A couple of times a month i drive down to Gravesend where my daughter works from Bromley. I drive down in the rush hour, yesterday took just over 1hour. In fact the journey always takes an hour, we go out for dinner and i drop her off in Gillingham and the return journey just over half an hour. How do commuters do this every day?
I would imagine there are not many who do this journey every day.
Think you do get immune to commuting, even when I was doing Battle to Canary Wharf I got used to it pretty quickly even though it took up four hours of my day and 6k of my money. Thankfully in these days of iPads and BBC iplayer the time pretty much flies by. Even get used to the delays and cancellations, it’s just something you have to do if you want the better wages that London offers.
saying that I’m now very happy with my 15 minute drive into sunny Bexhill even though I’m earning 14k a year less than I was previously. Money isn’t everything, more quality time with the wife and the dogs and evening meal at a more reasonable hour.
This once put it into perspective for me: if you commute for three hours a day for 227 days per year and were able to do all of your travelling in advance, starting on Jan 1st for 24 hours a day, you wouldn't complete it until 9am on January 29th.
I normally avoid rush hours, which is an enormous joy, but today alone I've gone Charlton - Chislehurst - Maze Hill - Lewisham - Victoria with a return to Charlton to come. But some days I've had have dwarfed even this. Surrey and Harrow!
I’m quite lucky at the moment, have to take one of my kids to school so catch the tail end of the rush. Always get a seat on train and get to office about 9.40. Going back to busy and dark 6.50am trains will be a massive drain once i stop the school walk in 18 months.
Train commuting is rubbish when it goes wrong but I’d rather that than be stuck in a car driving or working on my own every day. How people can concentrate fully driving home in the dark after a 10hr day I’ll never know
Jinx of the ******* century. Get to London Bridge, board advertising Sidcup train. Get on train. 20 minutes later discover you’re on a Sevenoaks train.
Been living the dream commute for 12 years now only a 25 mins walk or 10 mins drive to work. Lucky and I know it.
I only used to commute up to Denmark Hill from Welling previously but it was still a horrendous journey because you had to rely on the Victoria line which was (and still is?) a service every 20 minutes.
And usually if a train gets cancelled in the morning rush it's always the Victoria line train that gets it first and there was nothing you could do about it either. Sure, go to London Bridge and get another train back out on another line but by the time you do that you're no better off waiting for the next train in 20 minutes anyway.
Did this for 5 years and don't miss it. One day the dream will be over and i'll get the shock of my life having to re-adjust to commuting, paying a fortune to travel and probably on no better salary so with less take home pay.
I can imagine having to rely on the tube as well probably just about doubles the pain of commuting, if I ever have to return to London for work i'll be making sure there's no tube leg on the journey ever. Ideally i'll never work in London again though touch wood.
I felt like this, switched to cycling and it really transformed my commute, a much more exciting and fulfilling way to start and end the day. I really feel like shit now when I have to get the train.
Think you do get immune to commuting, even when I was doing Battle to Canary Wharf I got used to it pretty quickly even though it took up four hours of my day and 6k of my money. Thankfully in these days of iPads and BBC iplayer the time pretty much flies by. Even get used to the delays and cancellations, it’s just something you have to do if you want the better wages that London offers.
saying that I’m now very happy with my 15 minute drive into sunny Bexhill even though I’m earning 14k a year less than I was previously. Money isn’t everything, more quality time with the wife and the dogs and evening meal at a more reasonable hour.
commuting is just dead time same as money spent travelling to work is dead money
@cabbles has ot right and the way the world is going with broadband speeds pushing up a lot of jobs that were previously done in central locations of work will be done more and more remotely.
What makes me laugh at my place is they have a purge every year on travel cost and packet it up as a drive to reduce carbon footprints when the truth is loads of people 'saving carbon footprint' are commuting in making a massive carbon footprint to sit on Skype calls with other muppets who have commuted in to a central location to so the same.
My first job was at Lloyds Bank Blackfen and could walk to work in 15 minutes. Was there a year and all I wanted to do was move to head office in London.
Central line to Oxford Circus victoria line to Victoria 2 minute walk to work.
90mins but suppose only costs £3.80 each way.
Central line is beyond hell , unless you’re on it between 9.45am going to London and before 4pm coming home . The beauty of the tube is the regularity of them , I get the hump if I have over a 5 minute wait , where as before if I’d miss the Sidcup Line train and it’s 15-30 mins for the next one . I wank work from home but on the rare occasion I have to go uptown for a meeting or some shit I’ll arrange, if possible , to go in between them hours , boarding at Loughton, although parking is a joke £6(ish) if you can get in to station car park but more often than not in Sainsbury’s for over 3 hours is £10 odd ! How anyone can survive going to and from work on the Central Line , with the stifling heat, a gazillion punters , squeezed in like cattle every day and remain sane I’ll never know but needs must .
