Long Distance Monday Morning/Friday Evening Commute?

Sambucus_Nigra

For about 18 months I lived in Nottingham and drove to Luton each day - well, some days I had to go visit people so it was a drive to anywhere from middle of London Village/Norwich/Colchester/Northampton etc.

I remember some nights issues on the M1 and getting home after 10pm. Not good.

Hence changing jobs to the Midlands.

People are aghast when I say I live 45 miles from work, but it actually takes me less time to get down the M1/M69 to Coventry than it would take to go 15 miles into Nottingham to where I used to work.

I wouldn't stay away from home personally, I'd rather earn less.

westv

I have a feeling that the biggest obstacle to what at first seemed a semi do-able idea is not the inconvenience of it but the fact that I suspect most agencies/employers will ignore my application if they know what I'm considering.

VfM4meplse

mildred1978 wrote: »

Did it for 7 years - not Yorkshire but similar distance. Rented a flat in London to stay in.

Was utterly exhausting - not just the travelling but having to try and fit in so much at the weekends. Got to the point where I didn't remember any if my journey when I got home. Scary stuff.

10 years ago I wouldn't have thought twice about doing this. I think as you get older, you start to value your quality of life much more but total respect to you for lasting 7 years!

mildred1978

InsideInsurance wrote: »

I'm surprised someone would rent to avoid a 2hr20 commute, know several people who's daily commute is longer than that.

)

A friend was contracting in London but lived in South Yorkshire. He had 4 small children and a crippling mortgage. He commuted in every day - up at 4am to get the 5:30am train to get into and across London by 9am. Work till 6pm, then on the 7pm train to get home for 10pm at the earliest.

Kids were in bed when he left and when he got home. He had a maximum 5hrs sleep each night and was too knackered to play with the kids at weekends. Kids missed their daddy, he missed his kids, paid a fortune to train and tube companies and ended up rather ill after about 6 months of it.

Not worth it in the slightest. Had he stayed over he might have enjoyed his weekends rather than dreading them, and he'd have had far better/more sleep. I did offer the use of my spare room, but he only took me up on the offer 2 or 3 times, if he'd missed the 7pm train.

princessdon

My OH has been doing this for approx a year now. But it isn't as simple as Mon-fri. He can be away for a whole month or week then home for a while. Eg he's been at home for 2 weeks now as children have had a lot of school things on and he wanted to be here.

Next week he's away 2 nights, week after only 1 night but Sept a project is going live so probably there for a month or so.

Personally for us the skills you learn working in the capital (depending on the field of course, the wages etc is worth the travel), but as I said it's not all Mon - Friday and even if based up here he has always travelled as part of his job - difference here is he works from home not an hour commute to office on none travel days.

Wyndham

I've just stopped doing it. Home is Lancaster, and I was working in Leicester. I left home on Monday morning, started work at lunchtime, then worked 5 days worth of hours in 4.5 days. I rented a flat in Leicester and stayed there in the week. I've now got a job in Lancaster, and I'm just so happy about it!

I found that the rented flat worked quite well, mostly because it meant I didn't have lots of things to take back and forth as I had somewhere to leave them. So you have two lots of shampoo etc. If you're in a hotel, you can't do that. The flat also had a washer/dryer so I didn't have to think about that, and wasn't rushing to do all my washing on a weekend.

There are two of us, no children, and I don't think I'd have considered it if there were children. Around once a month OH came to Leicester, which helped with the travelling in that I wasn't then doing it every week. We had some fun weekends getting to know a new area of the country. He always drove down, and I made use of the car for big supermarket shops, and I also drove about once a month so I wasn't ever more than 2 weeks away from the car being there. The rest of the time I took the train, which I did prefer as it's more relaxing.

Everything is harder. I'd remember, say, that I needed milk, but then have to think which house that was! And since stopping doing it, I'm amazed at how much energy I have on a weekend, so it must have really been draining my resources.

I wouldn't say 'don't do it', but it was harder than I thought it was going to be, so please do consider it carefully. Good luck!

Simon11

While I'm not in exactly the same position, I'm 23 and single, this is my experience:)

My family home is in London where all my friends are and where I assist at alocal youth group.

3 months ago, I got a new job in Birmingham and as a result started rentingin Birmingham and now close to finishing off the paperwork for my own flat.

I commute Sunday evening around 8pm getting to my place for around 10.30pm.Then on Friday fingers cross it's quiet in the office, I can get away at 3pmback in London for 5pm

The benefits for me were:-

Quicker moving up the career ladder than staying in previous job

More pay

New Challenge and better colleagues!

While it's a 2.5hour commute on Sunday & Friday, my new flat is only a 5minutes' walk away to work and the station, so during the whole week, I spendless time commuting than my 2.5hours return commute on a London tube train

The negatives

Being away from friends and family during the week, meaning you sometimesmiss out on things But generally Imake up for it packing everything in

mildred1978

I can't believe it takes longer to drive from London to Birmingham at 3pm on a Friday than it does to do Birmingham to London on a Sunday night!!

westv

mildred1978 wrote: »

I can't believe it takes longer to drive from London to Birmingham at 3pm on a Friday than it does to do Birmingham to London on a Sunday night!!

I have heard that Sunday evening on the major roads can sometimes compete, as regards traffic density, with weekday peaks.

mildred1978

westv wrote: »

I have heard that Sunday evening on the major roads can sometimes compete, as regards traffic density, with weekday peaks.

I never attempted to travel at peak times. I'd leave either end at about 10pm. Never took more than 2.5 hours that way.