Commuting From Laois

DulchieLaois

Hi there,

I currently live in Dublin but orginally from Laois.

I am just wondering if any folk travelled from KK/Laois/Tipp up to Dublin every day and what is it like whether by car/train/bus

I am keen to learn from peoples experiences before I consider if I was to move down home and is it worth all of the aspects like finanically / family / children etc etc

Thanks

Emme

DulchieLaois wrote: »

Hi there,

I currently live in Dublin but orginally from Laois.

I am just wondering if any folk travelled from KK/Laois/Tipp up to Dublin every day and what is it like whether by car/train/bus

I am keen to learn from peoples experiences before I consider if I was to move down home and is it worth all of the aspects like finanically / family / children etc etc

Thanks

If you have a partner and children try to talk to people in the same situation who commute from Portlaoise. I think the trains are reasonably regular from Portlaoise and it takes approximately an hour to get to Dublin. That's at least 10 hours spent travelling a week. Are you prepared to do that?

If you are single I would advise you not to move to Laois to commute.

schemingbohemia

I commuted by train from Portlaoise to Dublin for nearly 3 years. I found it very draining, was just knackered when I got home and I had it relatively easy with an understanding boss so I could scoot off to get an earlyish train.

Would depend on how far you'd be working from Heuston Station as people often only think about the train part, getting to and from Heuston can be an issue especially as the 145 can be full by the time it gets to your stop on the way to Heuston.

I definitely wouldn't do it again.

laoisfan

I've been commuting from Portlaoise/Ballybrophy to Dublin for 11-12 years now, from Ballybrophy the last 7 years. I work in Park West so I get train from Ballybrophy to Portlaoise and then hop on the commuter train which stops at Park West. Previously I've worked in Eastpoint Business Park so it was train to Dublin Heuston, Luas to Bus Aras and then I simply walked out to Eastpoint (sometimes quicker or same time as a bus or Dart).

DulchieLaois

Question is though, is it worth it financially / Children / your own health etc etc

Sometimes i wonder if communting from within Dublin/Suburbs that it is almost the same time as coming up from Laois

laoisfan

DulchieLaois wrote: »

Question is though, is it worth it financially / Children / your own health etc etc

Sometimes i wonder if communting from within Dublin/Suburbs that it is almost the same time as coming up from Laois

It's all relative in my opinion.

During the bad winters of 2009 & 2010 I was able to make it to work while some of my colleagues living in Dublin could not even make it out of their estates :rolleyes:

That said getting the train, bus or driving by car does take it's toll. By Thursday I am absolutely wrecked. I can read on the train, chat on the train or even work on the train. Did the driving for 5 months, hated it, rather the train.

Financially it's probably 6 of 1, half-a-dozen of the other, maybe the benefits are later down the road (I hope they are ).

Kids are happy enough. It's Daddy who does the hard commute, not them and I do work from home from time to time.

Emme

DulchieLaois wrote: »

Question is though, is it worth it financially / Children / your own health etc etc

Sometimes i wonder if communting from within Dublin/Suburbs that it is almost the same time as coming up from Laois

If you have a family and want them to live in the countryside that's a plus. If you're single and most of your friends live in Dublin and you're just looking to buy a place you can afford and it's in Laois then I would think about it again.

Commuting is draining. I am single and bought a place in Carlow a few years ago as I am from the Carlow/Athy area. I have friends there but I'm always too wrecked to see them. Commuting is expensive - train ticket (even with taxsaver), fuel and having to drive everywhere. I have lost touch with a good few of my Dublin friends and my health and fitness have suffered big time. I can't work from home and work are sticky about timekeeping so there's no bumming off early. If the train is delayed in the morning I get ticked off even though it isn't my fault.

I'm definitely sicker and more stressed since I started commuting. I'm also more isolated and I'd move back to the city in a heartbeat but it isn't an option at the moment.

I think commuting works only if you're doing it for family reasons and if you can work on the train and leave a little early sometimes. It also helps if you can work from home some of the time. A full on commute with no respite is a killer - literally a killer in the long run.

