I am on a bus.
I spend a lot of time on buses. For various reasons (mostly financial) I get buses to work rather than the faster train journey. It’s three buses each way, one very short, one reasonably short, and then the long one which I’m on from the very beginning to one stop from the end. On a good day this means spending about 3.5 hours on the bus, on a less good day, closer to 4.5 or even 5. Although this means less sleep, and less free time, it has its up sides: I always get a seat (very unlike the train), I get through a lot of books and/or podcasts, when I get to work from home it practically feels like the weekend.
But when I day dream about promotions, one of the first things on my list is a train ticket.
5 hours on a bus is brutal. I think it would break me.
Is it that much cheaper than the train?
I did a couple of weeks commuting from Bath to London by coach, and swore I would never do so again.
Agreed, you get the books/music etc., but it was *so* slow in comparison to the train, and still prone to all the traffic bullshit on the M4. Grim.
You have my sympathies!
I find buses so uncomfortable compared with trains. These days I do rather enjoy long journeys on my own with books and knitting and music, but I wouldn’t want to do it every day.
I find (well, found) the main thing with trains was the ability to have a table/desk, and thus something to lean forwards onto, or work on – something buses simply don’t have.
I quite like a bus. But ours takes 20 minutes into town, 5 hours is really something!
The trains on my route don’t have tables at peak times, so I wouldn’t benefit from that even if I was training. And when I did get the train I never got a seat anyway, and standing with my face in someone’s armpit for 40 mins wasn’t my cup of tea.
There’s quite a substantial annual cost difference, but if I could get work to offer a travel card loan I could possibly swallow it. I keep putting that in the suggestion box everytime they empty it out again.
I commuted to London from Leamington Spa for about 18 months before, so I’m used to long journeys.
My shortest commute was when I moved to a flat within walking distance of my London bridge office. I then got made redundant about a month later.
I just implemented train loans at my company. Someone suggested it, and it affects cash flow a bit, but less for the company than staff, so we put it in. Frankly I can’t see why most companies wouldn’t offer it.
I’m gathering evidence at the moment as to how many people in the office would use travel loans to calculate the cash flow impacts.