So I have a job offer which is an additional £12k after tax each year, but they want me in the office 2 days a week in central London.
I am looking at train tickets and I think it's going to cost me £10k+ in train tickets each year. I have heard trains are expensive but this seems insane. Is there a way to get them cheaper that I am missing?
Obviously this makes the offer unappealing as I would be hardly better off but would spend a lot more of my time commuting.
I have been out of the country for quite a long time and haven't really used trains since I got back last year, so I am pretty out of the loop!
Cheers!
Edit: Thanks for all the comments all! To answer the most common question: I would be travelling from Leamington Spa – so it's would be a hefty journey!
40 comments
If you qualify for one then railcards can offer some discount, but in general no, that is the shit state our railways are in.
That’s the way this country is. This is why most of us avoid trains and just drive
If you want to arrive in London before 9am, yes it’s extortionate.
If you can work 2 consecutive days and stay in a hotel, it’s a lot cheaper (and less hassle if you’re coming a long way.)
Booking Advance tickets for a set train is often cheaper, too. A season ticket would be daft unless you’d be commuting 5 days a week.
Really depends where you are, no?
Say you work 47 weeks a year. So 94 returns, 188 total trips. 10k/188 = 53 or 106 return.
Is your daily return really going to be £106 if booked in advance? Can you get a season ticket?
Some routes are more expensive than others. My commute costs £14 a day for example, whilst my mum’s costs £38. But in general yes, it’s just expensive.
Have a look at coach routes into London from your area. I live near Bath and the National Express into London costs about £10 each way. It’s a lot slower than the train and I wouldn’t want to be doing it daily, but 2 days a week should be manageable.
Season tickets and railcards will help but stop for a second and work out the travel time and be honest, add in getting to/from station at your end and in London, easy to think its only 40 mins each way on the train, when actually allowing for walking and waiting time it’s more like 2.5 hours round trip door to door.
Once you know that and you work out your hourly rate and factor that in to the equation alongside the rail costs you’ll likely be way worse off.
But also be mindful that sometimes you need to take a job for the opportunity it presents and the experience you might only get in that job that then gives you the step up the ladder on your next move. Be careful there though because life and goals change as you age and you might suffer all that nasty commuting for a step up that you then decide you don’t want to take. That’s a risk you take.
I would add that only having to do it two days a week would make it somewhat more bearable I think in terms of quality of life but be super careful about a company that says they only want you in two days a week, I’ve heard lots and lots of stories from friends about that need suddenly becoming 4-5 days a week in the office and there will be sod all extra money in it for you. If you are going to do it you need that absolutely nailed down in writing in your actual contract with a clear statement of what you will get extra if suddenly the role is deemed to require you in more.
Do you drive? You could drive to the nearest Tube station that goes to central london.
I have a friend who lives in Margate but she drives to Abbey Wood and takes the Elizabeth line to central london. She only goes to the office 1-2 days a week as well.
You might find Flexible Season tickets work out for you – https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/tickets-railcards-and-offers/ticket-types/flexi-season-tickets/
Don’t take the job and find something closer to home without a £10k commute.
What area are you coming from?
lots of larger commuter towns have regular coaches into London at a fraction of the price of a train.
If you don’t have to be in the same days each week look at the cost of a weekly ticket and go in on Wed/Thurs one week and Mon/Tues the next. Massively cut the cost of my commute from £70 a day to £130 a fortnight
Sounds about right. Northampton to London for me was £70 a day if I didn’t have a railcard. Railcard brought it down to £50 a day.
At full price £70 * 2 a week * 52 weeks= £7,280 a year
If you’re further out I could see it easily being £10k+
I mean, this obviously depends where you’re coming from. It’ll be cheaper from Brighton than Lancaster.
The privatised rip-off train network is one of the many drags on Britain’s economic growth. It’s absurd.
Negotiate your contract to see if they are willing to cover your travel under expenses.
You should be able to buy advance tickets; they’re available up to 12 weeks in advance and they are usually significantly cheaper than standard off peak/peak tickets
Where are you traveling from?
Ask if you can do 4 days every two weeks? I would explain the issue to the company you might find they’ll be more flexible once they understand the situation.
Find out of you can work non peak hours, eg 10.30an -6.30pm
I did a 5 hour round trip to London 5 days a week and it was not fun and also £1000 a month. I only lasted 3 months because I was exhausted all the time and also my boss was horrible. Personally I wouldn’t do it again but at the time the pay was still more than anything local even with the train costs and the company was quite prestigious in my industry so I told myself it was worth it.
Commuting quickly becomes a drag. If it’s costing that I assume you’re over an hour away from London? You’ll probably end up spending any extra money after the train costs on convenience after a long commute. I always said I wouldn’t, and I was fairly good at not at first but once the job got old I’d get breakfast or coffee on the way in, then I’d end up picking up something quick or getting takeaway when I get home because I don’t want to cook after getting in at 9 or 10pm.
I go to the London office ~once a month. I can thankfully expense mine but that costs between £130-200 for one trip. The actual journey is 1hr50 one way, but I have to get to the station, then walk from the station to the office and the train is always delayed. Usually takes me 2hr30+ one way.
This seems pretty high to me. Try getting a railcard it cuts the prices down.