See what other people say about the train service from Portlaoise or wherever you would be travelling from. I think the Laois trains are reasonably good and timely but I travel on the Waterford line and it's like something out of Calcutta.

laoisfan

For 10 years I was working from home 2 days per week, Tues & Fri, so that helped alot.

However, in my current job I do not have work from home officially i.e. set days. I can work from home time to time if I need to get something done outside of work e.g. NCT. Or if there is a train strike (recently for example). I'm lucky in that the boss does not watch the clock, basically get the job done. So I can get to the office around 9:20am and leave around 5:10pm, get home for 7:00pm.

As Emme says your social life, fitness etc become non-existent.

I (& my wife) did it purely for family reasons.

Would I move back to the city? Not at this moment in time.

Polar101

If you live close to a train station (or a bus stop), and your workplace is close to where the train/bus drops you off - then it's probably not too bad. But if you have to add time at both ends of the trip, think how long it will take. I don't have a long commute now, but considered moving outside Dublin once - what I did was actually try the commute at rush hour, and decided it's definitely not something I'd like to do 10 times a week.

DulchieLaois

While its not on my radar for at least another few years (2-5), I had considered doing a trial run of going up and down on the train or even moving down home, and rent for a couple of months before buying or building.

Emme

DulchieLaois wrote: »

While its not on my radar for at least another few years (2-5), I had considered doing a trial run of going up and down on the train or even moving down home, and rent for a couple of months before buying or building.

That's a good idea and in hindsight I should have done that - if I had I would still be in Dublin now. Try it for about 2 months and see how your health and energy levels are. Then decide what you want to do.

_Kaiser_

It definitely depends on what commuting option you're taking (bus / train / car) and how far you've to travel at either end.

I commuted from Virginia in Cavan to Fairview for a year but I was pretty lucky in that I was able to start at 10 and leave at 6 and thus miss most of the traffic.

I was also driving with free parking at the office so it was an end to end spin that took about an hour and 15 mins most days. I like driving and found it relaxing most days as it was a pretty uneventful trip once you get out beyond Dunboyne on a fairly empty M3. Just turn up the stereo, stick on cruise control and relax.

But while I wasn't exhausted and it didn't take that long, it was costing a fortune in diesel and tolls and wear and tear on the car as the miles rapidly mounted (about 1000km a week plus whatever I added at weekends)

In the end I moved back to Dublin as I moved to a different office on the south side, but there's no way I could have done that trip on buses every day.

ProudDUB

I have a cousin who commuted from the midlands to Dublin every day by train. Journey time door to door was about 90 minutes. She tried driving at first, but traffic at the Dublin end made the journey much longer. She also found that by taking the train, she was able to mentally unwind as soon as she sat down. She had a wee nap, or she just relaxed and listened to music. She was then much more relaxed when she got to work and got home again in the evening, than she was when she drove. The drive itself wasn't that hard, it was motorway for the most part. But having to stay mentally alert for the entire journey, just had her more frazzled when she walked in the door in the evening, than she was when she took the train. I suppose it may not make a difference if it is just you at home, but if you are coming home to a spouse and kids, it can really matter.

Where in Dublin will you be commuting to OP?

DulchieLaois

Thanks ProudDub, it would be a case of driving either 20 minutes to Plaoise or 40 minutes to Kildare and then train onwards to Grand Canal square.

I was thinking of using the train as a rest option and catching up on the things that one needs to do for the week ahead, on the personal or working side.

That way, i would more organised and prepared for everything.

But like i said, I am more enquiring as to whole commute and how people feel about it all etc etc

Throwaway Account

You need to take in account work life balance spending 20 * 2 minutes driving and Minimum 90 min * 2 on the train.

If you ask me, this is crazy....

