Long Commutes - worth it?

dashboard_hula · 15-10-2010 3:51pm #1

Hi All,

Some job opportunities recently came up in Cork/Dublin recently, which for various reasons I wasn't able to consider. One of the biggies was the long, loooong commute very day. Cork is an hour and 50 minutes away, Dublin apparently is an hour and a half from Waterford on the new motorway. That sounds just about doable, but I'd have a few worries:

If driving, you'd need to have a good, solid, diesel car, right? That'd be pretty expensive in terms of tax, fuel, insurance, maintenance etc, but it's an investment, fair enough.
Do people ever get bored off their brains spending 3 hours a day in a car? Does it wear or strain you out?
The big thing is - what if there's an emergency at work or you have to step in fast - I'm only up the road at the moment, but it's a bit hard to respond to a request to cover in an emergency if you're 2 odd hours away...

I'd just like peoples opinions as there I can't get anything other than "That's mental" out of people. And while I know long commutes are the norm in the US etc, the idea of crossing literally half the country every day for work freaks me out - but if anyone here is doing it, I'd really love to hear about how you're managing.

Any comments welcome

Stark · 15-10-2010 4:03pm

Commuting from Cork to Dublin every day is a great idea. Go for it.

flyingsnail · 15-10-2010 4:09pm

Stark wrote: »

Commuting from Cork to Dublin every day is a great idea. Go for it.

Is he not talking about commuting from Waterford to Cork or Dublin?

dashboard_hula · 15-10-2010 4:10pm

flyingsnail wrote: »

Is he not talking about commuting from Waterford to Cork or Dublin?

Yeah, I am

helimachoptor · 15-10-2010 4:13pm

Can you not move up closer to Dublin or closer to Cork?

dashboard_hula · 15-10-2010 4:14pm

Not at the moment no, I might, if I absolutely had to, consider living in Dublin/Cork during the week and coming back down @ weekends, but that would be my very, very last resort.

Not · 15-10-2010 4:21pm

The money had better be very very good. God knows where the price of fuel is going to go in the future. You'll be spending several hundred euros on diesel every month and in and out of the filling station every 2 or 3 days depending on the size of the fuel tank, and servicing every few months. And you'll wear out a brand new car in little over three years unless you're happy to keep relying on it up to and over the 200k miles (yes convert to kms for modern cars) mark.

Edit : Don't forget the cost of tolls, both present and future.

seamus · 15-10-2010 4:22pm

I've heard a lot of people say that they love commuting by train. They go very slightly off-peak and they can use the 1, 2 hours whatever to get stuff done - read a book, work on their laptop, etc.

Gloomtastic! · 15-10-2010 4:28pm

Before the Port Tunnel, it used to take my wife an hour to drive from Killester to East Point Business Park, a distance of less than 2km!! So sometimes it's not just distance but sheer weight of traffic that holds you up.

I know someone who does such a commute and they don't leave home until 10am to start work at 11:30 and leave at 7pm to miss the heavy traffic. That makes it bearable for her. Could you do something similar?

loyatemu · 15-10-2010 4:30pm

seamus wrote: »

I've heard a lot of people say that they love commuting by train. They go very slightly off-peak and they can use the 1, 2 hours whatever to get stuff done - read a book, work on their laptop, etc.

you'd be spending 5 hours a day on the train + whatever amount of time to get to the station at either end, and I wouldn't be too confident relying on a 8 times a day intercity service (if one was cancelled it would be a long wait until the next.

It's too far to commute IMO.

Not · 15-10-2010 4:31pm

Another thing to consider is the possibility of driver fatigue, particularily after a long days work. I find motorways can be a lot more sleep inducing than twisty rural roads.

angel01 · 15-10-2010 4:32pm

It takes me over 2.5 hours to get home from work usually (around 1 hour and 40 in the morning!) and I don't even leave Dublin

:( I have to use buses and trams, it does take it out of you but I can't afford to move house and I am can't leave my job so I have to put up with it.

