Commuting from Kells, Co. Meath

morja

Hi, I will be moving to Kells, Co. Meath in January (Goddam Dublin propoerty prices) and would like to hear the views of fellow commuters to Dublin city Centre from Kells or along the Kells route. I am under no illusions that it will be a quick "1 hour commute", or even a quick 1.5 hour commute, from Dublin but I would like to know realistically how long it is going to take me to get to and from work every day. I work in the city centre and would aim to be getting off the bus at 9am in order to get to work comfortably by 9.15-9.30 (approx!). so basically i want to know what time I am giong to have to get up at in the mornings!

please enlighten me!

spank_inferno

the bus service from kells is pretty good because the 109 route services Navan. But I wouldnt leave any later than 7-7:15 because the N3 is SNAFU every morning.

_Kaiser_

Even leaving at 7/7.15 could be pushing it depending on where in the city centre you've to get to. I'd be thinking of being on the road by 6:30.

If you don't mind though, and this is intended as a serious question rather than a "dig", but can I ask why you're only now asking what the commute will be like rather than it being a factor in deciding where to buy initially?

The reason I ask is that I'm a firm believer that it's the "must have a house, no matter the cost" (and I don't mean purely financially) attitude of most Irish people that is fuelling both the ridiculous property prices you mention in Dublin and elsewhere, but also the increasing traffic chaos on all routes into the city.

Navan Junction

In fairness Kaiser, most people buy houses for the same reason they take out pensions - as an investment in their future..

The hope being that you'll live long enough to enjoy not having a monthly mortgage/rent bill every month..

_Kaiser_

Navan Junction wrote:

In fairness Kaiser, most people buy houses for the same reason they take out pensions - as an investment in their future..

The hope being that you'll live long enough to enjoy not having a monthly mortgage/rent bill every month..

Fair point, but I'd argue that having to spend 3-4 hours commuting and having to move that far out, being up to my neck in mortgage repayments, being away from friends/family etc, plus the extra costs of HAVING to run a car (maybe two?) as public transport in most parts of this country as a practical and realistic option is practically non-existent, outweighs any supposed quality of life that buying the house in the first place would give.

Don't get me wrong, I'd like to own a house someday myself but not under those conditions.

(Note this is just my opinion and I'm speaking in general terms here, not attacking the OP personally)

John R

Navan Junction wrote:

In fairness Kaiser, most people buy houses for the same reason they take out pensions - as an investment in their future..

As a reason to buy a house, Investment on a 30+ year mortgage is a seriously bad idea IMO. Serious risk of ending up with negative equity or spiralling payments.

The attitude that many have that the house price boom will last forever is very short-sighted and the biggest losers will be the buyers of houses in estates in distant satellite towns whose true value is very low.

Navan Junction

John R wrote:

As a reason to buy a house, Investment on a 30+ year mortgage is a seriously bad idea IMO. Serious risk of ending up with negative equity or spiralling payments.

The attitude that many have that the house price boom will last forever is very short-sighted and the biggest losers will be the buyers of houses in estates in distant satellite towns whose true value is very low.

Yes - but what about having to pay €1,400 a month rent for the rest of your life...

Horses for courses - I don't know of anyone that has bought a home and sold it to move back into rented accommodation.

Maybe the problem isn't buying property - it's the affordable options available, and the areas where the development is taking place...

You have to ask yourself why is Dunshaughlin not being developed whilst areas further out on the N3 such Virginia, Kells, Navan etc are flying up...

Take Virginia - why are we building in Ulster for people who will end up working in Dublin?

morja

ok thanks for all the replies! To answer the question why I havent asked before about the commute is simple - bought the house over a year ago and only ready now. Had sussed out the commute before bought it and wanted to see if it had changed as it is now a year later. and its not a "must have house" attitude, it is simply human nature to aspire to owning one's own home!

Already leave my house at 7.00am to get to work in city centre at the moment so its not going to be a huge change to me. Basically i wanted to own my own home and not throw rent away at a landlord (the people who own second houses are actually the ones driving up house prices in my opinion! - not the people who are trying to get on the property ladder).

