...and so begins the next chapter in my commuting life, no more Dorking (fun as it was), new destination - East Grinstead!
There has always been something slightly broken in my mind which made me think that East Grinstead was just past Three Bridges on the Brighton (railway) line - probably the fact that they are quite near to one another as the crow files - I've stupidly boarded East Grinstead trains at East Croydon a few times mistakenly thinking I'd be able to figure out a quicker way back home during disruption (and then catching trains back again). When the prospect of a job came up working here I immediately made the same mistake again - "Oh that will be easy to get to" - but no. Also this move co-incided with the biggest restructuring of timetables in British railway history - and the inevitable associated cancellations and delays (4 cancelled trains so far this morning from East Grinstead) the *only* way to get here on the train is via East Croydon.
I've had enough of London commuters.
Thankfully, after a quick bit of Googling, I discovered that (and this is a miracle) there is a number 400 bus that goes from East Surrey hospital (practically on our doorstep) to the fire station 500 yards from my new office. So far they have been reliable and (pretty much) on time - and they are also used by a lot of kids to get to School (meaning they are highly unlikely to be casually cancelled). The only problem is there isn't a lot in the way of alternatives leaving me really only one direct bus in and one direct bus out meaning there is potential for a bit of waiting around at Crawley bus station (but that isn't the end of the world).
I'm one week in and so far it's worked very well - the cherry on the top? It only costs £22 per week for my bus ticket. I think that has to be one of the cheapest commutes on the planet (unless one walks to work)!