It means I am up early really (around 5.40am) and don't get home till at least 6.45pm or so.. It really is tiring.

Cool Mo D · 15-10-2010 4:33pm

Cork is doable, and if you're working on the outskirts of Dublin, off the N7, that is too, given current tolls and petrol costs.

Doable is a long way off pleasant though. But given a choice of a 2 hour commute each way, and no job, I'd be commuting. But I'd look for any better option to avoid it.

Not · 15-10-2010 4:39pm

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

I know someone who does such a commute and they don't leave home until 10am to start work at 11:30 and leave at 7pm to miss the heavy traffic. That makes it bearable for her. Could you do something similar?

Before the M50 improvements I did that, to commute at rush hour was taking a further hour or two out of my life per day. But the later hours f€ck up chances of a social life during the week.

Not · 15-10-2010 4:43pm

Cool Mo D wrote: »

Cork is doable, and if you're working on the outskirts of Dublin, off the N7, that is too, given current tolls and petrol costs.

Doable is a long way off pleasant though. But given a choice of a 2 hour commute each way, and no job, I'd be commuting. But I'd look for any better option to avoid it.

Definitely I'd prefer to spend two hours in a car commuting than to spend two hours in dole queue, even if I was spending most of my salary just getting there.

VW 1 · 15-10-2010 4:46pm

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Before the Port Tunnel, it used to take my wife an hour to drive from Killester to East Point Business Park, a distance of less than 2km!! So sometimes it's not just distance but sheer weight of traffic that holds you up.

But that can be walked in 20mins or cycled in under 10, why drive?!

gugleguy · 15-10-2010 4:55pm

I take 2 buses from soutside dublin (d6w) to northside (d15)
Takes me about hour + half in morning, 2 hours in evening.

Aard · 15-10-2010 6:45pm

Tbh, it really depends where exactly in Dublin it is. If you have to go inside the M50, I would advise against it. Even if it was in Tallaght I would still think that it really better be worth the money.

Do your homework on it -- literally write down every cost (both time and money) you're going to incur versus how much you're going to earn. Work out if it would be cheaper to rent a small apartment than to buy a new car, tax it, insure it, fuel it, maintain it. If you have family, would it upset you/them if you were in a different city for half the day.

There's a lot to take into account. Don't rush into it.

Stark · 15-10-2010 8:13pm

Drove from Cork to Dublin after work this evening. Only took about 2 hours and was fairly stress free with the motorway but still feeling a bit shattered after it. 40 mins each way would be my upper limit for a driving commute.

amacachi · 15-10-2010 8:34pm

REALLY think about moving down even if just for the weekdays. I commute Dundalk to Dublin and if I had an extra 20 quid a week income I wouldn't be commuting even if I had to survive on beans and toast.

xper · 16-10-2010 2:23am

dashboard_hula wrote: »

The big thing is - what if there's an emergency at work or you have to step in fast - I'm only up the road at the moment, but it's a bit hard to respond to a request to cover in an emergency if you're 2 odd hours away...

Just on this point, if call-ins are a critical part of the job, and not just a rare keep-the-boss-happy occurrence, then it may be in the contract that you must reside within a certain distance from the place.

In any case, look at the possibility of a room rent in a house for four nights a week (rents are low these days) and a late Monday arrival/early Friday departure. This may actually give you more quality time at home, bearing in mind that, with a commute that long, even if you're young, you'll be a wreck - you may be home during the week but you'll not be doing much more than eating and sleeping and weekends will be all about recovering. That can put a serious strain on personal/family relationships (presuming that's a factor here).

dashboard_hula · 16-10-2010 8:26am

Thanks a million for all your replies everyone - I do appreciate it, and you've given me some food for thought

Casey_81 · 16-10-2010 9:31am

The winter is the worst time to start a long commute like that - driver fatigue will be a big factor.. If at all possible try and stay in a mates house/hotel one night a week (pref wed) and that'll make it easier..

