Commuting by public transport

Rebecca.

I'm hoping to get some people's opinions on what a 'reasonable' commute time is. I know this is obviously a matter of opinion, but I'd be interested to know what the maximum time is you would be willing to spend travelling to/from work (door to door)? I'm talking about going by train/bus, rather than driving.

neilmcl

Hour each way max.

bengalknights

An hour max

discplayer

Based on my experience on regular commuting and travelling somewhere else on contracts I'd say it depends on the comfort, hassle and cost.

For example, is it 1.5hrs in a seat on an air conditioned inter-city train or is 50mins standing on a packed bus before then changing to a packed commuter train?

Also it depends on how much you like where you live against how much you like the job!

Keith

Takes me on a good day 75 mins but considering a longer journey for a bigger house

purple.sarah

My current commute is about 45 minutes door to door but I have to leave an hour before I need to be there to leave time to clock in etc. This enables me to live in a much nicer area of town than the one I work in! I would travel up to 90 minutes for the right job.

Gavin83

I wouldn't consider anything over an hour even for the perfect job. The only exception is if I was willing to move closer in the near future.

jaydeeuk1

I can trip up outside my front door and practically land outside my office. Moving office next week so will mean 10 minutes less in bed, going to miss getting up at 8.30 to get in for 9.00

Luckily I love my job, so I won't mind having to get up at the ungodly time of 8.20

I feel sorry for people having to drive an hour each way for some crap job they only do for the money, if I could afford it I'd work where I am for free.

mqandy

It's hassle not time for me.

If it's a cross country train, more or less to the office I could cope with 2 hours contract, hour and a bit full time. But throw in a change of train or an irregular bus and I'd want more 30mins or so.

(At the moment I have 15min cycle, 30 min train, 15min cycle...).

johnmcga

As others have said, think about the hassle factor and changes at least as much as the total time involved. I used to have about an hour's commute - which seemed manageable, except for two killer factors:

1. Trains were relatively infrequent, so if I missed one or one was cancelled I was looking at a 20 - 30 minute wait for the next. That's incredibly frustrating when you have work to do.

2. My journey had three legs: walk to the station -> train -> bus from the destination station to work. Just missing a bus could easily add another ten minutes on. On a bad day problems with the trains plus traffic issues could double my journey!

Best thing to do is to look at frequency of trains etc for your specific route. In my experience it's a balance between travel time, cost and hassle. And how much you enjoy the job at the end of it, of course!

SailorSam

I think a lot would depend upon the job. I can't see many people on the minimum wage would want to pay for a train journey over an hour each way.