UK has the longest commute in Europe.

Well, what a huge surprise...........not. Last week, the Office of National Statistics published a few and apparently 78% of UK workers have a commute of 30 minutes or less, with over half commuting 15 minutes or less. But if you live in London, then only 18% have a commute of 15 minutes or less. But in London only 35% of workers drove to work, while in the rest of the country, this figure rises to a staggering 76% of us. This has then sparked a fair bit of debate about who is the hardest done by. Londoners claim them, with the high cost of public transport and the time it takes, while the rest of the country just say, if only we had that choice.


My commute to work, falls in the 22% who have a commute of over 30 minutes, but then I have a 50 mile ish round trip. It's length of time varies depending on what time I start and/or finish and the method of transport I use. Now it is impossible for me to get to work solely by public transport, well ok, not impossible, but I would actually spend most of the day travelling, and would never get to work at anywhere near my supposed starts times. I have two options set out below

1. Bus to High Wycombe (once an hour ish, apart from Sunday when we have two in the whole day, between 7.30am and 9pm ish), National Express to Oxford (once every two hours), then 10 minute walk to work.

2. Bus to High Wycombe (see service limits above), bus to Slough (hourly, but departs about 2 minutes before my bus arrives, so I have to wait an hour for the next one), the train from Slough to Oxford (every hour), then 10 minute walk to work.

Eg; if i caught the bus at 07.50 into High Wycombe, I would not be in Slough until 10am for a start!!!

I think you see my problem, when my start times are 7am, 10am, 3pm and 11pm, there is the odd challenge.

So, I have to resort to the evil car, that is currently costing me £215 a year to tax, £28 a month to insure and £1.34 a litre of fuel. So, I hop in the evil car, drive to the Park and Ride and then get the bus into Oxford when I start at 7am or 10am (apart from Sundays, when some fool decided that bus drivers should get a lie in on the day of rest, and the bus does not start until past 8am). On other shifts I have to drive into work, an additional 10 miles or so - by the time I have avoided one way systems and all the restricted areas that the evil car may not go!! And all this generally takes 45 minutes.

Now okay, I haven't mentioned the public transport costs. Now with the magic pass and my police ID, the buses in High Wycombe, Slough and Oxford don't cost me a penny, National Express I could probably get for free, depending on the driver, and the train would probably be about £10 - a day!

I would love the option of being able to fully use public transport, as running a car is becoming more and more expensive. I wouldn't even mind if it took a little while, but for me, and many, it is just not practical, and thanks to the government cuts and therefore the councils cutting millions off their public transport subsidy, it is getting worse not better. At least Londoners have a choice, I don't.


Problem with this country is that we are in love with the evil car. The government (all flavours) is trying to educate us into the fact that, the car is evil. They do this by this wonderful money spinner, called TAX. So the evil car, that we all love, costs us an arm and a leg, plus probably various other body parts. The government would like us all to abandon the evil car and use public transport. But transport subsidies are being cut, so services are decreasing and costs going up, so even people who want to use public transport can't and won't. Catch 22!!!!


So, back to my 45 minute commute, distance wise, mainly by car, at huge expense. I suppose I could get a job closer to home as suggested by some. Well I like my job, and when I got my job, after 11 months in a temporary post after being made redundant, it was the only job I could get. Maybe I should quit and claim benefit, but I probably would not be eligible!