Commuting up to Dublin for work

saintchrisburg

Hi everybody.

I've just accepted a job up in Dublin (Santry to be exact, so just south of the airport). I was wondering if any of ye have experience of commuting up Monday to Friday, and how I should go about it as I have no intention of moving. I have my own car, and undoubtedly it'd be the fastest way up, but I think the cost of petrol, tolls, car maintenance etc. might be prohibitive. Then again, the time and cost of using public transport could end up being just as bad. What would ye recommend?

Thanks in advance!

Motivator

saintchrisburg wrote: »

Hi everybody.

I've just accepted a job up in Dublin (Santry to be exact, so just south of the airport). I was wondering if any of ye have experience of commuting up Monday to Friday, and how I should go about it as I have no intention of moving. I have my own car, and undoubtedly it'd be the fastest way up, but I think the cost of petrol, tolls, car maintenance etc. might be prohibitive. Then again, the time and cost of using public transport could end up being just as bad. What would ye recommend?

Thanks in advance!

Only way to do it is move up. I did it for about 6 weeks & had to bite the bullet & move. Too much hassle & costs involved in commuting.

saintchrisburg

I have a feeling you're probably right, or at least a part-time residence for during the week.

Gmol

Way too far to commute need to think about staying part of the week up in Dublin.

SCOOP 64

Thread going on at moment, how far would you drive to work, most people said no more then a hour, waterford to Dublin, car, to costly and too long.

taytobreath

you'll have no life if your going to commute. i did it and it was a nightmare. all your doing is going home havin the spuds and half an hour later its time for the bed.
up every mornin at 5.30 in the middle of winter, i shudder just thinkin about it.
what i felt helped was, if u travel up Monday morning and stay up there and go home wednesday evening to break up the week a bit.

akasudonim

Op I do it on average 3 times a week, waterford to Swords, have been for a few years. About 1hr 50 up and 2 hrs back, depending on departing time. If your hours are a little flexible then its not so bad, Leaving waterford at 7:45 will get you there by 9:30ish.
Newlands Cross is not so bad, considering the works, but might disimprove. I avoid Monday morning and Fri pm if at all possible. I certainly could not do it 5 days a week. Have considered a place in Dub but you can get cheap hotels to stay a night per week if necessary. Often leave late (8:30), work late in office, stay in hotel, and leave for home early the following day, so avoid rush hour both directions.
I know others who do this 5 days, I couldn't.
By the way I get up and back 3 times on a tank of diesel, so about €85.
Best of luck with the new role!

saintchrisburg

Thank you to everybody for your comments and suggestions. I was already thinking, and your messages reaffirm it, that I should stay up in Dublin two, or more likely 3, nights a week. I let you know what happens, and we'll see how long I can manage before I break down and move :-p

fricatus

I wish you luck, but I think you're cracked. I commute as far as Kilkenny and it drives me mad. The salary premium or career advancement over what you'd get in Waterford would have to be well worth it and then some!

I did some calculations a few months back and found that I could take a €4k pay cut to move to a job in Waterford, on the basis that for every extra €4k I earn, I'm only seeing €1,800 or so going into my back pocket, and that's the marginal cost of diesel, tyres, extra servicing and repairs that it's costing me to travel that distance to work versus the drive across town - that's not to mention the fact that the cost of having to eventually replace the car is brought forward by a few years.

There's also the factor of what to do when you drive the car out of the driveway one morning and there's an unusual shudder, thump-thump-thump or screech of metal when you do. If you worked in Waterford, you would drive on over to work, then ring a garage and drop the car in. You can't do that if your destination is Kilkenny, never mind Dublin, so what do you do, risk further damage or a breakdown on the side of the motorway? You're weighing this up against some deadline that you have to meet in work, or some conference call that you have to be on at 09.00. As your car racks up the miles, this will happen more often.

My advice would be that you can only do this for a limited amount of time, or else you have to just find some sort of lodgings in Dublin. Good luck in any event!

saintchrisburg

Hi Fricatus,

I understand where you're coming from, and of course you're dead right that inevitably there will be major car issues if I use that for heavy commuting. I'm thinking to bus/train it up to Dublin and back a couple of times a week rather than drive (I'll have to work out the logistics and cost of all that, of course). In the past I used to do a 3 hour commute in each direction [was in a different country, though], so I know how tough it's going to be. In the end we'll probably move a least a bit closer, but my wife and I really love Waterford so we want to see if we can make it all work.

