commuter rail fares - impact on house prices

PasturesNew

I've always driven to work, usually 20-25 miles, but (daily) up to 50 (100 miles return). There comes a point when it's cheaper to rent a room locally or do B&B and just weekly commute; I used to weekly commute to a job 200 miles from my home and took on the job on the basis I'd leave home at 7am on a Monday morning and get there "traffic depending/not going to kill myself and take risks" and I could leave on Friday lunchtime... but they needed my skillset, so were flexible over that.

So that's the next level of choice: weekly commute -or- give up job.

PasturesNew

I spend a lot of time dreaming about places I can go to for various reasons.... and I always look at various combinations of train times/routes (going from here, or driving the first 100 miles) -v- driving all the way. The train, for one person, off peak, always works out more expensive than taking my car and takes 2-3x as long as a car journey.

The fact is: trains are stupidly pricey.

Generali

I used to work with a bloke who commuted from Sheffield to The City on a daily basis!!!

His rationale was that for a few hundred grand he could buy a house that would cost millions in the SE. He was in IT and excellent at his job. Contracting in London he could make a hundred grand a year net, live off his wife's wage mostly and pay off the mortgage with his. He was going to do this for about 5-6 years more to clear the mortgage and get a load of money into his pension plan. A local job with his skills paid £30,000.

Well worth it for him. I hate commuting though. I used to live in The City when I worked there and now live about 10.5km from work and cycle in.

IIRC there were 20 season ticket holders for York to London in about 2006 and extreme commuting has been on the increase for many years. My Dad commuted on a weekly basis SE England - Paris and - Dublin when I was a kid. My feeling is that's the best way to do a big commute.

michaels

It's a lot cheaper than private schools.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Generali wrote: »

I hate commuting. .

It doesn't really bother me. Probably helps that the scenery is great up here in Scotland and the traffic very light by comparison to London. I've had jobs where I drove 40K miles a year for work, so an hour in the car to the office never seemed a big deal. Great time to catch up on phone calls or schedule conference calls for.

Based from home now so not an issue for me any more, still do 25K miles a year or so for work around our locations, but still quite enjoy it.

If I had to commute to an office every day I'd probably take the motorbike for at least half the year. It's just so much quicker through traffic, more fun and cheap to run as well. Can't fathom spending 10K a year on trains!!!

Loughton_Monkey

The findings, from the Campaign for Better Transport, were condemned by RMT boss Bob Crow. He said they were "the most graphic illustration yet of how the Government is conspiring with the train operating companies to bleed passengers dry".

Must be the "Pot calling the kettle black" award of the year?

macaque_2

According to this paper, the fuel consumption for different modes of transport are:

Suburban train: 50-150 miles per gallon per passenger
High speed train: 40-80 miles per gallon per passenger
Plane (below 500 miles): 10 - 20 miles per gallon per passenger

www.aef.org.uk/downloads//Howdoesairtravelcompare.doc

I don't know what the other costs look like are but according to this article:

Britain's rail fares are by far the highest in Europe with some commuters paying more than four times the amount for comparable journeys on the continent.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/4691153/Britain-has-most-expensive-train-fares-in-Europe.html

The train companies will tell us that their prices fairly reflect their costs but we all know that is rubbish. BA used to spin us the same yarn until Ryan Air and Easy Jet came along.

The rail companies are not at fault for crazy prices; if you put meat in a tiger cage, the tiger will take it. At the root of the problem lies a lack will (or competence) by UK regulatory bodies to control powerful companies and private monopolies (it was the same problem with the banks).

Derivative

PasturesNew wrote: »

I spend a lot of time dreaming about places I can go to for various reasons.... and I always look at various combinations of train times/routes (going from here, or driving the first 100 miles) -v- driving all the way. The train, for one person, off peak, always works out more expensive than taking my car and takes 2-3x as long as a car journey.

The fact is: trains are stupidly pricey.

I agree trains are overpriced but are you not ignoring costs of car maintenance, insurance, mot, tax etc here?

Especially for nippers like me, train with a railcard is far cheaper than a car with associated insurance cost. Chances are it always will be, for a single person.

The advantage comes in when you're taking a few friends or the kids.

And I do believe petrol prices will have an impact on house prices. M25 will rocket even higher.

ninky_2

if you can go offpeak and book ahead then there are still cheap rail fares to be had. the issue here is rail tickets.

i guess i hadn't considered the issue of private school fees as that just isn't an issue for us. it's a shame that there are schools considered so bad that people actually move house to avoid them - although isn't parental choice meant to mean you don't have to send your children to the nearest school? is that the same in all countries or unique to the way we do things in the UK?

personally i think it was a mistake to privatise the railways. i also think sat tests and parental choice in schooling are big mistakes.

[Deleted User]

And i complain about my puny 200 quid a month zone 1 - 6 pass..

There are massive savings in house prices to those who commute from further out.. if you want a 3 or 4 bed house within London, it can be damn pricey (especially if you want a reasonable area).