I looked at all the option and meath was the best option to me - it is set for further development in future years (the next 5 - 10 years will see co. meath changing rapidly) and I believe that businesses will move out there in their droves in coming years. Stastically Co. Meath is the most educated county in Ireland thanks to all the commuters so it is only a matter of time before it flourishes.

spank_inferno

morja wrote:

I looked at all the option and meath was the best option to me - it is set for further development in future years (the next 5 - 10 years will see co. meath changing rapidly) and I believe that businesses will move out there in their droves in coming years. Stastically Co. Meath is the most educated county in Ireland thanks to all the commuters so it is only a matter of time before it flourishes.

sorry for going sligtly off topic...


What is it that makes meath "Better educated" than wicklow/Kildare.
Its the same schools with largely the same teachers teaching there as 10 years ago?
Businesses may move to meath, but again why?
Do business get assistance for locating in the BMW counties?
If so meath would be left out and cavan would get the Jobs

Admittedly with a small bit of bias I think wicklow is the best place to live of the 3 satelite counties (not by much mind). There is huge room for improvements of course. But Bray, greystones, wicklow and everywhere in between have all grown but not to the extent of the vast suburban explosion of meath (and especially Kildare). With the N11 under less pressure than the counterparts N4/N7 N3/N2 roads. With commuting in mind surely wicklow is the better choice??

HelterSkelter

5 hours a day sitting in a traffic jam, I would rather rent for the rest of my life.

morja

well what makes Meath highly educated is statistics. stastically, meath is the most highly educated county in ireland. So stastically it is more educated than Kildare and Wicklow. Basically what this means is that people who have gotten third level education have mainly moved to Co. Meath. It does not mean that people from Meath are more intelligent than any other counties, it just means that more people there have third level degrees than any other county. It is only a matter of time untill businesses start to realise this and move their organisations out to meath. shorter commuting times make for less tired, and more alert employees. The biggest and best asset any organisation can have is its employees so it makes sense to accomodate them in any way. Also there is no need for companies to be in the city centre any more because of the improvement in technogical communications in the past 10 years.

Yes I agree that the N11 is less congested than the N3 and the N2 but it would not make sense for people from North Dublin, as that is where I am from, to move to a sattelite county south of Dublin. people want to stay as close to home as possible and because of house prices in Ireland, not many people can do that. So it makes sense to move to a neighbouring county.

anyway back to commuting. does anyone else have any other advice for me when I beginto commute from kells to Dublin city centre?

morja

HelterSkelter wrote:

5 hours a day sitting in a traffic jam, I would rather rent for the rest of my life.

well I know it is tough but I would prefer my future children (if I have any!) to have a place to call home rather than renting forever. anyway people have different priorities and maybe home ownership is not one of them for you, which is fine, but it is something I would like myself which is why I have made the decision to move and commute.

Navan Junction

morja wrote:

does anyone else have any other advice for me when I beginto commute from kells to Dublin city centre?

Get to know all the back roads and rat runs, and start saving to pay the 2 tolls each way per day that you'll have to pay on the M3 when it's built.....

And don't believe any lies about a rail link anywhere north of Dunboyne, especially the stuff you'll start soming across soon about the scoping study..

Re statistics, did you get them from the workinmeath.ie site?

morja wrote:

well what makes Meath highly educated is statistics.

BTW, Meath doesn't have any third level college, so it is also debatable how many of the kids in furure will have access to any third level education, particularly as the transport links are non-existant...

WhiteAp

morja wrote:

...but I would prefer my future children (if I have any!) to have a place to call home rather than renting forever.

That's a funny one which always baffles me in Ireland. Millions of Germans, French and those continental types seem to rear balanced children in rented accommodation. It's definitely a case here of rented accommodation not being perceived as a "home". Maybe it's something to do with renters rights etc. which are a lot stronger on the continent, not to mention landlords that keep their flats in good shape.

The point about the money is a good one, but if I pay a 2000 EUR mortgage in Meath, I could instead rent for 1000 a month in Dublin and invest 1000 EUR which if invested wisely will probably be worth more in the long term. Not to mention no extra costs such as maintenance, service charges, estate agent fees, lawyers fees, stamp duty etc. etc. And.... no commute!

Different strokes etc., but there's definitely a renter / buyer trench being dug in twentysomething / thirtysomething Ireland. Commuting just kills me, therefore the choice is clear.