Commuting

[Batfink]

This sucks!

I really, really hate commuting and thought I'd setup a little Blog for all of those out there who hate it so much! So, feel free to post your own ranting and ravings about commuting to and from work here.

I've just spent several hours stuck on a lame, overcrowded, smelly, hot train. Then I had to change on to the tube - which was even worse! Then ended it with a brisk walk to the office. All in all I've spent 2 and a half hours travelling to a job which I don't like in a city which is hideous! On top of all this I have to pay 30% of my monthly wage just to do this!!!

The only benefit I get from commuting is that it makes me appreciate the time I get away from the City more and more!!!

 

[boaty]

I really feel for you - there's nothing worse than feeling like your wasting your life just travelling backwards and forwards

I'm lucky, I can cycle to work. I leave early in the morning to avoid most of the traffic, and only get hit by blind motorists about once a month ):

 

[jamesdevine]

Dido to that.

I have spent the last four years doing the same hour and half to and hour half journey home for does four years. I see the same lifeless souls every day it sucks.

A number of years ago while waiting for a train home after a week hiking the hills I swore that I would never become one of those sheep. I am now the biggest and wooliest one of them :yikes: I have been feverly trying to find a way out.

My tunnel collapsed last night I need to start a new one any alternative suggestions?

James

 

[EdS]

I used to live on the same site where I worked (Bradford), but then it was decided that I should move my desk over to Hudderfield where the rest of the team where.

Result 45minutes - 1 hours each way through Bradford rush hour and the M62 - in works 4x4 that does 22mpg on a good run.

 

[Womble]

One hour 15-20mins in the morning, one and a half in the evening. It's sapping, sometimes.

 

[Stuart]

I work for me its good because I dont have to commute but it also means the work never actually stops

 

[MartiniDave]

I put my notice in at work yesterday. I will be doing quite a bit of work from home so I feel quite good about that, especially as I have some grown out spinney/woodland "next door" that I can do pretty much as I please in. Only about an acre, tringular with a road on each side, with my house at one point of the triangle.

Gotta be better for me!

Dave

 

[Ed]

Well teaching takes me all over the place, but generally its under an hour .... which is nice

Ed

 

[Batfink]

I did it quite quickly today - less than 2 hours! AND I got a seat no the train and the tube all the way to the office! Oh joy of joys!!!

I've got that Friday feeling!!! Just 3 more hours til core time is over then home and freedom!!!

 

[stuart f]

I don,t commute as such,but i travel all around Scotland and it can take some time,it depends on where we are heading, for examlpe we,ll be heading to Durness soon and that can take about 6to7 hours to get there but on average it,s usually about 3 hours travel time.The upside is that i get to see a lot of the Scottish countryside.

 

[Keith_Beef]

I live in Paris, and work in an industrial estate south of Paris.

My commute is 5 minute walk, 10 minute metro ride, 40 minute "RER" (sub-urban rail network) ride, 10 minute walk.

That is, when everything is on time, and I don't have to wait for the connection.

Sometimes, things go wrong: signalling failures, power cuts, jumpers (suicides), passengers fainting, bomb alerts, real bombs (St. Michel station in 1995 and Port Royal station in 1996, both on my line)...

A problem usually means about an extra half hour, but a couple of times, it has made my 1 hour journey into a three hour journey.

I can put up with the smell and heat most of the time (I've had to move seats very occasionnaly), but the ignorant R-Soles who insist on spreading their bags over three seats when they get on the train at the start station (Ch. de Gaulle Airport) really annoy me. They get the "Paddington Bear hard stare" treatment, followed by a sarcastic comment.

But the good thing about my commute is that I am practically guaranteed a seat, and I can read a book (OK, so I just join the dots).



Keith.

 

[ditchfield]

I walk about 300 yrds down a country lane. Its only part time though.

 

[Justin Time]

I walk about 300 yrds down a country lane. Its only part time though.

Sometimes you hop? :super:

 

[Batfink]

I walk about 300 yrds down a country lane. Its only part time though.