DulchieLaois

I need to consider having a realistic home with its trimmings, security and finance rather than bursting ur backside to pay for a mortgage and its interest in Dublin/Kildare/Meath

schemingbohemia

DulchieLaois wrote: »

I need to consider having a realistic home with its trimmings, security and finance rather than bursting ur backside to pay for a mortgage and its interest in Dublin/Kildare/Meath

Yes, but a house of your own that you come home to knackered after all that travelling, that you get to enjoy only at weekends?

People are just pointing our their own experiences with commuting, everyone always thinks they'll be able to cope with it (I know I did) and it really grinds a lot of people down. Relationships suffer, health suffers etc.

If you have the option to work a couple of days from home, have a short journey from the train station at either end, have flexi time and an understanding boss then it can work out ok, but very few people have that.

Emme

schemingbohemia wrote: »

Yes, but a house of your own that you come home to knackered after all that travelling, that you get to enjoy only at weekends?

People are just pointing our their own experiences with commuting, everyone always thinks they'll be able to cope with it (I know I did) and it really grinds a lot of people down. Relationships suffer, health suffers etc.

If you have the option to work a couple of days from home, have a short journey from the train station at either end, have flexi time and an understanding boss then it can work out ok, but very few people have that.

Commuting isn't cheap. I also spend significantly more on healthcare since I started commuting. Amenities in rural towns tend to be more expensive because there is not the same competition as in Dublin. If you work out the costs over the life of a mortgage there will be very little difference between living in the city and living in the country. If anything the country will be more expensive. That's BEFORE you take the personal cost of commuting into account.

If you had a partner from Laois and one of you could get a job there it might work out. If you could save on childcare costs by paying a family member in Laois to care for your children it might work out. If you are from the area but single and you have the chance of getting good rental income from the house and it has resale potential then commuting might work. Because I guarantee that you will want to return to the city if you are single and most of your friends live there.

Otherwise don't do it. I speak from bitter experience. I thought I would be able to cope. My life and health took a nosedive when I started commuting and I may now be forced to give up work because of stress related illness brought on by increased demands at work, longer hours, fewer holidays, pay cuts and a long unpleasant commute.

room_149

I commuted on the Western Arrow for a while- the Mullingar to Connolly service.
That train is much slower than the Cork line- took over an hour to travel 40 odd miles!! Ridiculously slow. It once took 1.30 mins to travel down one evening-you'd be in Thurles or some other non commuter town on the Cork line quicker!!

Driving into the city from Mullingar was almost always much quicker than the train, but as my office is in smack bang in the middle of town, less than 5 mins walk from Connolly, parking was always an issue.

I now drive 25-30mins to either Maynooth/ Leixlip station from my house in the mornings and park in one of the adjacent housing estates/ carparks to either station & get the train in from there. This has cut my Journey time significantly- I'm door to door in well under an hour each day. I don't really care about the extra in fuel it costs me-I have a travel saver ticket to offset the rail cost, and my sanity is more important than cash!!!
I know of several people who work along the same line (in Broombridge/ Glasnevin, Ashtown etc) who do the same thing. If the Connolly to Maynooth line was made electric like the DART it would be an even quicker service. Surely it's time Irish Rail looked at doing this?

schemingbohemia

room_149 wrote: »

I commuted on the Western Arrow for a while- the Mullingar to Connolly service.
That train is much slower than the Cork line- took over an hour to travel 40 odd miles!! Ridiculously slow. It once took 1.30 mins to travel down one evening-you'd be in Thurles or some other non commuter town on the Cork line quicker!!

Driving into the city from Mullingar was almost always much quicker than the train, but as my office is in smack bang in the middle of town, less than 5 mins walk from Connolly, parking was always an issue.

I now drive 25-30mins to either Maynooth/ Leixlip station from my house in the mornings and park in one of the adjacent housing estates/ carparks to either station. This has cut my Journey time significantly- I'm door to door in well under an hour each day. I don't really care about the extra in fuel it costs me-I have a travel saver ticket to offset the rail cost, and my sanity is more important than cash!!!
I know of several people who work along the same line (in Broombridge/ Glasnevin, Ashtown etc) who do the same thing. If the Connolly to Maynooth line was made electric like the DART it would be an even quicker service. Surely it's time Irish Rail looked at doing this?

