Commuting for 2hrs each way every day. Any thoughts?

[billybiro]

I've been doing two hours a day each way for the best part of 15 years (Hampshire to City of London\Canary Wharf). I'm one of the 50+ guys you mention. My kids are all growed up and it's just me and the Missus at home. I'm 2-3 years off retirement.

I leave home at 05:15, get into town at 07:15 do an hour in the gym and I'm at my desk by 08:15. Coming home I leave at 17:30 and get home at 19:25. All of this is train dependent. 1 hour 20 mins of each way is on a train. I cycle to\from the station at both ends.

My tips are;

Get into a routine.
Stay fit.
Go to bed early.
Do not work longer hours than necessary.
Do not go on the sauce midweek.
Do something interesting on the train. I watch films or learn French\Italian.

At the end of the day it's all about the money. When that equation no longer works, I'll stop. It's not for everyone but I'm a hard b*stard.

Ok. This thread has degenerated into the Four Yorkshiremen.

"I get up in the morning at 10 o'clock at night, half an hour before I go to bed...."

[billybiro]

I've been doing two hours a day each way for the best part of 15 years (Hampshire to City of London\Canary Wharf). I'm one of the 50+ guys you mention. My kids are all growed up and it's just me and the Missus at home. I'm 2-3 years off retirement.

I leave home at 05:15, get into town at 07:15 do an hour in the gym and I'm at my desk by 08:15. Coming home I leave at 17:30 and get home at 19:25. All of this is train dependent. 1 hour 20 mins of each way is on a train. I cycle to\from the station at both ends.

So your gym is in your office, right next to your desk?

[northernladyuk]

So your gym is in your office, right next to your desk?

Or they are in different time zones.

[billybiro]

Or they are in different time zones.

Hampshire and London are in different timezones now?

[Lockhouse]

So your gym is in your office, right next to your desk?

Literally across the street. I spend 59 minutes and 30 seconds in the gym. Happy now?

[VirtualMonkey]

Pretty much every contract I have is like that as I live in Hull and have a wife and 3 kids who I like.
It does wear you down very quickly. If I'm forced into 3-4 days a week it'll be stay over on Monday and Wednesday night. Always WFH on a Friday...the extra traffic on Friday is never worth the hassle.

[kaiser78]

I have a 90min commute now, sometimes 2+ hours depending on traffic. But I only do this twice a week as I work from home for the other 3 days, or go into London for 1 day.

Doing this more than twice a week would be a deal breaker for me, which I told clientco when we first discussed the role. And so we agreed.

[SussexSeagull]

Hampshire and London are in different timezones now?

Yes. Hampshire is 20 years behind London.

Must confess I have done two hour commutes each way both driving and train and just taken it on the chin. Doing extra hours is fairly much off the table though.

[GJABS]

I read about someone whose daily commute was from 20 miles north of Manchester to Man Picc station, train to Euston, tube to Bank, walk to office and then back home each day.

What a nutter

Though I did hear about someone commuting daily Newcastle to London by train (3 hours each way).

[pr1]

I read about someone whose daily commute was from 20 miles north of Manchester to Man Picc station, train to Euston, tube to Bank, walk to office and then back home each day. Must be absolutely under the thumb or have some other sort of issues because that's a journey of 40 minutes to the station, 2hr 10 on the train, and 30 minutes to the office with everything running fine. That's without the cost of the morning train tickets to take into consideration, or the evening ones unless they're departing after 6:55.

found the guy they're building HS2 for