My van is my office so to speak and I only work around Kent these days so I am going the opposite way to the traffic morning and evening.
This has saved me 3 hours a day in travel time compared to when I was working around central London. It has also saved my sanity.
Doing blackwall tunnel twice a day was a nightmare. Add to that trying to get up and down the Highway to the city and back, parking costs and issues, congestion charges, etc. Life was a constant misery and changes needed to be made.
Now I still get some problems usually on the M20/M25 coming home but I can suffer that.
This was my commute for 25 years, prior to that it was the train. I used to console myself the van was better. I had the radio, my CDs and my own space - which generally speaking was free from other peoples diseases.
Last night I felt a little uneasy due to a build up of appointments so I wrote them down. Next Monday I have a flu jab, the Monday after I go on a short break and the following two Mondays I have dental appointments, the rest of the time is my own.
... I actually rather miss the ever changing face of London and Docklands though - I remember when it was all fields
If I’m working south of the river I generally cycle everywhere which is Dartford area . I have sites in Thamesmead and Woolwich and I can drive out of rush hour or cycle
If I’m north of the river I drive through the the tunnel then off road cycle into Romford or Rush Green. This through country parks and similar
I’m in town every couple of weeks and I generally go after rush hour . I work from home sometimes too.
I have to go to Chelsea hospital once every couple of months and go in rush hour. It’s this experience that’s helped me be clear that I would rather eat rusty razor blades than commute in rush hour on a regular basis
I would turn down a job paying 20k - 30kmore in Central London for the freedom and control I get now
My van is my office so to speak and I only work around Kent these days so I am going the opposite way to the traffic morning and evening.
This has saved me 3 hours a day in travel time compared to when I was working around central London. It has also saved my sanity.
Doing blackwall tunnel twice a day was a nightmare. Add to that trying to get up and down the Highway to the city and back, parking costs and issues, congestion charges, etc. Life was a constant misery and changes needed to be made.
Now I still get some problems usually on the M20/M25 coming home but I can suffer that.
Always commuted up town, before moving to France, whether by car or van, or train. Not very nice memoriee of getting the 05:45 (or there abouts) train out of Gravesend every morning and be getting off back at Gravesend around 18:30ish every evening after a days work. Although i dont mind an eatly start, I dread to think the hours wasted traveling to and from work, and I don't for a relatively short period (best part of 15 years, on and off), although I had 3 years in the shops up Grove Park, but that was still next to the f***ing station.....
I felt like this, switched to cycling and it really transformed my commute, a much more exciting and fulfilling way to start and end the day. I really feel like shit now when I have to get the train.
More or less the same. Went to school at Waterloo so commuted for that. 1st job in Regent st so commuted for that. During a train strike i borrowed a bike. The rest is history. Cycled into town for the next 15 years or so. The commute now is 161 bus, Mottingham to Charlton and back.
Central line to Oxford Circus victoria line to Victoria 2 minute walk to work.
90mins but suppose only costs £3.80 each way.
Central line is beyond hell , unless you’re on it between 9.45am going to London and before 4pm coming home . The beauty of the tube is the regularity of them , I get the hump if I have over a 5 minute wait , where as before if I’d miss the Sidcup Line train and it’s 15-30 mins for the next one . I wank work from home but on the rare occasion I have to go uptown for a meeting or some shit I’ll arrange, if possible , to go in between them hours , boarding at Loughton, although parking is a joke £6(ish) if you can get in to station car park but more often than not in Sainsbury’s for over 3 hours is £10 odd ! How anyone can survive going to and from work on the Central Line , with the stifling heat, a gazillion punters , squeezed in like cattle every day and remain sane I’ll never know but needs must .
Always commuted up town, before moving to France, whether by car or van, or train. Not very nice memoriee of getting the 05:45 (or there abouts) train out of Gravesend every morning and be getting off back at Gravesend around 18:30ish every evening after a days work. Although i dont mind an eatly start, I dread to think the hours wasted traveling to and from work, and I don't for a relatively short period (best part of 15 years, on and off), although I had 3 years in the shops up Grove Park, but that was still next to the f***ing station.....
I don't know about immune, I think it's more like numbness or a self-induced disassociation. I shut myself off in a little bubble of whatever music, video or book I've got to keep the real world at bay.