A friend does 2-3 days in London and buys a 7 day pass that straddles two weeks, effectively halving the cost. ie: they do Wed, Thu, Fri then Mon, Tue the following week, covering two working weeks with one pass.
Whether it’s worth it will depend on if this job will really improve your career compared to the alternative. If this job means in a few years you can get a much better salary (whether through being a more prestigious job, giving you better experience or at a company that has clear career progression) then yes it’s worth it. But if it’s similar to the other job then absolutely no way
The only ‘real’ answers to reduce cost and travel by train are going to be one of
* gaming weeklies as someone else mentioned (e.g. thurs/fri week 1, mon/tues week 2, alternating so you can cover the year with ~25 weekly tickets)
* Getting some kind of railcard – but the only ones that’ll discount peak London services are (IIRC) 16-25, disabled persons or HM Forces railcards. Any of these should take 33% off a daily return, if you’re eligible (most aren’t)
* Possibly some operator specific tickets, but we’d need to know the to/from stations to know which might work (e.g. Southern used to do a ‘daysave’ – but I think the peak version got killed off due to commuters using it…)
Otherwise we’re in the realms of either ‘drive to the edge of the tube line’ or ‘just buy a Tesla and drive to the centre of London’ (still probably cheaper than the train, crazily)
All your work about a season ticket loan. At least that way it comes out of your wages before tax.
State of this country
You can get a Flexi season ticket which gives you 8 return trips in 28 days, ie 2 days a week for 4 weeks
I honestly don’t think I’d go back to commuting for 12k a year even if the commute was free.
If that’s 2 hours a day, 2 days a week, 52 weeks a year that’s 208 hours a year. About 11 days of your life, well over 2 weeks of “awake” time. No thanks.
12k pay rise which is what, 8k after tax? You’ll be worse off. Also, calculate the time you’ll be commuting and work out how much per hour you’ll get for that.
I’d personally not take the job. I WFH, with an office day once every 4-5 months and it makes a huge difference to me as it means I can get out of bed more or less at 9am.
I think for me the extra £2k wouldn’t be worth all the time wasted commuting into and out of London, especially if you had to stay in a hotel to save money.
I’m I’m 30 years into the working world and 26+ years into in corporate HR career. I will never understand why people commute into London daily. I can only assume they are all on massive salaries, have money to burn on travel, or are bankers. But for middle skill 40k to 50k roles. I’ve no idea how people make it work, financially, while maintaining what must be a crap work life balance.
I would seriously work out how much, in real money, you’re better off each month by taking that offer.
If you’re already over the threshold for the higher tax bracket, that’d leave you about 500 quid better off a month, not factoring in the commute costs, which would bring that down dramatically.
Is that really worth commuting into and out of London twice a week for an undetermined number of years of your life?
Which lines are costs so high on? My return from Cambridge to London Liverpool Street was £21 with a railcard which I thought was ok for an hour journey.
I’ve recently done basically this exact scenario from Manchester and its bursting my anus. That’s at twice a month too.
When I researched it seemed like tickets could be had for around 70/80 return. Turns out that was fucking nonsense. This week if I wanted a standard train time for office hours I’d be over 200 quid.
Looking at best like 170 for the near future at least. I’ve been experimenting with driving to hotel in Milton Keynes the night before but even then the MK-EUS leg is 50 quid or so on its own. So it’s not really possible to keep it completely sane.
I’m down again on Wednesday and thinking I’ll try driving thr 3hrs to MK in the morning and skip the hotel but I reckon I’m gonna learn some harsh lessons.
Hard to say if it was a stupid decision at this point as its been great for my career progression and there’s room left in my pay bracket that an upcoming pay review might take off a lot of the pressure.
Have a think about more than the pay increase. Is there development opportunities or even just really enjoyable work that you don’t get where you are?
Im.gonna guess you don’t drive?? Or do you, and you are wanting to catch the train for ease?
I live in Coleshill not too far away from Leamington in fact a bit further away.
When I go to London I drive to East Finchley station i dont wanna give my “one neat trick” away here but ill help you out…..it’s the most northerly tube station in our direction….I think its an overground but goes on to the undergroud.
It is I think £3 all day parking midweek you park your car and 20 yds away you step on the tube, I’ve been doing it for 10 years and there are always loads of spaces…never wanted to post it before in the fear next time i turn up it will.be full 🤣
It is in the congestion charge zone now so might need to take that into account.
Cool thing is you are at the kind most northerly point of London, the M1 is about 10 mins away….so you miss all the mad congestion…..if you leave early you can do it in roughly 1hr half….I mean it’s still gonna set you back fuel/parking/tube but I’d say it’s a fraction of a cost of buying a peak time ticket to London twice a week
Hope that helps if it doesn’t don’t all go flooding that car park 👍
Make sure that two days is stated in the contract so they don’t turn around and demand you come in more.
And the best thing about those mental train fares, is the trains are dirty, often late, frequently cancelled and overcrowded.
London commuting can be quite the experience! Train prices can be steep, especially for frequent travel. Many commuters find savings through season tickets or railcards. Exploring different routes and travel times can also help manage costs. Some employers offer travel subsidies or flexible work options to ease the burden. It’s a common concern among Londoners, so rest assured, you’re not alone in navigating this challenge!