Of course ideally I would have loved to have found a job in Waterford, but I found it tough going finding anything decent here, God knows I sent out plenty of applications. And I can't do call centre work due to ear/hearing issues. The job up in Dublin is for a very large multinational with tons of room for internal promotion, career growth, etc. These points taken together, I decided it's worth trying. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

road_high

Try sort something for a night or two during the week at least. Every day would be exhausting. Used to work in Dublin with a girl that used come from Wexford everyday, dunno how she stuck it. One saving grace she used have was working from home one day per week. I know it's a new job but is something like this possible, or have you broached it with the employer?
Santry is far side of the city, say something if it was Citywest or Tallaght.
Best of luck with the new job by the way.

fricatus

saintchrisburg wrote: »

bus/train it up to Dublin and back a couple of times a week rather than drive

Even if it takes a bit longer, this would be best for your sanity. Get an iPad!

There's also the safety factor... you can fall asleep on the bus without too many worries. No point living in denial about how dangerous driving tired is - or you could get a Merc S-Class which has that system that monitors your eyes and gives you a little jolt if you look like you're falling asleep!

saintchrisburg

fricatus wrote: »

Even if it takes a bit longer, this would be best for your sanity. Get an iPad!

There's also the safety factor... you can fall asleep on the bus without too many worries. No point living in denial about how dangerous driving tired is - or you could get a Merc S-Class which has that system that monitors your eyes and gives you a little jolt if you look like you're falling asleep!

Wouldn't mind an S-Class, even without the commute

saintchrisburg

road_high wrote: »

Try sort something for a night or two during the week at least. Every day would be exhausting. Used to work in Dublin with a girl that used come from Wexford everyday, dunno how she stuck it. One saving grace she used have was working from home one day per week. I know it's a new job but is something like this possible, or have you broached it with the employer?
Santry is far side of the city, say something if it was Citywest or Tallaght.
Best of luck with the new job by the way.

Knew a Wexford girl when I was doing my master's at UCD that was doing the same, sometimes making the commute to come in just for one class. Might be why she seemed to be in a constant daze

From what I understand as of now it won't be possible to work from home, but I should have a better idea of that next week (and certainly if it seems possible I'll make sure to do so). Thanks for reminding me to think of that.

Gael23

It's just too far to commute. You would be spending almost 5 hours a day on the road which I don't think is a realistic option.
To me the only option you have is to move up to Dublin or somewhere within a more reasonable distance.

CatFromHue

It can be done. I was working a contract job in the city centre of Dublin and one of the companies also on the job was Waterford based and most of their guys drove up and down everyday.

Ideally you'd want to be starting at 8 and finishing at 4.30 to get ahead of the traffic in Dublin though. Come 4.30 the lads were on their car and on the road as they knew any later and they'd get stuck in traffic.

It did take it out of them though, granted the job itself was tough going at times too.

It was only for 8 or 9 months too.

Digital Society

People often just blanket Statement Dublin as if it all takes the same time to travel to. I think you are absolutely insane to commute to Santry everyday from Waterford. I used to live there and the traffic at that time just in Santry alone is insane. Airports, Industrial estates, Dublin City and countless Schools. It used to take me an hour to get through Swords and Santry alone after 8AM.Probably even worse now. Powerful sports motorbike is your only hope of beating it. Thoughts of ever having to repeat that in my lifetime makes me shake.

Just admit you need to move up there and quit while your ahead. Sell the car and move as close as possible to the work.

Best way to prove it to yourself is just drive up During the week and time it. Youll soon be convinced. As soon as you hit the tailback on the airport road at that time.

CatFromHue

I agree with Digital you don't want to be still driving to work after 8am, you'd want to be at work then. If you can get an 8am (or earlier) start the better, if not I'd still head there for that time and get your breakfast. Sitting in traffic will kill you.

Kracken

I have been doing for the last 18 months and I drove for the first 14 months but now I get the train up and back and use public transport here.

its working for me, but I would suggest you do a flat share and get a routine otherwise it will kill you.

saintchrisburg

Kracken wrote: »

I have been doing for the last 18 months and I drove for the first 14 months but now I get the train up and back and use public transport here.

its working for me, but I would suggest you do a flat share and get a routine otherwise it will kill you.

