does anyone here commute from Guildford via the A3 to London

[BERGS2]

been looking into areas just north of guildford (ripley/ockham way) but wondering if getting through the M25 junction with the A3 was a nightmare of a morning?

I currently drive from New Malden up to Hammersmith about 9 miles and takes 30-50 minutes traffic depandant.

Am hoping that the additional 15 miles down the A3 will only ad about 1/4 hour to the journey...

anyone do this everyday?

is it generlly OK?

much of a wait coming into Tolworth?

Sorry for the boring topic.....

[turbobloke]

I did the journey from Burpham to London on the A3 every day for nearly 5 years, it was OK if you set off early enough. It might need to be a bit earlier these days.

[Alex]

In a recent job, I drove from Godalming to Chertsey everyday and in an earlier job, I drove to Ashford, Middlesex everyday (both A3-M25). It's busy, but not as bad as you might think. The traffic usually keeps moving.

[Diderot]

It's not generally Tolworth that's the problem; it's Hook where 3 lanes go into 2.

[okgo]

BERGS2 said:

been looking into areas just north of guildford (ripley/ockham way) but wondering if getting through the M25 junction with the A3 was a nightmare of a morning?

I currently drive from New Malden up to Hammersmith about 9 miles and takes 30-50 minutes traffic depandant.

Am hoping that the additional 15 miles down the A3 will only ad about 1/4 hour to the journey...

anyone do this everyday?

is it generlly OK?

much of a wait coming into Tolworth?

Sorry for the boring topic.....

Its not too bad, the time is the key thing.

Although I would bet it will take longer than an extra 15 mins.

[BERGS2]

Diderot said:

It's not generally Tolworth that's the problem; it's Hook where 3 lanes go into 2.

thats the bit i meant - where the speed camera is just as it drops from 70mph to 50....

[okgo]

BERGS2 said:

Diderot said:

It's not generally Tolworth that's the problem; it's Hook where 3 lanes go into 2.

thats the bit i meant - where the speed camera is just as it drops from 70mph to 50....

That alone is going to take the best part of ten mins at that time, to do a mile a minute at that time of the day is very ambitious

[Road_Terrorist]

Hope you weren't planning to go down the A306 into Hammersmith as that is usually a car park between 8-9:30am.

[H_Kan]

Coming in to Hammersmith from the west is horrible at any time.

I've driven the A3 a few times and usually it's been alright, however at really peak times it can get hellish. Although that was returning towards London around 5pm.

I'd probably say jumping on a train into London would be easier.

On a nicer note, following the A3 down to Portsmouth is quite a nice drive.

[billynomates]

I've being doing Guildford to London more years than I am willing to admit to,
though less frequently of late.

Depends what time you need to be in Hammersmith by will dictate your departure time.

A3/M25 junction can be chokker around 8ish backed up to the Wisley sevices but still moves,
as others have pointed out the bottle neck is more often than not the Hook underpass.

Get a bad day then you can look forward to a 2hrs commute otherwise about an hour plus abit.

The return trip can be just as bad if you live in or south of Guildford particularly during the summer months is sometime a right bh.

[BERGS2]

Road_Terrorist said:

Hope you weren't planning to go down the A306 into Hammersmith as that is usually a car park between 8-9:30am.

heh heh - yeah - I'm doing a shorter version of the drive at the moment - Have stopped going up Castlenau for that very reason - took me around and hour and a quarter this morning....

billynomates said:

I've being doing Guildford to London more years than I am willing to admit to,
though less frequently of late.

Depends what time you need to be in Hammersmith by will dictate your departure time.

[optimism]leave at 9.30 (Ripley) in by 1030? [/optimism]

otherwise i'll be gertting in at the crack of sparrows leave at 6.30 in by 7.30.

luckily, I can do relatively flexible hours......

is it the A3 through Guildford or the getting on and off?

(were also thinking about Compton/Milford way)

chheers for all advice thus far...


BERGS

[billynomates]

BERGS2 said:

Is it the A3 through Guildford or the getting on and off?

(were also thinking about Compton/Milford way)

cheers for all advice thus far...

BERGS

Its both. G'ford has no Bypass in reality(total cock up since the day it was built) all the local traffic is forced to use it,unless you use the town centre which it like Oxford circus during rush hour.