Oh how I long for those country lanes!!!!!! I trust its a quite country lane, with nice verges, liberal sprinkled with wild flowers, and a broad range of living fauna - rather than the country lane where I live where the farmer has destroyed the hedgerow, replaced it with a barbed wire fence, cuts the grass with a nasty zzzrrrrrhgggggheeeeeeeeeekkkkkk machine, and the only fauna is dead roadkill??? NOT THAT I'M BITTER!!!

Anyways, the journey in this morning was quite nice! I stayed in bed for an extra 30minutes (due to a heavy night), and caught a later train. Infact, signal failure meant I caught the normal train which was running 30minutes late. Unfortunately this meant it was heaving with people, no sitting room, and barely enough space to breathe. Still, those 30minutes in bed made it all worth it!!!!

However, the good day has turned bad... Oxford Circus is closed and there are severe delays on the Bakerloo line. Security alerts. I HATE LONDON SO PASSIONATELY!!!

 

[Mikey P]

Depending on how much training I've been doing during the week, I try and bike from Kingston (London - not Jamaica, before any smartarse says so) into the centre of London. Takes abut 45 mins. If not, I take the train in and read a book/magazine - takes about an hour but I don't usually have to shower at the end of it.

I think the cycling-in-London experience reminds me what it feels like to be (still) alive on a regular basis and tends to wake me up quite quickly...

 

[ditchfield]

Oh how I long for those country lanes!!!!!! I trust its a quite country lane, with nice verges, liberal sprinkled with wild flowers, and a broad range of living fauna - rather than the country lane where I live where the farmer has destroyed the hedgerow, replaced it with a barbed wire fence, cuts the grass with a nasty zzzrrrrrhgggggheeeeeeeeeekkkkkk machine, and the only fauna is dead roadkill??? NOT THAT I'M BITTER!!!

Anyways, the journey in this morning was quite nice! I stayed in bed for an extra 30minutes (due to a heavy night), and caught a later train. Infact, signal failure meant I caught the normal train which was running 30minutes late. Unfortunately this meant it was heaving with people, no sitting room, and barely enough space to breathe. Still, those 30minutes in bed made it all worth it!!!!

However, the good day has turned bad... Oxford Circus is closed and there are severe delays on the Bakerloo line. Security alerts. I HATE LONDON SO PASSIONATELY!!!

Well, its not bad :-D. I'm glad its a short walk though because I just finished a 9 hour day of loading lorries non stop with no breaks, no lunch, no food and only 2 cups of water to sustain me. Phew.

 

[Wayne]

Thanks guys you have cheered me up. ): although i hate my job with an unholy passion. my commute is a meer 30mins am and 40 pm. the route is fairly pleasant sussex countryside and i get to watch Kestrels look at the sea etc. i used to travel to Southampton for uni that was hell.

 

[Batfink]

my commute is a meer 30mins am and 40 pm

I feel an uncontrollable urge to swear, stamp my feet and shout at the top of my voice "tiz not fair". However, I shall restrain myself otherwise the people in the office may well ask me to leave!!!

(the daily drudge this morning was fine - until I got stuck on the tube for 10minutes going nowhere - which made alot of people go very histerical and start screaming... it just made me hot, sweaty and a bit ****** off!!!)

 

[jakunen]

I live literally 20 miles(?) crowfly from work, and it takes me 1 1/2hrs to 2 1/2hrs to get here. :?:
1 1/2 mile walk to station followed by 2-3 trains and the works bus or a bus a train and the works bus. All totally unreliable.

The only good point is the walk, keeps me from being too unfit and I get to see kingfishers, kites, sparrowhawks, longtail tits, blackbirds galore, wild roses and other such things on my bleary eyed way to the station.
I'd rather spend the time in the morning in bed, and the time in the evening enjoying the countryside, watching a movie, meeting a friend for a drink.

Anyone got the lottery numbers?

 

[ditchfield]

Well, its not bad :-D. I'm glad its a short walk though because I just finished a 9 hour day of loading lorries non stop with no breaks, no lunch, no food and only 2 cups of water to sustain me. Phew.

Oops, just realised thats illegal. Oh well. Ssshhhh