Distance from home

Hello, I am looking at my options for uni. I will be living at home. I will travel by train. How long do you think a realistic journey, one way, should take? Is 1 and a half hour realistic? Or maybe even 1h45m?

I rarely take the train anywhere so I am confused, thanks

Reply 1

EssexStudentRep

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

Hello, I am looking at my options for uni. I will be living at home. I will travel by train. How long do you think a realistic journey, one way, should take? Is 1 and a half hour realistic? Or maybe even 1h45m?
I rarely take the train anywhere so I am confused, thanks

Hiya 👋

Planning for a commute can certainly be done, but everyone is different, and it can be quite hard to do such a long journey every day.

Do you find you're a morning person or do you have difficulty getting up and going early in the morning? Think about if you need to get there for a 9am lecture, and what time you will need to wake up to make a train to get you there on time. Likewise if you have a lecture that finishes at 5 or 6pm, what time will you get home in the evening?

If that's something you think you can do regularly then you'll be fine. Long train journeys can be nice to have some focus time where you can lock in and work on assignments during your commute.

If you think it might be a struggle do you have a uni closer to you? More like a 30-45min journey isn't so bad. It's a good idea to do a practise run so you can see what a rush hour commute is like if you haven't travelled much by train. Take a friend or family member and make a day out of it so it doesn't feel so daunting the first time.

Best of luck in making your choices 😊
Essex Student Rep - Hayley

Reply 2

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by Anonymous

A 90-minute journey each way is a lot of time to spend travelling to and from uni, particularly as some days you might only have an hour or two of lectures / seminars / whatever. So you might end up spending more time travelling that you do at uni itself. :eek:

Would this be dead/wasted time, or would you be able to use it to study?

Are you the sort of person who would decide not to bother travelling in if there wasn't much going on teaching-wise that day?

Have you worked out how much all this travelling will cost?

Reply 3

jonathanemptage

Original post by anonymous

Hello, I am looking at my options for uni. I will be living at home. I will travel by train. How long do you think a realistic journey, one way, should take? Is 1 and a half hour realistic? Or maybe even 1h45m?
I rarely take the train anywhere so I am confused, thanks

So a minimum of 3 hours a day traveling? I'd rather get halls. you'd be more comfortable and your timetable will be written with students in halls in mind and you will miss out on a lot. No matter what other commuters say on here "I don't feel i missed out at all." they did they weren't there so they don't know and probably won't get it until their own child goes (if they stay in halls). if your dead set on commuting there are a few things to consider and do before uni.

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Workout the door to door time. It may be 1.5 hours on the train but what about getting to the station or to the uni that 1.5 hours could very easily turn into 2 hours or even slightly more.

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Can you actually get to uni on time using the train the first train to my uni come in at 09:43 so I would have missed my first lecture on all the days I was in.

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Actually cost this out how much do you need for food, travel and other expenses you might have you may find halls could actually be cheaper particularity if your in 5 days a week.

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How is your time table I had a 9 (yes 9) hour break one year sure you can study in those breaks but 9 hours is a long time and having a place to retreat to helps a huge amount.

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Plan a few dry runs you want to get to front of the university a little before 9 to simulate a 9 am lecture (10 to should do it). you'll want one when it's cold and or wet one when it's nice stay all day and really consider could you really face that 5 days a week. on these dry runs stay in the city all day go home at 6 or 7pm (yep had days ending then too) spending as much time as you can at the university pay attention to the students and if they look happy or sad or tired or whatever.

Just to expand on my second point my university has halls as little as £121 a week 5 days at uni would cost me £130 a week on train travel alone your think in what about bills well the halls include all these things.

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Residence support team available 24 hours a day

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Up to 100mb WiFi access in each study-bedroom

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All utility bills included

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Cleaning of communal areas

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Personal contents insurance

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Social rooms

in the rent . There are many other benefits to living in halls too which I'll put here if you want to now just ask.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 4

PS Reviewer

3 hours a day, 4 days a week for 30 weeks in a minimum wage job would earn you over £3,000

A much more sensible option than spending that time commuting and one that might make you better off financially living in halls.

Reply 5

hallamstudents

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

Hello, I am looking at my options for uni. I will be living at home. I will travel by train. How long do you think a realistic journey, one way, should take? Is 1 and a half hour realistic? Or maybe even 1h45m?
I rarely take the train anywhere so I am confused, thanks

Hi there,

It it quite a long time to be travelling to and from uni each day, as you could spend over 3 hours on the train every day.
I think one of the most important things is how many days a week you will be in uni. Some courses require you to be in every day, while some are only a couple of days. If you are in every day, this is a lot of travelling time each week and if it not something you are used to you might be really tired after doing it every day for weeks.
You also may be in for one hour one day for a lecture or a 2 hour seminar which would mean you will spend more time travelling than you will actually be in uni. This is a lot and it also depends if you feel like you would still attend if it was only one or two hours or if you wouldn't be motivated to travel that far for only a short while at uni. If this is the case, it may not be worth it as you will end up missing quite a bit of university.

It's also worth thinking about how much it is going to cost for the commute. It might end up costing more than you think, especially if you would be there every day and this might make you reconsider living in uni accommodation as you might be spending a similar amount of money each week, and with living in halls it is a lot more convenient and you will spend a lot less time travelling and it will be less tiring.

You also need to think about when you will get your uni work done. If you are the type of person who can work well in public and would be able to get some work done on the train, it could work. However, if you don't think you would do any work on the train, you will be missing 3 hours every day that you could be getting your assignments done which is a lot of time, especially when you have deadlines coming up or exams that you need to revise for.

It might be worth looking into universities that are closer to your home if you don't want to move out for uni as this will save you a lot of time and money.

I hope some of this helps,

Lucy -SHU student ambassador.