They have been looking at it but we're broke.

L1011

DulchieLaois wrote: »

I need to consider having a realistic home with its trimmings, security and finance rather than bursting ur backside to pay for a mortgage and its interest in Dublin/Kildare/Meath

You're highly unlikely to actually save the difference in commuting costs though.

This thinking is what had people buying houses in Leitrim during the insanity era here and it needs to not return.

room_149

schemingbohemia wrote: »

They have been looking at it but we're broke.

Privatize the line perhaps?
More than enough people living along that route to make it a commercially Viable operation- Within the Maynooth/Leixlip/Clonsilla/Coolmine/Castleknock/Cabra/Ashtown/Glasnevin/Drumcondra there must be well over 300-400k people? Stretch it out to Kilcock or Enfield perhaps? That's another 20-30k people or so..
Ditch the rubbish arrow train system & turn Enfield into a park & ride so the Meath/East Westmeath area commuters could continue to avail of the service? Much cheaper than extending the line out.
Just a thought.

schemingbohemia

room_149 wrote: »

Privatize the line perhaps? What would that achieve other than huge fares?
More than enough people living along that route to make it a commercially Viable operation- Within the Maynooth/Leixlip/Clonsilla/Coolmine/Castleknock/Cabra/Ashtown/Glasnevin/Drumcondra there must be well over 300-400k people? Stretch it out to Kilcock or Enfield perhaps? That's another 20-30k people or so..for a privatised service would you expect a full day service or only peak services? where's the profit in that? Have you seen how many people use the service off-peak? A bus would easily cope.
Ditch the rubbish arrow train system & turn Enfield into a park & ride so the Meath/East Westmeath area commuters could continue to avail of the service? Much cheaper than extending the line out.
Just a thought.

There's no point in electrifying the line until the signalling upgrade has been completed on the DART line, then if there's any money they'll electrify to Balbriggan first then Maynooth. But it will all depend on whether or not they decide to resurrect DART Underground.

end of the road

room_149 wrote: »

Privatize the line perhaps?
More than enough people living along that route to make it a commercially Viable operation- Within the Maynooth/Leixlip/Clonsilla/Coolmine/Castleknock/Cabra/Ashtown/Glasnevin/Drumcondra

for what? what would be the point. specially just privatizing one line. irish rail needs such lines to help bring in revenue to go toards cross subsidiseing the rest. privatization isn't as cracked up as its made out to be.

room_149 wrote: »

Ditch the rubbish arrow train system & turn Enfield into a park & ride so the Meath/East Westmeath area commuters could continue to avail of the service?

i don't get what you mean by "ditch the rubbish arrow system" . please explain? thanks. this line is used by many other train services then the maynooths including longford and sligo services which in the case of the longfords use the same trains as the maynooth service (all though with irish rails random train generator on the connolly side that could be intercity stock on both services at times) . . enfield as a park and ride might be a good idea though for those who don't have access to a line

room_149 wrote: »

Much cheaper than extending the line out.

the line goes all the way to sligo. so where and what would we be extending?

DulchieLaois

Laois is where i am from hence why i would be interested in moving there if i was to move down

room_149

i don't get what you mean by "ditch the rubbish arrow system" . please explain? thanks. this line is used by many other train services then the maynooths including longford and sligo services which in the case of the longfords use the same trains as the maynooth service (all though with irish rails random train generator on the connolly side that could be intercity stock on both services at times) . . enfield as a park and ride might be a good idea though for those who don't have access to a line



the line goes all the way to sligo. so where and what would we be extending?[/QUOTE]

Only getting back to you now on my desktop pc- the wi-fi on the western arrow wasn't working properly this morning (again!!)
I should have been more specific earlier- If money were no object I would favour getting rid of the sluggish Western Arrow service for commuters. The speeds on this line are too slow compared to those on the line that goes out from Hueston to Kildare & beyond to Cork.
I maintain it should not take anymore than 45-50mins to get from Mullingar to Connolly ala Portlaoise to Hueston. The current train can take anywhere from 1hr to 1.30mins!!! Both towns are the same distance from Dublin.

