Commuting in the UK has always been an issue, with an average commute nearly an hour long at 54 minutes. But, according to Instant Offices, it’s Londoners who bear the brunt of this with the longest commute in the country at 74 minutes – almost twice the worldwide average of 40 minutes.
According to a recent poll, two-thirds of Londoners found using public transport as the most stressful part of living in the capital. Commuting is considered an unpleasant activity, and when you factor in the time it takes to travel to work in London, it is not surprising that many professionals and businesses are looking for alternative ways of working.
Based on official figures from the Department for Transport, crowded trains are carrying almost double the number of passengers they were designed to take.
Demand for rail services into London has increased by 12% over the last six years, and it is forecast that by the early 2030’s, Waterloo trains in peak hours could be comparable to 5.4 passengers cramming into an average-sized phone booth.
A Rail Delivery Group report found that the number of rail journeys was up from 800m in the late 1990’s to 1.6bn in 2015, meaning that the number of train journeys made each year has more than doubled since that time period.
Commuters are Deserting Trains
Commuters are becoming frustrated with the long commutes, high fares and often unreliable services of rail travel. Many people are slowly deserting trains and opting to work from home, while Londoners are changing the way they work to avoid the use of the railway.
In 2017 alone, rail fares rose by an average of 3.4%, the largest increase since 2013. Cheap train tickets now seem to be a thing of the past as train fares have risen twice as fast as salaries over the past decade.
