Good areas within commuting distance to London?

eskimo26

Not sure if you could afford it but both purley and coulsdon south are in zone 5 and 6 which saves you a fortune on the commute [the *rseholes take the price of a travelcard up by about £10 peak time if your even 1 zone out of zone 6, instead of staggering it the price leaps up!]

They are also very much surrey, they're only in the london zones as a quirk of fate, they're just like any town in surrey.

bunty109

Ellejmorgan wrote: »

I think you know where I live

I'm not a tea room sort of girl but I do want to take the kids to Duxford..

I'd swap my house for one in Cornwall or Devon in a heartbeat, I wouldn't need persuading..

Where do you go to down there ??

Only been to Westgate Bay and Plymouth (have family there). I'll try thinking if more places in Cambridge for you

adelight

Tropez wrote: »

My home is in the southern reaches of the North West region, within an hour of Manchester Piccadilly.

Thank you for all the helpful advice. I'm not sure I will need a season ticket, unless they intend to change the way I do my job which actually wouldn't surprise me. Every reason to change something that is working fine as it is! However, it is useful to know these prices because if they do change things I don't want to get stung for £5k a year that I was not expecting, although I do believe the company would help out there.

I don't mind a "long" journey back home as I can always do some work on the train, or watch a movie on my laptop or something like that. I would, however, prefer not to spend a great deal of time hopping between trains and stations. The off-putting thing about St Albans for me was the 2-3 changes that added around an hour to the journey. I don't mind making one change but more than that and it would just become a hassle.

Stations along the Chiltern line (Ruislip, Gerrards Cross, Beaconsfield, High Wycombe, Thame Parkway) could be good for you then. Free wifi, power socket at every seat, more tables than most, fairly quiet, cheap tickets, change at Birmingham is a 2 minute walk and no worse than fighting crowds to get off a Virgin train at New St station.

Radlett, Hatfield (I think) have fast trains to St Pancras and are reasonably close to Watford Junction for trains home.

Tropez

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

OK, so you want to be within commuting distance of London, but also easy reach of WCML so you can get back to the NW.

There are plenty of lovely places in the (South) Midlands. But the problem with WCML is that from Birmingham, the fast trains only then stop at Coventry and, sometimes, Watford. So if you lived in between, you'd be on a stopping service, which would lengthen the commute. Although, MK is a good choice as you can get a faster service to London from there.

Having said that, Northamptonshire is delightful. If you look at the area between Northampton itself and MK, you would have the option of commuting from MK to London and also from MK on WCML to the NW.

I'd suggest looking at somewhere between Northampton, Brackley and MK - you can draw that map on Rightmove and have a look from there. The A5 is a reasonably good route in to MK - I assume that if you have to go to the office, then you'll drive to the station? If you lived in the southwest of that area, you'd also be able to drive to Bicester and get a Chiltern Lines train in to Marylebone.

Thanks for the advice. I'll shall go have a play with Rightmove later. I've been using Findaproperty at present because it tells you whether an area is in a Virgin Media zone as I do need high speed broadband (although fibre services from other providers such as BT would also be suitable).

I suppose whether I drove to the station would depend on how far away it was and what the parking fees and availability were like. The local station here has horrific parking problems so it is in general much easier to just get a taxi to and from the station, although it is rather frustrating waiting there for a taxi on the way back as in addition to the parking problems, the road outside the station simply doesn't have the capacity for the amount of traffic the station generates. In dire need of some redevelopment methinks!

Sooki wrote: »

Stafford is on the west coast mainline there is plenty of reasonable priced housing within easy walking distance of the station and regular trains that take 1 hour 15 mins straight into Euston, travel prices are a bit steep though but there are also london midland trains that take a lot longer but are much cheaper.

South Staffordshire would probably be considered too far out at present, even though Stafford is on the WCML. If HS2 were to be completed before 2026 then it could actually be feasible because I'm quite fond of South Staffordshire - Stafford, Cannock, Burntwood, Lichfield etc. - and I'm also not subject to my geographical naivety as I know those areas fairly well. I used to visit Stafford once a week for two years and walk across town. I still remember that pleasant park area situated outside the railway station.

mark88man wrote: »

coming late to the party - but suggestions around Milton Keynes and some of the villages around there - very rural, not too expensive not too far from IKEA - heart of the country really

but really I agree you should fight to stay home based - can't believe they would insist and incur considerable costs.

I do very much intend to state a case as to why this relocation is entirely unnecessary. There will eventually be a larger conference on the matter in which low-level managers will be allowed to wade in with our opinions. Simply from a business perspective it doesn't make sense; both Birmingham and Manchester are undergoing redevelopment schemes to attract new business to the areas. These places will require services such as the ones our company offers and abandoning our offices in the nearby area just seems foolish.

thatgirlsam

Ooohh, you don't want to think about Hatfield!

Hitchin is nice if you are considering Hertfordshire. Fast trains to King's Cross.

Tropez

adelight wrote: »

Stations along the Chiltern line (Ruislip, Gerrards Cross, Beaconsfield, High Wycombe, Thame Parkway) could be good for you then. Free wifi, power socket at every seat, more tables than most, fairly quiet, cheap tickets, change at Birmingham is a 2 minute walk and no worse than fighting crowds to get off a Virgin train at New St station.

Radlett, Hatfield (I think) have fast trains to St Pancras and are reasonably close to Watford Junction for trains home.

Tables are always useful. I'm not fond of Virgin's "pack-em-in" sardine style of transport on the Pendolino in standard class, which is why when I know I'll be traveling I'll book the early advance first class fare because it's usually only a few quid more and you get a table to park your laptop and it's much less squashy.

I assume the change at Birmingham is Snow Hill to New Street? That's easy enough on the whole. I don't think I've used the other station in Birmingham (is it Moor Street?).

More areas for the list! Much appreciated.

thatgirlsam

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitchin

onlyroz

Reading is 25 mins out of Paddington, and Cambridge is maybe 30-40 mins out of Kings Cross. I think even Oxford is commutable if you don't have to do it every day.

Tropez

thatgirlsam wrote: »

Ooohh, you don't want to think about Hatfield!

Hitchin is nice if you are considering Hertfordshire. Fast trains to King's Cross.

Dare I ask what is wrong with Hatfield?

Thanks for the wiki link. I shall have a gander.

onlyroz wrote: »

Reading is 25 mins out of Paddington, and Cambridge is maybe 30-40 mins out of Kings Cross. I think even Oxford is commutable if you don't have to do it every day.

Thank you. I hadn't considered Oxford. Somewhere else to look at.

Lunar_Eclipse

I think a lot depends on how you define good. You've had lots of helpful suggestions which meet your transport requirements for London & travelling home, but might not be places you'd consider good to live in. Cambridge and Cheltenham are generally considered nice places to live, but are both large towns. You might prefer a nearby village for your green and leafy requirements. Detached houses are available across the home counties, at varying price points influenced by transport links and general niceness/affluence. Essex and Kent are the cheapest home counties.

If you'd consider Milton Keynes, then Woking is a good contender; 28 minutes into London Waterloo. Not my cup of tea at all, although a place I know well. It's in an excellent location with loads of fast trains to Waterloo every hour, late trains for nights out and loads on the doorstep. The smaller villages like Horsell are nice and within walking distance to the station.

Henley-on-Thames is very nice if you can afford it and North of London. Everywhere else I know well enough to recommend as a lovely place to live is South of London with trains going in to Waterloo which don't really make sense.