So what does your daily commute look like?

Mine is like this under ideal conditions:

Colindale - Northern Line to Bank - DLR to East India (or Blackwall if early) and return.

Under non-ideal conditions, I often take the Northern Line to Embankment and then the District Line to Tower Hill, going to Tower Gateway for the DLR.

Other alternatives include FCC from Hendon to Blackfriars then the District Line, or Northern Line to Tottenham Court Road, Central Line to Bank and then DLR - but that would be bad at the moment. The Jubilee Line, joined at Kilburn, Bond Street or Waterloo and taken to Canning Town also works, very well.

Jump in car, 20 minute drive to depot, then 5 minute walk to booking on point.

For the best part of two years my commute has been a bus to Morden Station (formerly 163 now 93) and then the Northern Line to work......on extreme shifts the Northern gets substituted by an N155 bus.

I'm not working at the moment, but my most recent commute was a choice of:
1. Drive from Cheddar to Taunton (typically 45-55 minutes)
2. Walk to bus stop, Bus to Wells, Bus to Somerton, Bus to Taunton bus station, Walk to office (total journey time 2.5-3 hours)
3. Walk to bus stop, Bus to Weston-super-Mare, Train to Taunton, Walk to office (20 minutes) or Bus to bus station, walk to office (total journey time 2.5-3.25 hours)

Guess which option I chose.

Walk down the stairs.

8 minute drive in car. So glad that I only have to use the underground for leisure purposes!

I used to love working for London Transport Property: Morden->Stockwell, Stockwell->Pimlico, gentle 7 min stroll to Victoria. Total time 45 mins.

I hated working in Bayswater: Morden->Stockwell->Oxford Circ->Queensway (1 hr 10 mins) or 93 bus Morden->Wimbledon, Dissie Wimbledon->Bayswater (1hr 10 mins).

And when I lived in Sluff, and had to travel to the London office: FGW->Paddington, Bakerloo->Oxford Circ (1hr at best, 1:30 at worst).

Latest commute: 10 min walk from flat to college

Can vary on working location, day and time of shift, so there's many different ways, so I'll give an early and late shift example.

04:40 Start at Paddington

03:17 Bus 134 to Tally Ho Corner (or walk)
03:36 Bus N13 to Baker Street Stn
04:11 Bus 205 or 27 to Paddington Stn

04:40 Heathrow Central Start

02:32 134 to Warren St Stn
03:07 27 to Paddington Stn
03:34 FGW to Hayes
04:05 140 to Heathrow Central Bus Station

Have only ever done this once, but seeing I as I usually swap my Heathrow shifts, the rare times I don't, I take a mini-cab. Can also take the N9 from Trafalgar Square, but last time I did that it I waited over 40mins for one, then it took almost 2 hours.

15:00 Padd Start

14:00 or 14:15 382 Bus to Arnos Grove
Piccadilly Line to Finsbury Park (always get a seat)
Victoria Line to Kings Cross, if connecting train arrives, otherwise Picc to Kings Cross (mostly get a seat)
Circle Or H&C to Paddington (usually get a seat, depends on gap between trains)

Thankfully, I left enough "slack" time, so was only about 30mins late.

But I must of been really unlucky according to discussions with colleagues, most of them seem to never have a problem with it...

HEx are really stern on employee time keeping for a TOC, especially one that prides itself on being "green" (by using electric trains). Even tough it would rather we all drove cars and use car parks that are only accessible by a long walk/bus ride...

Is it worth quoting from the 'Ixiderata', here ;-)

: 'SCROLL PLACIDLY [1] through the two hundred or so posts a day, and remember what peace there may be in using the delete key'


[1] shouting in source text.....

Commute? Not any more, if I'm lucky I leave the house no more than once a fortnight now!
My first few years with LT I commuted by bus from Edmonton to Seven Sisters, thence to Whitechapel, Golders Green, Kennington, South Kensington, or Earls Court as required. Briefly I drove from home to Arnos Grove but from early 1982 until 2005 I drove all the way to work regardless of shift so I got to know London by road extremely well as I worked from South Woodford, White City, Alperton, Baker Street, Edgware Road, then all stations on the Central, District, Met, Circle and old Jubilee lines, Acton Works on day and night shifts before moving onto the Picc and working from Arnos Grove again, King's Cross, Northfields and Acton Town.

I spent the majority of my life at LT/LU on permanent nights but I had several years on days as well. The trains were okay until the early 1980s but then I found them to be bad news, overcrowded in the day and dangerous to be on after 8pm as plain Joe Bloggs so I stopped using them altogether except when necessary in the execution of my duty. In the last 23 years of my 28 years and about 10 weeks service I doubt that I made more than 1000 journeys on the tube in total compared to an average of around 1000 per year in the first five years! Once I was at work if I needed to get about I generally used a company vehicle and I drove quite a few over the years from unmarked Ford Fiestas up to 16 seater minibuses.

Yep, working from home is fantastic. And thanks to VPNs and VOIP telephones you can get access to all the technology you have in the office over your broadband line. I'm surprised more companies don't do it - as I'm usually more productive.

But my normal commute from Bow to the Strand is rarely that stressful anyway. 5 min walk to Bow Church, if a 25 is parked up (usually one is changing drivers) jump on that to Mile End, otherwise keep walking to Bow Road and catch District. At Mile End get Central to Holborn if District looks up the wall, or carry on with District to Temple. 40 minutes is about average.

I don't think there is much that could be done to improve the journey, although a buffet car on the District serving bacon sarnies would be nice

If there are no delays it goes something like:

07:25 Walk around the corner to Cambridge station
07:35 Jump on the carriage sidings portion of the train and fight for a seat, usually then realising that there are several seats left after the initial rush.
07:45 Train to King's Cross
08:40 Arrive at King's Cross, walk to St Pancras Low Level
08:48 Train to City Thameslink
08:55 Arrive at City Thameslink, walk to work.

Note that I usually sleep, read or type on the long distance train, so the time usually flies by.

Upmister to Ealing! Might be a better idea to use c2c some of the way!

My commute methods which I have used from Kings Cross to Mile End...

1. Cycle - 35 minutes at leisurely speed, 29 minutes is my record when running late.

The Tube is now the complicated part:
2. Go to Liverpool street on the Met/Circle/H&C, change to the Central is my preferred method. 25-30mins.
3. If I happen to be on a H&C train which made a very fast run to Liverpool Street, I stay on it to Mile End. 25-30mins.
4. If the Sub surface lines melt down, Northern to Bank, Central to Mile End. 35mins+

5. The 205. 45-50 minutes thus not used often.