How long is too long for a commute

If you're travelling 5 days a week I would be surprised if tubeless season ticket works out cheaper. I'm assuming you will need to make at least 450-500 tube journeys a year - pay as you go costs £2.40 for a single even within Zone 1 (so around £1100-1200 PAYG costs) and a season ticket is £1320 for Zones 1-2.

My Zones 1-6 travelcard adds about £860 to the season ticket cost (obviously YMMV), so the breakeven point is somewhere around 350 journeys, and also gives me free travel throughout London for leisure activities 365 days a year. Additionally it can cut the cost of some other Journeys where I am changing in London because I can buy a Zone 6 boundary ticket, e.g. when I travelled to Milton Keynes, Colchester etc which are the other side of London compared to where I live.
 
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HangTime said:
If you're travelling 5 days a week I would be surprised if tubeless season ticket works out cheaper. I'm assuming you will need to make around 500 tube journeys a year - pay as you go costs £2.40 for a single even within Zone 1 (so around £1200 PAYG costs) and a season ticket is £1320 for Zones 1-2.

My Zones 1-6 travelcard adds about £860 to the season ticket cost, so the breakeven point is somewhere around 350 journeys, and also gives me free travel throughout London for leisure activities.
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Factoring in only commuting to the office and adjusting for annual leave and bank holidays it's cheaper to use an oyster if I'm in the office 4 days p/w. Having said that there's likely to be some travel to supplier bases etc and of course the season ticket can be used in leisure time so it probably only becomes truly viable if I'm working from home 2 days per week and in the office 3. Depending on the authorities flexible working policy that's not impossible but I'll need to play it by ear.

Chances are I'll opt for the season ticket just to save the hassle.
 
I have to commute once a month to London and that's enough.

Take 2.5 hours each way....

Get paid for the extra hours travelling so it's not too bad. Anything over an hour everyday I wouldn't do it.

We work to live, not live to work.
 
45-60 mins in the morning
60-90 mins in the evening

Dont mind the drive in either direction, the drive home gives me time to empty my head before I get in and have to deal with a hormonal wife.
 
From my point of view it all depends on how the commute is made up. If it was a 15 minute walk to the station, 90 minutes on the same train with a guarantee of getting a seat and a 15 minute walk the other end then I'd be tempted. If its a journey made up of multiple short journeys with the aggravation of changing and the potential problems of missed connections, then sod that for a game of soldiers.
 
From my experience, I would say 35mins if driving
Cannot say for using public transport because it is utter poop in NI

At the moment I am about 20 mins from work at the moment which is great
 
1 hour max.

I work anywhere in central London and commute from Zone 4, takes about 45 mins from my door.

Anything more than an hour and I would not stay in that job for long - nothing worse than wasting time travelling to and from work!
 
FortuitousFluke said:
A few questions kicking around so I'll update a bit with where I am in my thinking.

I've not got any kids at the moment, just me, my fiance and too many cats. We're getting married in July so the kids are likely to come along not to far in the future, however this isn't necessarily an issue as I don't see this role being an overly long term appointment, 1-2 years all being well.

In terms of the reliability of the commute it will be either St Neots, Cambridge, or Huntingdon to Kings Cross and then Kings Cross to Tower Hamlets using tube and DLR (don't quote me). In terms of the trains it's a pretty reliable service with okay stock and, if I opt for Huntingdon or St Neots, I'm almost guaranteed a seat on the way in at least, not sure about Cambridge as I've not done the route at rush hour.

At the moment I think I'm going to keep my options open, I'll see what they have to offer me and make a decision based on the offer (assuming I get one), I think if I can wangle 1-2 days at home a week then it's probably a good fit, if they don't offer that then I'll have to have a think. Looking at the role I'd also need to be top of the scale for it to make sense so it may not even be a goer if they aren't willing to match that (typical agency using the top end estimate when describing the role).

I've been looking for more time to read, a few years ago I have a 1hr commute by bus which gave me loads of time to read, I could also feasibly take the laptop and try to get some housekeeping done so I maximise my time.

We'll see how it goes I guess.
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Could you walk / foldy bike to there from Liverpool Street Station? I'm basically in Wapping for work and it takes 20mins to walk that. If so you could go from Cambridge and wouldn't need a tube ticket which would save approx £1700 a year. Although the one train would be 70 mins. Seat guaranteed (I'm the stop after and always get one).
 
I personally wouldn't commute more than 30-45 minutes each way. As I'm contracting, I would however be prepared to work anywhere in the country on the assumption that I can work the Monday and Friday from home and stay at a hotel near the office the remaining 3 days.

Seems pretty standard practise
 
I moved from a job that was a 5 minute drive to the office, to one where I can be working from a variety of offices meaning my commute is anywhere from 25 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes, though I get opportunity to control to an extent when and where those long journeys are in my week. Any days that aren't my normal office attract mileage and so it doesn't really cost me much to do.

I'm very happy I did so because the job is considerably more enjoyable than where I was before - I could move but it wouldn't work for my partner at the moment - maybe in the future it will become an option but wherever I moved to, given the spread of the offices, there would always be a reasonable drive at some point.

You also have to weigh up your situation in life and the benefits it may bring you - for me the change has allowed me to purchase property which would have been unattainable previously, so whilst I had more 'free time' it wasn't on my own and I couldn't relax anyway. I may have less free time in my evenings now but it will be our own time to do as we please and not be worried about sharing living space with other people.

This particular example - 2 hours there and 2 hours back for £200-£250 extra after tax? I'd struggle to justify that.
 
I've done long commutes and short commutes - maximum I was happy with was 1 hour each way, that's without any family stuff; but if the life/work balance is really good, and the job was just right, I would consider a commute which was longer than 1 hour.
 
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