Commuting from Stafford => London

> It's also price, which varies with distance more than with time.
>
> And also the number of alternatives.
>
> I might choose to allow an hour to get to Euston from some places in
> zone 2, as it happens, but it would also take me two hours or less to
> walk there from most of zone 2 if absolutely everything went wrong.

Oh yes. In my Cambridge commuting days, when everything worked I was
pretty smug, but when (for example) the train sat down at Letchworth I
didn't have the option of hopping on a bus with my Oyster. To say
nothing of the numerous times when the portion from Kings Lynn refused
to mate with the portion sitting at the platform in Cambridge, often
leading to the whole thing being cancelled (with me a good 50 miles
from my desk...)

"Cheeky" <me@> wrote in message
news:f13uk3tajanje3bg64qio09opdf2pn8dkt@...
> On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:26:34 -0800 (PST), "philipuk@"
> <philipuk@> wrote:
>
>>On 29 Nov, 10:00, "Sam" <Jac...@m> wrote:
>>> Hi All
>>>
>>> Due to my partner's working commitments it looks like we will be moving
>>> from
>>> London to the Stafford area
>>>
>>> Has anyone experience of commuting from Stafford to EUS ? Needing to
>>> arrive
>>> into EUS about 0900 and leaving at 1700 ish, chances of getting seats,
>>> frequency of delays etc etc ?
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> J.
>>
>>All the way from Stafford to London every day! Rather you than me!
>
> A lad I know does it from Crewe to London each day. As you said -
> rather him than me although an hour and 16 minutes isn't that bad. It
> can take that on a bad day from South Manchester to Wigan. I suppose
> it depends on what the journeys are at either end.

I'm looking at a 5-10 minute walk at the Stafford end, 1h30 journey ish, 5
minute walk to KX.

Whenever I have got an early train from Manchester Piccadily, it seems to
have considerable slack and arrives 10 - 15 mins early in to EUS. Would
this ever happen from Stafford ?

J.

On 29 Nov, 20:32, Roland Perry <rol...@perry.co.uk> wrote:
> In message
> <c1760843-f98a-476b-99c0-20d8a0f83...@g30g2000hsb..com>, at
> 12:14:22 on Thu, 29 Nov 2007, MIG <googles...@doreenbird.co.uk>
> remarked:
>
> >> It's only a bit over an hour from Grantham to KX (hardly any longer than
> >> Cambridge). It's time that matters, not distance.
>
> >It's also price, which varies with distance more than with time.
>
> It's obviously a bit of both, but people are reluctant to commute much
> more than an hour, even if it's really cheap.

I work in London (Zone 2, west london), 3 people in the office have a
<1h commute, the other 14 take over an hour. Personally it's 07:55-
>09:10 for me in the morning, and 17:30->18:55 in the evening, however
if I leave 5 minute late, or the bakerloo is really bad, I miss the
connection at Harrow and get in 45 minutes later.
Thats bike/train/tube/bike.

Before moving it was a direct tube and took 1h10 door to door, plus an
average 8 minutes wait for the non-timetabled tube, so the same. Bike
all the way took 2h15 though, which is a lot less than it would take
for the 50 miles now

On 14 Jan, 11:14, "Sam" <Jac...@m> wrote:
> It looks like my move to Stafford is imminent (And hence my commute to EUS).
> Do I need a photocard for a monthly season to London ?

Yes, a photocard is required for any such season ticket (including a
weekly). I dunno if TfL / LU photocards are acceptable for such a
season, but I suggest a National Rail issued photocard would be best -
you should be able to get one from any ticket office.

>
> Also, can I make seat reservations with a season ticket. If yes, can this
> be done online anywhere ?

Sorry, don't know about reservations, though I'm sure others will
know.

One other thing - I don't know where you're end destination is in
London, but depending on to how extensively you'll be travelling
around London, where you'll be going and by what means it may be
cheaper to just buy a Stafford to London rail only season ticket (i.e.
without an inclusive Travelcard element) and then use Oyster Pay-as-
you-go for any further Tube or bus journeys in London (with Oyster
PAYG a zone 1 Tube journey is £1.50 at any time, and a bus journey is
90p at any time).

