Commuting to work

                                                Commuting to work

One of the great bugbears of London is the time it takes to get to work. Most Londoners are accustomed to spending long periods of the day just getting to their workplaces

As more and more people are forced into outlying suburbs and commuter towns so the daily commute grows. Trains coming from towns in the Home Counties are usually packed at weekdays with many of them providing standing room only. One of the annual miseries is the rise in rail travel tickets with all the fallout that it entails.

Even for those who live in London there is the misery of the commute. Many times I have had to spend about two hours actually getting to my place of work and that in London is not uncommon. Once I had an evening class to deliver in one location and I recall getting home at midnight which was in general quite a tiring commute.

Often it is said that everybody in London has two jobs, their own job and the other is getting to and from their workplace. In many ways it is fairly much of a truism that the daily commute can play a big role in your life and you can actually spend quite a few hours of the day getting to and from your workplace.

In the mornings the metro or tube system is packed. Most of the carriages are standing room only

And it is quite common to see tempers flaring as people all over themselves to get on trains and stay on the trains through all the stops. Busses can usually be packed as well and many buses will speed by as these are already so full of passengers that not is not safe or them to take any more.

Even private modes of transport are hardly an option as using a car in central London is a fruitless exercise. Not only do you have to pay to drive in this zone which is indicated by road signs bur you also have to find parking which is not easy and the few parking garages are quite expensive. Some people take to the roads and cycle but this also has its problems as London has an appalling record on road safety for cyclists. Many cyclists are killed every year by cars and lorries. The sight of bundles of flowers marking the death of a cyclist at a particular road junction is commonplace.

Every method of commuting has its problems. For most Londoners the idea is trying to find something to do in the long hours we spend commuting