Two people, two lives

Consider two commuters:

Both live in Bletchley.  Commuter 1 works in London, Commuter 2 works in Milton Keynes.  Both like to get to their workplace before 9am

Commuter 1 gets up before 6am and drives down to Bletchley railway station in time to board the 07:00 to Euston.  He/she leaves the house before anyone else in the house is awake.

Commuter 2 gets up at 7am and shares breakfast with the family.   They leave the house at 8am for the 20 minute drive to their workplace in Milton Keynes. 

Both are at their desk by 8:30am.

Commuter 1 pays around £600 a year to park at the station and £4,200 for an annual season ticket (with London Travelcard).   Adding on the cost of the fuel for the drive to the station, the commute costs around £5,300 a year.

Commuter 2 gets free parking at his/her out of town workplace.   It's a 15 mile round trip so fuel is a bit more expensive, but the commuting cost per year comes out at about £1,500.

Commuter 1 is stuck in London at lunchtime.  There's plenty of shops nearby, but anything purchased has to be lugged home.

Commuter 2 has a lot more flexibility.  The hour at lunchtime is enough time to drive to anywhere in the city, including popping back home.  they can also usually manage to drop the car off/pick it up from a service when they need to, and things like doctor and dentist appointments are rarely a problem.

Commuter 1 usually leaves his/her workplace just after 5pm and gets the 17:51 to Bletchley.  Assuming the train is on time, they are at Bletchley and home by 7pm.

Commuter 2 also leaves his/her workplace just after 5pm but even after being held up by a bit of rush-hour traffic, they are easily home in time to watch the 6pm news on TV.

On a good day Commuter 1 spends 3 hours 30 minutes a day travelling to and from work.  On a bad day, train failures, points/signal problems, or engineering works can easily extend this by another hour or more.  For the privilege of sitting (and occasionally standing) on a train with a bunch of other people (listening to the tinny noise coming out of earphones, putting up the ones who shout at their mobile phones and trying to avoid inhaling whenever there's a cough or a sneeze), he/she pays out an average of just over £23 a day.

The journey time for Commuter 2 is pretty reliable, and they spend about an hour and a half a day travelling in their own car listening to their own radio or CDs.  Any coughing or sneezing is their own, and they NEVER have to stand.  The cost of commuting is less than £7 a day.

Commuter 1 sees London as a place to go to to pay the mortgage.  Commuter 2 sees London as a leisure destination.

Commuter 1 dreams of getting a local job.  Commuter 2 just dreams... 

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