Electrifying the line out to Maynooth would surely improve rail speeds achieved. 300-400k commuters living along the line after Maynooth could avail of faster & more frequent trains. There is the critical mass of punters to make this viable commercially IMO- another option to the car & bus.

The existing Longford/ Sligo snail train could terminate in Maynooth (using the bog standard line in place as opposed to extending an electric one out past this station.) allowing punters to avail of the faster electrified line into town there after.

end of the road

room_149 wrote: »

If money were no object I would favour getting rid of the sluggish Western Arrow service for commuters. The speeds on this line are too slow compared to those on the line that goes out from Hueston to Kildare & beyond to Cork.
I maintain it should not take anymore than 45-50mins to get from Mullingar to Connolly ala Portlaoise to Hueston. The current train can take anywhere from 1hr to 1.30mins!!! Both towns are the same distance from Dublin.

so electrification of the line, improving track speeds and capacity is what you meant. it would still be the same system and technically the arrow brand is no more anyway (all though i liked it myself over the commuter brand which may as well not exist anymore itself)

room_149 wrote: »

Electrifying the line out to Maynooth would surely improve rail speeds achieved. 300-400k commuters living along the line after Maynooth could avail of faster & more frequent trains. There is the critical mass of punters to make this viable commercially IMO- another option to the car & bus.

electrification will help, but improving capacity is necessary also specially around connolly.

room_149 wrote: »

The existing Longford/ Sligo snail train could terminate in Maynooth (using the bog standard line in place as opposed to extending an electric one out past this station.) allowing punters to avail of the faster electrified line into town there after.

not going to happen or work. sligo passengers want a direct service and i suspect they wouldn't stand for being forced to change trains for no reason when the trains can run direct. infact forcing passengers to change could make people turn away to other direct alternatives. anything that may risk that should not be done. all trains can operate fine on the line, however non stoping trains should be allowed priority (if done right this shouldn't effect the speed of other trains) . i'm not sure what you mean by "bog standard line" the line is what it is at the moment and it won't be electrified past maynooth. all will happen is overhead wiring between maynooth and the start of the dart wires along with making sure any bridges are cleared for overhead wiring. so no special line that sligo/longford diesels can't operate on, and specially no severing of the sligo line and constructing a new bit of track and a new bay platform at maynooth.

Emme

DulchieLaois wrote: »

Laois is where i am from hence why i would be interested in moving there if i was to move down

Do you currently come home to Laois at weekends for socialising? Are you in any local sports clubs? If not then I think commuting would be madness. If you really want to buy a house in Laois make sure you can rent it out if you want to in future and get enough rental income to cover the mortgage, property tax and NPPR. And water tax :mad:

Commuting sometimes works. I know one guy who bought a house in his home village which is about an hour from Dublin. He was always involved in GAA and coached a local football team. He loves living in Meath.

Another guy I know from Athy bought a house in Athy during the boom. He commuted by train for a year but threw in the towel because of the crappy train service. Also his friends lived in Dublin and the town which was never great really went downhill after the boom. He is now in negative equity even though he has the house rented out and is back house sharing in Dublin. He says now that he would have been better off buying in Carlow because he would have got a better rental income from a house in a student town.

OP maybe your family are giving you a site to build on. That's none of my business but it might make living locally a bit easier on the pocket. Or you might have a local girlfriend and you're both thinking of marriage. Whatever you do, think carefully about commuting. I would strongly advise you to rent in Laois or move in with family for 3 months and commute. Preferably during the winter months so you get a realistic feel for it. Only then make your decision and I wish you the best with it. I know if I had done that I wouldn't have left Dublin.

It's all very well having a house but as a commuter you will see very little of that house.