A woman who commutes over four hours into London from Devon has said the long journey is worth it for the peace of mind and the lifestyle she gets to return to after work
The cost of living has risen dramatically in the UK in recent years thanks to major world events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the recent conflict in Iran.
Among the many costs Britons face is train travel, with some of the highest fares in Europe. This can be a problem for those who have to take especially long journeys that fall out of Transport for London’s price cap.
However, for some, the expensive train tickets are worth it both for where they are, and what those train journeys enable them to do for their mental health and work.
One individual to highlight the benefits of their albeit expensive commute is 37-year-old Olivia Norton who has lived in south Devon with her husband Will since 2019, but commutes to central London via the train.
It takes her four-and-a-half hours to get from South Hams to Southwark, and £150 if she pays the off-peak fair. Despite the three figure cost and lengthy journey, Olivia says she’s not willing to relocate to live closer to work.
She told The Times: “I once dreaded ‘the commute’ and that was from Shepherds Bush to my office in Shoreditch, but it’s become an integral and valuable part of my life in its own right.
“I get time to have a good think and finish off the deck I’ve been putting off, attempt to get to the end of my book club book and occasionally just zone out and watch the waves splash at the tracks as we pass through Dawlish.”
Olivia added that she wouldn’t choose to return to living in London because of the “strong sense of community” she feels in her part of the UK. What’s more, her husband runs a supper club that focuses on British food and farming, something she says he wouldn’t be able to do if they were still in London.
Olivia isn’t the only person to note how they wouldn’t return to the capital after leaving it. Ellisha Clapham, who left to live in the North of England after nearly a decade living in London, saying they wouldn’t come back because she feels her quality of life is better.
Taking to Instagram, where Ellisha has over 11,000 followers, she published a slide show and said that moving back had not been a downgrade despite London’s status as an economic powerhouse.
She explained: “But moving back isn’t a downgrade, it just looks different. Different pace, different priorities, different opportunities.”
One of the primary reasons Ellisha chose not to return was because of the cost of living in the city. She said: “ILY (I love you) London, but the sheer cost of purely existing is a bit dramatic.
“A night out with the girls would have me counting pennies for the rest of the month.” In contrast, she maintained that northern living means actually having spare cash to ‘enjoy life.’
Other reasons Ellisha listed for her desire not to return included a lack of a sense of community and more job opportunities in the North, along with a lesser sense of people being in a rush, and the time it takes to get from one side of London to the other.