Having said that, it's not always possible to keep the bubble intact. Today there was a bloke in front with possible mental health issues talking away to himself all journey and a fat bastard lumped himself right down next to me/on top of me. With the heaters going full bore (for a change, in November rather than July!) it was quite unpleasant this morning. Even being on time couldn't make up for it.
Always commuted up town, before moving to France, whether by car or van, or train. Not very nice memoriee of getting the 05:45 (or there abouts) train out of Gravesend every morning and be getting off back at Gravesend around 18:30ish every evening after a days work. Although i dont mind an eatly start, I dread to think the hours wasted traveling to and from work, and I don't for a relatively short period (best part of 15 years, on and off), although I had 3 years in the shops up Grove Park, but that was still next to the f***ing station.....
You had a shop in Grove Park?
Yeah, only between me, you and the 4 walls though mate
The newsagents in Grove Park. Did anyone ever come in, browse through the top shelf magazines and then, after making sure no one else was in the shop, asked in a hushed voice if you had anything a bit stronger?
Comments
saying that I’m now very happy with my 15 minute drive into sunny Bexhill even though I’m earning 14k a year less than I was previously. Money isn’t everything, more quality time with the wife and the dogs and evening meal at a more reasonable hour.
Absolute shower of shite
I only used to commute up to Denmark Hill from Welling previously but it was still a horrendous journey because you had to rely on the Victoria line which was (and still is?) a service every 20 minutes.
And usually if a train gets cancelled in the morning rush it's always the Victoria line train that gets it first and there was nothing you could do about it either. Sure, go to London Bridge and get another train back out on another line but by the time you do that you're no better off waiting for the next train in 20 minutes anyway.
Did this for 5 years and don't miss it. One day the dream will be over and i'll get the shock of my life having to re-adjust to commuting, paying a fortune to travel and probably on no better salary so with less take home pay.
I can imagine having to rely on the tube as well probably just about doubles the pain of commuting, if I ever have to return to London for work i'll be making sure there's no tube leg on the journey ever. Ideally i'll never work in London again though touch wood.
Then moved to Scotland and for a few years did Glasgow to Edinburgh driving - 1h15/45 in the morning but only 50 mins home by staying late.
Then moved abroad and got used to a ten minute walk from home to office.
Now back in Glasgow. Work from home a lot or otherwise a ten minute walk into the office. Couldn't go back to a long commute.
@cabbles has ot right and the way the world is going with broadband speeds pushing up a lot of jobs that were previously done in central locations of work will be done more and more remotely.
What makes me laugh at my place is they have a purge every year on travel cost and packet it up as a drive to reduce carbon footprints when the truth is loads of people 'saving carbon footprint' are commuting in making a massive carbon footprint to sit on Skype calls with other muppets who have commuted in to a central location to so the same.
5.35pm train home, arrive in Broadstairs at 7.20pm, home about 7.35pm. Eat and pretty much straight to bed. Only lasted 8 months
victoria line to Victoria
2 minute walk to work.
The beauty of the tube is the regularity of them , I get the hump if I have over a 5 minute wait , where as before if I’d miss the Sidcup Line train and it’s 15-30 mins for the next one .
I wank work from home but on the rare occasion I have to go uptown for a meeting or some shit I’ll arrange, if possible , to go in between them hours , boarding at Loughton, although parking is a joke £6(ish) if you can get in to station car park but more often than not in Sainsbury’s for over 3 hours is £10 odd !
How anyone can survive going to and from work on the Central Line , with the stifling heat, a gazillion punters , squeezed in like cattle every day and remain sane I’ll never know but needs must .
Last night I felt a little uneasy due to a build up of appointments so I wrote them down. Next Monday I have a flu jab, the Monday after I go on a short break and the following two Mondays I have dental appointments, the rest of the time is my own.
... I actually rather miss the ever changing face of London and Docklands though - I remember when it was all fields
If I’m north of the river I drive through the the tunnel then off road cycle into Romford or Rush Green. This through country parks and similar
I’m in town every couple of weeks and I generally go after rush hour . I work from home sometimes too.
I would turn down a job paying 20k - 30kmore in Central London for the freedom and control I get now
Went to school at Waterloo so commuted for that. 1st job in Regent st so commuted for that.
During a train strike i borrowed a bike. The rest is history. Cycled into town for the next 15 years or so.
The commute now is 161 bus, Mottingham to Charlton and back.
Going home is shit though
Having said that, it's not always possible to keep the bubble intact. Today there was a bloke in front with possible mental health issues talking away to himself all journey and a fat bastard lumped himself right down next to me/on top of me. With the heaters going full bore (for a change, in November rather than July!) it was quite unpleasant this morning. Even being on time couldn't make up for it.
up at 8:30 shit,shower, shave and at my desk 9:00