Good commuting location
 

Hi

I work in Ealing and my gf works at Great Portland St.

We currently live way out in Hertfordshire and we are fed of the commute. Would like to know of a good location that would suit us both to get to work in a reasonable time?

I can drive if required and my gf would get public transport or we would both use public transport.

Ideally looking for somewhere that is a nice town or has a village feel to it so is a bit of a commuter town rather than going for central London.

Currently looking at places like Esher.....as there are some new house built that look reasonably affordable. We are looking for a 3 bed house under £400k.

Any help or advice welcomed.

Good commuting location
 

"Balaban" wrote in message
...

Hi

I work in Ealing and my gf works at Great Portland St.

We currently live way out in Hertfordshire and we are fed of the
commute. Would like to know of a good location that would suit us both
to get to work in a reasonable time?

I can drive if required and my gf would get public transport or we would
both use public transport.

Ideally looking for somewhere that is a nice town or has a village feel
to it so is a bit of a commuter town rather than going for central
London.

Currently looking at places like Esher.....as there are some new house
built that look reasonably affordable. We are looking for a 3 bed house
under £400k.

Any help or advice welcomed.

Problem with Esher is that it only gets two trains an hour for most of the
day, though there is 4 in the peak.

And I think that you will find it difficult to find a 3 bed under 400K

tim

Good commuting location
 

On Fri, 28 Jan 2011, Balaban wrote:

I work in Ealing and my gf works at Great Portland St.

We currently live way out in Hertfordshire and we are fed of the
commute. Would like to know of a good location that would suit us both
to get to work in a reasonable time?

Ruislip?

3 bedrooms for 280 large:

http://www.vebra.com/property/9150/21335126

You and the future Mrs Balaban walk, cycle, or rollerskate to West Ruislip
or Ruislip Gardens. You take the Central line, then change at Greenford
for a Greenford Loop train to Ealing (West or Broadway); your fancy piece
takes a Chiltern train to Marylebone, and then walks or takes a bus along
Marylebone Road to work.

Ideally looking for somewhere that is a nice town or has a village feel
to it so is a bit of a commuter town rather than going for central
London.

I don't know Ruislip personally, but i get the impression it's that sort
of place. Put it this way, people round there are more likely to be
committing fraud than stabbings.

Currently looking at places like Esher.....

If not Ruislip, i think other places in the north-to-west quadrant of
London are worth a look. Esher seems like a pretty perverse choice
geographically.

tom

--
KEEP CALM and CARRY ON

Good commuting location
 

Tom Anderson wrote

On Fri, 28 Jan 2011, Balaban wrote:

I work in Ealing and my gf works at Great Portland St.

Currently looking at places like Esher.....

If not Ruislip, i think other places in the north-to-west quadrant of

London are worth a look. Esher seems like a pretty perverse choice
geographically.

Indeed it seem an odd selection for working in Ealing (and I live in
Elmbridge though not in Esher)

You might also consider places on the main line into Paddington, say
West Drayton, Iver, Langley, Maidenhead. Check with the SE travel
planner and Streetmap.co.uk


--
Mike D

Good commuting location
 

"Balaban" wrote in message
...

Hi

I work in Ealing and my gf works at Great Portland St.

[snip]
Currently looking at places like Esher.....as there are some new house
built that look reasonably affordable. We are looking for a 3 bed house
under £400k.

You need to think about the *quality* of the commute as well as the
distance. Will you/yours get a seat on trains from Esher? What are the
onward connections to Great Portland St and/or Ealing like from Waterloo?
Are there any alternatives if any link in the journey falls apart? What will
the drive to Ealing be like (go on, try it), and is there somewhere to put
the car when you get there?

For about 15 years I commuted from Brighton/Hove to an office near Victoria.
This was quite a long distance but:

a) it was a short walk between Victoria and the office at the London end, so
no fighting with buses or the underground.
b) it was a short walk to the station at the Brighton end, so no worrying
about where to put the car.
c) I *always* got a seat. If there were problems at either end I would go
and get a pint or coffee and then grab a seat on the next train.

--
DAS

Good commuting location
 

"Michael R N Dolbear" wrote in message
news:01cbbf56$47069ee0$6bcd403e@default...
Tom Anderson wrote

On Fri, 28 Jan 2011, Balaban wrote:

I work in Ealing and my gf works at Great Portland St.

Currently looking at places like Esher.....

If not Ruislip, i think other places in the north-to-west quadrant of

London are worth a look. Esher seems like a pretty perverse choice
geographically.

Indeed it seem an odd selection for working in Ealing (and I live in
Elmbridge though not in Esher)

You might also consider places on the main line into Paddington, say
West Drayton, Iver, Langley, Maidenhead. Check with the SE travel
planner and Streetmap.co.uk


--
Mike D



I used to live in Maidenhead, moved out 3 years ago. With the possible
exception of Burnham (but there are parts of Burnham I wouldn't touch with a
bargepole) and Taplow it's probably the first place that appears to meet
your criteria. When we first went to live there in 1979 it definitely was
and it's interesting how living there you become accustomed to change but I
think it's indicative that when my son and a friend spent a weekend there
recently the friend is reported to have said "you were bought up here?".
It's still not a bad place, I go back quite often at weekends, but if you
think of it as a "nice place by the Thames" and imagine Boulters Lock as
being Maidenhead lets just say there has always been more to it than that.

The next station out is Twyford which I've always felt is a bit nicer and,
of course, there are the stations up the branches to Marlow (from
Maidenhead) and Henley (from Twyford). And, if you can drive to a station
there are a number of other places in the area which are nice villages.
Price in some of the outlying villages will be an issue.

I think your main issue is going to be coming home from Ealing. Getting on
the train a Paddington is not usually too much of an issue and, as someone
else has commented, if one is full to bursting you can wait for the next,
they're pretty frequent. But Ealing Broadway is a quite major boarding
point so a train that is heavily loaded from Paddington gains more people at
Ealing than it loses. That said, I found that, generally, the train began
to unload quite quickly and that by West Drayton a seat could usually be
procured.

Bear in mind that the Piccadilly up through to Rayners Lane, Ruislip,
Ickenham and Uxbridge can be quite easily accessed from Ealing Broadway by
going one station back on the District to Ealing Common or by walking along
Madeley Road to North Ealing Station. If you then chose to live on the
Piccadilly between North Ealing and Rayners Lane Gt Portland St might be
best approached by going to Rayners Lane (which feels counter intuitive
because you're going out of London) to get the Met direct to Gt Portland St.

A word of warning about W and NW London and even out towards Maidenhead,
Marlow, Henley etc. Heathrow! It does depend precisely where you live
but aircraft noise is an issue and in some ways Northolt can be worse
because it gets some military that don't conform to all the noise rules that
the planes going to Heathrow do. Maidenhead doesn't suffer too badly
because the planes are usually quite high. One of the departure routes is
between Burnham and Maidenhead (it's relatively un populated) but they do
miss occasionally; I've always lived with Heathrow noise but if you're not
used to it that could be an issue. PS Esher gets Heathrow noise as well.

As others have intimated, unless you're working some odd shifts Esher to
Ealing would not be a nice commute. If driving all the Thames bridges clog
up. The M25 clogs with people going to Heathrow and the M4 (and the M40)
from there with people going into London. The A3 queues to get under the 2
lane underpass at Hook. It is possible by train - other than going into
London and back out you can go to Wimbledon pick up the District to Earls
Court and then back to Ealing or if you're feeling adventurous Esher, New
Malden reverse direction and take the Kingston loop to Richmond, District to
Turnham Green and reverse again to take the District to Ealing.