If you can't afford to live in London - pretty normal. No one mentions the constant delays, no air-con train and tubes.. changing stations walking the rest of the way.

My commute without delays and everything is on time is about 1hour and 25 mins.. with delays.. you can see how this easily can get close to 2 hours.. delays no transport in the UK.. are almost daily.. it's the only thing they do consistently.

"Let's be 100% honest: you did not spend 4 hours a day commuting pre-WFH. You just didn't." - This comment tells me you're either lucky enough not to have to commute in a big city.. or are rich enough to live in the city you work in.

Commute

Home <-> Walk <-> train(euston) <-> walk <-> tube <-> walk <-> work

Time required if everything work correctly

~ 1h 10m to work

~ 1h 30m from work, (more since you dont want to miss the train)

Now, a single cancelled/missed train for me is +30m, happened at least once a week due to faulty train etc.

In addition, these things happen all the time:

Is the tube delayed today causing me to miss my train? +30m

Is it hot summer week? expect almost everyday to be cancellations of 1h+++

Someone trespassing/ hit by train, cancellations of 1h+++

Signalling problem, cancellation of 1h+++

Fire next to track cancellation of 3h+++

plus more Many days I have spent more than 4hrs just to get home.

Now this 2h 40m commute easily averages out to 4h

>Let's be 100% honest: you did not spend 4 hours a day commuting pre-WFH. You just didn't.

Just take a look at this:

10min walk to the station

5min wait for the train

1h 5min travel time

10min walk to the office

+

10min walk to the station

around 15min wait for the train

1h 5min travel time

10min walk to the home

the only thing you can argue is

>around 15min wait for the train

2 hours both ways is below average for me. I gave a conservative estimate. At my previous job it was an hour and a half. Pretty normal here in the UK if you dont live in London.

40-60 minutes each way for me, occasionally worse. One colleague did have 2+ hours each way (train via London) and so he was permitted to come into the office once per week, even pre-covid.