FAO: Commuters to London

[Cheeky Monkey]

Following on from my comment on the pilot thread. All you NSCers who commute to London in the week. How do you do it? I did it for two years and was pratically suicidal the entire time. Having to get up far too early, face the same people in the same seats on the packed train, the delays and slow chug into Victoria or London Bridge, the not getting home until 7pm or later....the everything....

I can only assume that commuters are a unique, thick-skinned breed of superhuman, immune to all external stimuli. Either that or prozac is giving them a helping hand.

Living and working in Brighton I may earn marginally less, but my daily fifteen minute cycle ride to work more than makes up for the salary drop.

 

[Barnet Seagull]

Reading, crosswords, PSP or checking email, it's easy to pass the time.

Train from HH to Euston then a bus to Fleet Street.

If i didn't commute I wouldn't have time to read or play games

 

[Papa Lazarou]

I did it for 8 years (until Jan this year), and I think the trick is all about routine. I only had 1 train I could catch to get to London Bridge (the 6:57 out of Durrington), and it made things easier, because you could effectively do the whole commute thing on autopilot. It helps when you have a good group of people to travel with, which I did (I was a founder member of the infamous 5:32 crew).

Since I've stopped commuting to London (I now work in Lewes) I have missed the time I got on the train to read books etc, as with 2 kids I get little reading time at home.

Anyway - I will no doubt be back in London sometimes soon (when my current contract ends) and I'm sure it will take a little while to adjust, but it will be fine. The aspect of what I have now that I will miss is being able to have breakfast with my kids every morning, and dinner with them every night, as the London commuting day is some much longer.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Reading, crosswords, PSP or checking email, it's easy to pass the time.

Train from HH to Euston then a bus to Fleet Street.

If i didn't commute I wouldn't have time to read or play games

Totally agree - I've done DVD watching, game playing, MP3 listening and book reading whilst going to London. If I were to go back to London, I'd certainly get a DS or PSP for the journey.

 

[aftershavedave]

i've been commuting for 21 years, shortly to come to an end.

the only secret i can offer is letching at the totty! for example, there is an absolute babe on the 7.33 to london bridge at the moment, always nice to see her!

and of course a book, newspaper and mp3

 

[Stinky Kat]

I did it for 6 years on and off from Hastings to charing X - bloody hated it despite the reading and music i got through. It also stopped me doing that many aways because the last thing I wanted to do at the weekend after a week of travelling was ggo on a long journey.

I earn less working in Hastings than I did in london 10 years ago but get 20 hours a week when i am not on a train.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

It's purely a state of mind. I passed 19 years last week of a daily Shoreham to London Bridge commute. Apart from when things are up the chute - I don't really find it a prob.

 

[Badger]

I'm just like a robot every day now (I've only been doing it for 4 months) and it just becomes part of the routine. Reading the paper easily passes the time and I've also made full use of my PSP.

 

[Bozza]

Sounds uncannily like my experience Cheeky Monkey. I'm not one for routine and a commuting life becomes very much one of routine. Alarm set for the same time every morning, out of bed at the same time, to the station at the same time, seeing the same faces every morning on the same square metre of platform. Then opening the same door of the train and sitting in the same seat. The time you finally arrive into London may vary as will, unless you are able to walk, the rest of the journey to your place of work on bus or tube.

Then as 5pm approaches, willing your phone not to ring, hoping that nothing urgent crops up so the mad dash to your chosen train home can begin. You might make it, you might not. Early evenings in the Summer spent wishing to be pint in hand in a pub garden, or with your child(ren) in the park or down the beach. Instead you're locked in a sweaty slow moving train crawling South, with somewhere to sit if you're lucky. By the time you're home and had a bite to eat it's probably around 9 or so hours until the whole painful thing starts again.

Like you, it seems, I couldn't stand it. My 'sick' (I use the term loosely) record was dreadful.

Like most commuters, when asked by non-commuters how I did it, I justified the time on the train by saying it gave me time to read the paper and books, play a few games etc.

Like you, again, I took a hefty paycut for a job in Brighton. It's a difficult thing to do - we're used to changing jobs for more money, not less, and I completely understand how people get 'trapped' by the money in London. I was amazed at how much time I suddenly had when I stopped commuting - it was absolutely superb and, without doubt, the best thing I ever did.

Here in Somerset, the drive to work is 20-25 mins and I sometimes get annoyed, if I'm coming in late, when I get snarled in school traffic and the drive in drags a bit. I just have to think of those commuting days though, and remember that it could be a lot, lot worse.

 

[pasty]

A combination of reading, sleeping, crossword, suduko and music. Not necessarily in that order.

Also, I actually enjoy watching, almost daily, all the self-important fuckwits, barging others out the way, jumping into already crammed tube trains and letting out huge exagagerated sighs when things are running late as if their companies entire existance depended on them getting to work.

When it's too busy on the tube, I take a chill pill and stand out of the way reading the Metro, or even stay above ground and have a fag.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

A combination of reading, sleeping, crossword, suduko and music. Not necessarily in that order.