"Mizter T" <mizter.t@> wrote in message
news:404e074a-61fb-4d22-b200-a75a521c08d8@l32g2000hse..com...
On 14 Jan, 11:14, "Sam" <Jac...@m> wrote:
> It looks like my move to Stafford is imminent (And hence my commute to
> EUS).
> Do I need a photocard for a monthly season to London ?

Yes, a photocard is required for any such season ticket (including a
weekly). I dunno if TfL / LU photocards are acceptable for such a
season, but I suggest a National Rail issued photocard would be best -
you should be able to get one from any ticket office.

>
> Also, can I make seat reservations with a season ticket. If yes, can this
> be done online anywhere ?

Sorry, don't know about reservations, though I'm sure others will
know.

One other thing - I don't know where you're end destination is in
London, but depending on to how extensively you'll be travelling
around London, where you'll be going and by what means it may be
cheaper to just buy a Stafford to London rail only season ticket (i.e.
without an inclusive Travelcard element) and then use Oyster Pay-as-
you-go for any further Tube or bus journeys in London (with Oyster
PAYG a zone 1 Tube journey is £1.50 at any time, and a bus journey is
90p at any time).

####
It will be a 5 - 7 minute walk at Euston, otherwise I probably wouldn't
consider the daily commute from Stafford. I am slightly concerned it will
be too far with just the rail journey, let alone a LU trip as well !!!!

On Jan 14, 1:44 pm, "Sam" <Jac...@m> wrote:
> "Mizter T" <mizte...@> wrote in message
>
> news:404e074a-61fb-4d22-b200-a75a521c08d8@l32g2000hse..com...
> On 14 Jan, 11:14, "Sam" <Jac...@m> wrote:
>
> > It looks like my move to Stafford is imminent (And hence my commute to
> > EUS).
> > Do I need a photocard for a monthly season to London ?
>
> Yes, a photocard is required for any such season ticket (including a
> weekly). I dunno if TfL / LU photocards are acceptable for such a
> season, but I suggest a National Rail issued photocard would be best -
> you should be able to get one from any ticket office.
>
>
>
> > Also, can I make seat reservations with a season ticket. If yes, can this
> > be done online anywhere ?
>
> Sorry, don't know about reservations, though I'm sure others will
> know.
>
> One other thing - I don't know where you're end destination is in
> London, but depending on to how extensively you'll be travelling
> around London, where you'll be going and by what means it may be
> cheaper to just buy a Stafford to London rail only season ticket (i.e.
> without an inclusive Travelcard element) and then use Oyster Pay-as-
> you-go for any further Tube or bus journeys in London (with Oyster
> PAYG a zone 1 Tube journey is £1.50 at any time, and a bus journey is
> 90p at any time).
>
> ####
> It will be a 5 - 7 minute walk at Euston, otherwise I probably wouldn't
> consider the daily commute from Stafford. I am slightly concerned it will
> be too far with just the rail journey, let alone a LU trip as well !!!!

I did an early morning Virgin from Crewe once, I didn't notice any
seating issues, I'd be surprised if you had problems on the way in. On
the way back I guess you have to get used to the platform it normally
leaves from and take a gamble.

90 minutes on a train isn't too bad, assuming you live near Stafford
station it's under 2 hours, not much more than some of my colleagues
that live in Zone 6, and less than the ones that live on the Kent
coast. Any chance you can do work on the train with a laptop and 3G
modem? You could then shave an hour or so a day off.

The only thing that would make me wince about a Stafford->Euston
commute is the £750pcm ticket.

On Mon, 14 Jan 2008, Paul Weaver wrote:

> On Jan 14, 1:44 pm, "Sam" <Jac...@m> wrote:
>> "Mizter T" <mizte...@> wrote in message
>>
>> news:404e074a-61fb-4d22-b200-a75a521c08d8@l32g2000hse..com...
>> On 14 Jan, 11:14, "Sam" <Jac...@m> wrote:
>>
>>> Also, can I make seat reservations with a season ticket. If yes, can
>>> this be done online anywhere ?
>>
>> Sorry, don't know about reservations, though I'm sure others will know.
>
> I did an early morning Virgin from Crewe once,

I bet you did, you scoundrel! You know what they say about the early bird
NUDGE NUDGE WINK WINK.

Sorry.

tom

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