Commuting arrangements

When I moved jobs I resigned myself to having to take public transport to work. Something that, at the time, I wasn’t entirely happy about. However, since then and my initial parking issues at work I have managed to wrangle me a car parking pass so I can park at work.

This has put my initial plan of catching the train into work into a bit of a tailspin. Predominantly I have been catching the train into work and had bought a monthly railcard which has since expired. For the last week and a bit I have been alternating between driving in and catching the train on a day return ticket and having now done both from my new address am in a total quandary as to which is the preferable mode of transportation.

Here are the pros and cons for each:

Driving

Journey time: 45 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes
Reliability (traffic): Low
Cost: Circa £7 return (fuel only)
Advantages: Can use car for site visits, don’t have to sit next to fat people

Train

Journey time: 50 minutes
Reliability (trains running on time): High
Cost: £9 (monthly season ticket), £12 (day return)
Advantages: Can enjoy leisure time (which with a good book I actually quite enjoy), simplicity, can go down pub after work and have a few beers, easy to stop off at shops in Ealing and pick up groceries, no concerns about traffic

On balance I would say that they weigh up in favour of the train which is nice and easy but more expensive. However having the usefulness of the car at work is a real bonus and makes site visits much faster so I have to spend much less (albeit paid) time there.

The crux of it comes down to time and cost. The price of a day return is pretty awful at £12 so I can rarely justify commuting in on this one off arrangement very often. The £9 monthly season ticket is just about acceptable (and decreases the longer the period of time I subscribe to) but I am not about to pay for a season ticket and drive at the same time as the combined cost of about £16 makes it ridiculous to do this and in effect pay twice. Whilst the car can be faster than the train it can also be much, much longer with traffic. Conversely, whilst some trains invariably run late for the most part they are near to time. In any case, with the frequency of services, if one is late you can just catch the next (or earlier) one.

Anyhow, my present thinking is that I will catch the train in on a monthly season ticket and for gaps at either end I will drive and catch up on (hopefully most) site visits. I don’t know if this is the best solution but hopefully if I ever get access to work’s electric pool car it may solve itself.