There is a cost to having to commute more than an hour to work compared to living 5 minutes to work by walk. Once you try the difference you won't go back unless there are serious economic differences between the two choices.

Read this article the other day. Makes my 25 min commute seem like a cakewalk.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/realestate/extreme-commut...

An hour commute by foot and train is not at all the same animal as an hour by car. Only the latter is wasted.

The options available when standing on a train (podcasts) are about the same as driving (radio). If you're talking about a train with 1:1 or better seats per passenger, though, sure.

I've had an hour-long walking and train commute for the last year, and by the end was extremely burnt out. Moved to a smaller and more expensive place in the city with a 15 minute bike ride and couldn't be happier.

MARC gets you to the DC metro, and the DC metro gets you to the places where you'd likely be working. You might walk as much as half a mile or a mile from your stop if you're somewhere unusually far-flung, but that's not too likely in the first place and, assuming a modicum of fitness, hardly a problem in any case.

> As far as long travel times go, trains can be good because you can take your laptop and it's usable time to work on your own projects, watch a movie, play games etc.

Can be, but often aren't. The trains in the three busiest commuter rail lines are not really conducive to laptop use if you are my height (6'4") because of the seat pitch. I have tried to use my XPS 13 on NJTransit trains, but I need to hope I get a row to myself so I can slant sideways to actually get my laptop at a usable angle.