How exactly do you have it organized, if you don't mind saying? For example, how many times do you go up and come back down during a week? How much do you pay for transportation, the flat share up in Dublin, etc.? I start next week, so any info would be greatly appreciated...

Junior

I commute from Kilmacthomas to Carlow daily. The only reason I'm still doing it is car sharing with someone, we just drive every other day of the week. We had 4 but are just down to the two at the moment. There is an early train that I've got a few times that has me in Carlow for 8am, not sure how you'd get from City Centre out. It takes me 70-80 Minutes to get into work from Kilmac. You do get cops regularly on the motorway from Mullinavat upwards, you can cruise at 130kmh handy but anything more and you draw trouble.

Factor in stuff like car servicing, tyres etc and fuel. Most of the guys that travel longer distance on the plant where I work will stay up in Carlow a few nights of the week - most will try get out early on a friday however.

Kracken

saintchrisburg wrote: »

How exactly do you have it organized, if you don't mind saying? For example, how many times do you go up and come back down during a week? How much do you pay for transportation, the flat share up in Dublin, etc.? I start next week, so any info would be greatly appreciated...

The training for Monday up, Thursday back (when booked 7 days in advance) is €22.98 a week, €60 on a leap card.

Rent is about €400 a month, however when I drove it €40 round trip in petrol (€10/week for parking), so from a travel cost it's about the same but the benefit from public transport is far better (less tired, no wear on your car, safer).

A lot of this depends on you and how long you want to do this

Chazz Michael Michaels

Why don't you want to move? I didn't want to leave Cork, all the way back in 2008, but now I consider Dublin my home. I love it here. Give it a chance.

AdMMM

If it's a full time job, then you may as well just bite the bullet and move up. Rents are frustratingly high up here but you'll be run down and stressed within weeks if you think commuting daily is worth it. Even if you finish early, by time you travel down the M50, the N7 would be absolutely choc-a-bloc, especially with the ongoing roadworks at Newlands Cross!

tramoreman

kavanagh bus to airport is 30euro as far as i know
i would recommend you move up during the week know someone that worked in dublin far a while and petrol cost them a lot.

Gael23

Of course the commute can be done but life's too short IMO.
If you really are against moving to Dublin then maybe consider somewhere like Carlow where your in between

saintchrisburg

No matter what, I won't be able to move immediately as I'll have to wait for the lease of my current place to finish up (end of April). This will give me a few weeks to try different tactics (e.g. spend one week going up every day, maybe another week where I stay up during the week and come down for the weekend, another week some middle approach).

I have lived up in Dublin before, and was happy the day I left. I'm just not a fan of it. Anyway the rents are too dear for me to relocate my family up there on my salary (really need a house, not a small flat). Going up/down everyday or doing a flat share of course would eat up a huge chunk of my salary, but ideally I'd prefer to stay in Waterford because we have a very nice life down here, very active in certain activities and circles, love the city itself and people, the nature all around, etc.

The saving grace is that I start work at 8, and most days should finish up around 3-3:30, so that puts me out of the really peak rush hour traffic times. The commute will still be long and expensive nonetheless, of course...

Chazz Michael Michaels

Fly from cork? Seriously.

roadsmart

Why not try something like this for 6 months? Royal Oak is very close to all the industrial estates in Santry.

http://www.rent.ie/rooms-to-rent/3-Oak-Lawn-Royal-Oak-Santry-Dublin-9-Santry-Dublin-9-North-Dublin-City/757443/

Odats

IMO Dublin is too far a commute. I do the 7:10am train Waterford to Dublin train every other Monday on the way up and leave the car at home. I'm fortunate I have some flexible time so I can get to the office for 9:30.

Bite the bullet and if you want a house or somewhere for the kids try Kildare which is 40 mins on the train in the morning but Santry is a bit out of the way.

ToxicPaddy

A few colleagues of mine commuted from various locations around the country to Dublin.

One managed to find a small hotel and did a deal where he stayed 3 nights a week for €30 a night.
Not only did it save commuting expenses, it also saved his sanity.

He drove or got the train on Monday morning and drove home Thursday night, worked from home Friday.
Definitely something to consider.

Another option is to rent in one of the commuter towns such as Drogheda, Maynooth, Celbridge etc so its still a small town feel and not as expensive as renting in Dublin city.