Also, I actually enjoy watching, almost daily, all the self-important fuckwits, barging others out the way, jumping into already crammed tube trains and letting out huge exagagerated sighs when things are running late as if their companies entire existance depended on them getting to work.

When it's too busy on the tube, I take a chill pill and stand out of the way reading the Metro, or even stay above ground and have a fag.

Oh yes, I forgot about the sleeping - on the way to London I would just put on some mellow classic music on my MP3 player and sleep all the way to London Bridge, and oddly I missed that when I started driving to work - but I adjusted eventually.

And on the subject of up-tight people on the trains, I'm sure many London commuters (esp Victoria ones) will recall the infamous doorman, who's crazy stressed antics entertained many of us on the long journeys

 

[Badger]

I do quite often get annoyed by little things on the train in the mornings. I think the main one is people that listen to their mp3 players at high volume, they could at least get some decent headphones that keep the sound "personal". Just as annoying is when (in the unlikely event) you get a seat and the person next you decides they need slightly more than one seat spreading themselves out and pushing you into a corner. And not forgetting the ones that pay little attention to personal hygeine.

That's my rant for the day......
....feel better now

 

[Publius Ovidius]

i've been commuting for 21 years, shortly to come to an end.

the only secret i can offer is letching at the totty! for example, there is an absolute babe on the 7.33 to london bridge at the moment, always nice to see her!

and of course a book, newspaper and mp3

there is a few get on at Hove i must admit.

i have done it for 7 years, although I drive to hounslow a couple of days a week now.

the original 5:32 crew is now down to 3 of us, and when the others are not on the train I tend to take my DVD player and watch some movies.....

Its all about routine!

 

[Scoffers]

I've been commuting for 20 years as of 21st September this year.

It certainly used to get me down, but after a while you somehow get immune to it. In the mornings I get the 7.08 from Haywards Heath. 99& of the time I get a seat. I then proceed to sleep until Victoria, if anyone annoys me (loud conversations/foreigners/pikeys) I simply whip my PSP out and use it as a iPod.

On the return journey, as soon as I get on the train, the PSP comes out (currently playing the Megadrive compendium) - and before you know where you are, Haywards Heath is upon you. There are various alternatives to the PSP of course, like sleeping, reading etc.

Of course, it's not all rosy, as we all know, when things go wrong, they generally go badly wrong, and you question whether it's worth it.

In more recent times, I do find myself questioning the commute, primarily because I now have 3 young kids, and I rarely see them during the week, and that is getting me down more than the commute, if you know what I mean.

The big draw, of course, is the salary I earn in London, which is a lot higher than anything I could earn in Sussex. So for me, it's a real connundrum, and at the moment, I don't have an easy answer to it !

 

[Il Duce]

I have the joyless task of commuting in from Purley. I have to change at East Croydon which means scrambling for seats with the unwashed, illegal masses. It is properly horrible. And FAT PEOPLE on trains really gets me going. The seats are tight enough as it is without having some huge, bulbous, porker who stinks like rotten meat pies trying to stuff his or her hideous mass into the carriage. It's disgusting. And why do fat people breathe so bloody loudly? Honestly, they should be sent to camps until they're ready to join regular society.

 

[Beach Hut]

Commuted from Shoreham to London for 14 years on0going and Birmingham - London for 2 years.

I have no issue with it as the spare time can be used to either work or read or sleep or letch...................

 

[terrymendez]

I commuted for six years to Liverpool st....the salary was good but in the end I made the choice and bailed out and joined a local firm.

I now have week nights, and the weekend is a real break instead of cramming in all the things I had to do during the week which I never got round to. If you are going to progress in you job in the city you cant be clock watching at 5pm, but if you want a half decent salary f*** it get and get a nine till five job at victoria, leave at 17.01 and be back in Brighton for 18.00.

 

[Barnet Seagull]

It's not so bad for me as it isn't as far and working hours aren't harsh.

Leave home at 08:10 in work for 09:10.
Leave work at 05:30 home by 6:30

I think it's just a far less stressful way to work. I don't have to start work till 9:30 but If I'm late, I can blame the bus or train. I'm not fighting for a seat ever, I can just have a chat with the wife or do whatever I want.

My boss understands that I leave at 5.30 whenever possible and will work from home in the evening where possible and there is some flexibility when required.

Also with the M&S at Euston, I can avoid the supermarket most nights.

 

[buller89]

Im only 18 and i have been commuting to london for 11 months. I have found that although it can be more stressful, i prefer driving.

That way i get my own space, can smoke and play my own music.
However, when i was getting the train it was the journey from hell, had to get up at 6 and usually wouldnt be home untill 8.

Now i am driving, i am leaving my house at 6.30 and will usually be home at 7.

The salary at my age does justify putting myself through this on a daily basis though just about.

One of the plus points of working away from where you live is that you can have a completely separate life. Which i view as a good thing.

 

[Man of Harveys]

I'd rather be at home anytime, but I've also never watched more films, or read more books. You have to reclaim the time for yourself, I think that's the trick.