's swings and roundabouts really.
Last edited:
Soldato
- Joined
- 9 Nov 2005
- Posts
- 9,129
- Location
- Southampton, hopefully not too hot, or too cold
Petersfield area would keep train journey time to ~1hr15mins to Waterloo and you have lovely countryside on your doorstep, not been able to ride there this year, but a lot of my favourite "local" hills are within 10 miles of the town centre.
- Joined
- 9 Apr 2012
- Posts
- 13,159
I wouldn’t live in Farnborough. Sod all going on and rough in places
Where do you consider to be a place with stuff going on and not rough in places?
Last edited:
I live in Farnborough. It's basically just a massive housing estate. There are pockets of nicer places, but the majority is naff. Town is crap and local amenities are non existent.
Associate
- Joined
- 1 Mar 2004
- Posts
- 2,004
- Location
- Warwickshire
Basingstoke
I guess it could be considered a good London commuter town, if you've given up on life and are an empty, soul-less husk of a human being.
Reading is on a faster line, only 35 mins to Paddington vs 45 to Waterloo from basingstoke. This was 15 years ago when I did this commute. There's also some actual life in Reading.
No denying Reading has better variation of restaurants, more young people etc - Basingstoke sucks for this. Problem with Reading is it's got much higher deprivation/cultural/social problems. I saw people shooting up more than once. Living there i'd expect my shed to eventually get broken into and my bike nicked.
Main problem I found with Woking was the traffic... it sort of feels like it was once a collection of small villages with little lanes, which then grew into becoming a town, with the same little lanes unchanged... Every car journey to go anywhere just felt an utter chore. Fine if you live near station & just get the train to places I guess. Basingstoke is way better in this regard - not just roads but a much lower density area; on the map it's basically on the end of the urbanized sprawl that is the M3 corridor.
Reading is a complete **** hole. I work there and can't wait to leave. Lots of good pubs and restaurants etc, but also lots of crime, drugs and homelessness.