It will become more congested when the Hindhead Tunnel opens in 2011 for those heading in to the City plus the huge developments now being built in the University/Manor Farm site will screw it even more.

As far as I know there are no plans to improve the local roads either from the Highways mob
or from SCC.

Too many people too many cars too much high employment not enough houses

I'm moving on somewhere else

PS The local at Compton was refurbished lately ...still crap

I quite like Compton

[Dunk76]

I go southbound the A3 from the M25 about once a week in the mornings - mainly to break up the monotony of my commute.

Almost every day without exception it's backed up heading Northbound running up the M25 - at worst it'll be as far back as the other side of Guildford - which is about 8 miles?

Once past the M25 it'll be pretty clear until you get into West Hill where it eventually feeds into the Wandsworth one-way. That'll be a laugh too.

[NDA]

Until very recently I drove from near Milford to London every day.

At 5.45am it takes me 50/55 minutes to get to Victoria.

At 6am, 1 hour 10.

At 6.30, 1 hour 30.

From 7am to 9am roughly 2 hours.

From about 7am the A3 is usually clear until the M25 - then the inner 2 lanes are busy as everyone feeds onto the M25. Tolworth/Hook is not usually too bad, but occasionally it's awful (once a month maybe).

Advertising you say? What exactly?

[Olf]

You've made two terrible mistakes:

1. Hammersmith is a stehole and utter nightmare to commute to.

2. The only benefit is the vast array of quite marvelous pubs - which you're going to miss cos you're driving home!

Consider rail to barnes bridge and then bus up castlenau and into hammersmith

[BERGS2]

NDA said:

Until very recently I drove from near Milford to London every day.

At 5.45am it takes me 50/55 minutes to get to Victoria.

At 6am, 1 hour 10.

At 6.30, 1 hour 30.

From 7am to 9am roughly 2 hours.

From about 7am the A3 is usually clear until the M25 - then the inner 2 lanes are busy as everyone feeds onto the M25. Tolworth/Hook is not usually too bad, but occasionally it's awful (once a month maybe).

Advertising you say? What exactly?

Cheers - thats exactly the sort of thing I'm after

- have toyed with the idea of driving down very early doors and trying it myself....but then sanity prevailed.

Advertising?

Media buying in a full service shop - for my sins

[Phone_Monkey]

Don't commute from that way, but go down regularly to Ockham/Ripley way to see a mate. Lovely roads round there. The traffic in the afternoon/evenings can be quite bad until you are past Kingston and the road opens up to 3 lanes (for your homeward journey). Have you considered a motorbike? You will be able to filter through the traffic, won't take you long at all.

[Road_Terrorist]

Olf said:

You've made two terrible mistakes:

1. Hammersmith is a stehole and utter nightmare to commute to.

2. The only benefit is the vast array of quite marvelous pubs - which you're going to miss cos you're driving home!

Consider rail to barnes bridge and then bus up castlenau and into hammersmith

You might as well walk it in from Barnes station, it's only around 30mins (bit longer if you're a slow walker) walk from there to Hammersmith and quite a pleasant one in this weather. The buses can get pretty packed out along that route at that time of morning.

[Ding Dong]

Road_Terrorist said:

Olf said:

You've made two terrible mistakes:

1. Hammersmith is a stehole and utter nightmare to commute to.

2. The only benefit is the vast array of quite marvelous pubs - which you're going to miss cos you're driving home!

Consider rail to barnes bridge and then bus up castlenau and into hammersmith

You might as well walk it in from Barnes station, it's only around 30mins (bit longer if you're a slow walker) walk from there to Hammersmith and quite a pleasant one in this weather. The buses can get pretty packed out along that route at that time of morning.

Just don't use the buses at the moment - they've closed the terrace to re-do water works and c*cked the whole traffic infrastructure up as a result. Motorbike is the way to go

[NDA]

BERGS2 said:

Cheers - thats exactly the sort of thing I'm after

- have toyed with the idea of driving down very early doors and trying it myself....but then sanity prevailed.

Advertising?

Media buying in a full service shop - for my sins

Glad it helped - it's pretty consistent timing, has been for about 15 years or so.

Until recently I was Chairman of a media agency, I sold it and retired...