If you can get flexi-time that'll shave time and stress off the commute.. and make it a bit more bearable.

angel01 · 16-10-2010 10:08am

If there was an emergency in work, I wouldn't be able to help as I live too far away, they know that and take that into account

bigbrotherfan · 16-10-2010 2:39pm

It's worth remembering that commuting at this time of the year is a verty different proposition to winter time. Also, much depends on which part of the city you will be working in. If it's the opposite side from where you're coming, then that could be the hardest, most expensive, most time-consuming and most frustrating part of your journey. Lots to consider there.

daenerysstormborn3 · 16-10-2010 8:05pm

Hi OP, I speak from personal experience as I commute daily from Waterford to Dublin and I find it absolutely no bother whatsoever.

The delays with IE are few and far between and would generally be small delays (5/10 minutes) and because of the length of the journey they nearly always manage to catch themselves up. The journey is comfortable (if you're getting on at the first stop, morning train tends to fill up around athy/carlow). I'm up at 5 every morning, cycle to the station, on train for about 2 hours, 2 minutes, train home at 6.35, into station at 8.55 and home by 9. Some people might find those journey times unbearable but for me it was pretty simple. My bf is in college in Waterford and I work in Dublin, it became too difficult for us to be apart so much so we made the decision for me to move down.

I am planning to start driving up and down before Christmas, that's about 1 hour 20 minutes or so, my bf has done Waterford-Dublin in less time than that though, with traffic.

Obviously my personal circumstances are unusual and had a lot to do with my decision and I wouldn't be commuting like this if I had the choice (no jobs in Waterford) and I have to be honest I would say my happiness in my relationship probably has a lot to do with how well I'm dealing with the commuting.

For me, I don't need more than 4-5 hours sleep a night, never have needed more than that. If you're someone who is going to get grumpy over lack of sleep and start taking it out on family/let it effect your work I would definitely say the commute is not for you. However, if you're going to drive the journey should be no bother.

BrianD3 · 16-10-2010 8:55pm

Considering that both cars and roads have gotten a lot better in recent years, I think that commute is doable once you are not getting stuck in traffic when you reach Dublin. In terms of car costs they may not be as much as you think. For instance, if you were to get a Renault Fluence 1.5 DCi it would:

cost around 16-18k to buy new
need a service every 18k miles
do 60 mpg
cost ~100 quid to tax
have a 5 year unlimited mileage warranty
have cruise control as standard

Ham'nd'egger · 16-10-2010 9:27pm

BrianD3 wrote: »

Considering that both cars and roads have gotten a lot better in recent years, I think that commute is doable once you are not getting stuck in traffic when you reach Dublin. In terms of car costs they may not be as much as you think. For instance, if you were to get a Renault Fluence 1.5 DCi it would:

cost around 16-18k to buy new
need a service every 18k miles
do 60 mpg
cost ~100 quid to tax
have a 5 year unlimited mileage warranty
have cruise control as standard

That assumes that you have the capital to splash out on a car in the first place

kdouglas · 16-10-2010 9:42pm

my commute at present is about 30 mins +/- 3 mins, I wouldn't really consider spending any longer than that in a car twice a day.

NedNew2 · 16-10-2010 10:47pm

I can't imagine a 150km each way daily drive to Dublin (not counting urban Dublin) would be too sustainable in the long term but in terms of time and expense.

I've done a 100km each way commute before and it slowly but surely grinds you down. In the end I was lucky enough to find another job.

Working out the estimated cost of driving, it would be 150km x 2 = 300 km.

The average diesel car would consume maybe 6 litres per 100km.

So that would be 18 litres per day at €1.25... €23 per day... ouch.

Chris_5339762 · 17-10-2010 11:08am

I walk 30 minutes to work everyday and back. It also takes 30 minutes to drive there due to traffic.

The idea of commuting from Waterford etc every day seems absolutely barmy to me. 2 hours each way? Thats 4 hours per day you spend travelling. Insanity! 1/6th of your life getting to and from work.

Long Commutes - worth it?

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