My commute to work is more than 4 hours. Each way.

I have a four-hour commute to work. Each way. That means travelling 8 hours plus a full day's work. Some people would call me crazy, but here's the thing: the numbers make sense. So when my family and I crunched the data, we decided not to move close to the city where my office is. This is the story of how that decision unfolded – and what the data shows about it.

PS 1: I have no affiliation with any of the companies running the surveys and data I use to crunch my Commuting numbers.

PS 2: All images are authored by me unless otherwise specified.

A chat with my data science teams triggered writing this article.

Before getting into my commuting story, I thought it would be good to introduce why I got round to writing this article. With Amazon's recent announcement about bringing more employees back to the office, our Data Science and data engineering teams have been a bit restless. The tech industry is one of those where working from home and hybrid work is more prevalent. At Skyscanner, our Data Science discipline is 40+ people strong and is scattered across London, Edinburgh, Barcelona and Shenzhen. The same happens to the teams we work with; the whole company is scattered across these 4 locations. Therefore, meetings predominantly happen over Zoom.

Whilst Skyscanner's work from the office policy is not anywhere close to what Amazon is trying to implement, we had long ‘what-if scenario' discussions. What would happen if our current 1–2 days in the office became more rigid? What doors would close – or open – if hybrid work as we know it disappeared? (I prefer to focus on the doors that have opened during these hybrid years).

This brings me to why I felt compelled to share my experience. By laying out my commuting journey and some hard-hitting statistics, I hope to encourage others to reflect on their own commuting patterns. Not only data scientists, but anyone who is a hybrid or remote worker. What trade-offs are you making that you might not have considered? Is the time spent commuting worth the benefits you receive? These are crucial questions that can shape our work experiences and personal lives, and we can all use data to inform our choices.

Covid19: The beginning of the story

In February 2020, I signed my contract to join Skyscanner. Just weeks later, the world changed as Covid-19 swept across the globe. My family and I relocated from London to Spain, and with Skyscanner's work-from-home policy, it seemed like the perfect time to settle down in our hometown: Valencia. For two years, remote work was the norm – until it wasn't. In 2024, Skyscanner asked employees to return to the office at least one or two days a week. This was when the real question hit: stay in Valencia or move to Barcelona?

Google Maps says I commute 686km in total.

Valencia to Barcelona

For those unfamiliar with Spanish geography, let me show you just how far apart these two cities are. In the screenshot below, you'll see my home city of Valencia, and 343 km away, my office in Barcelona.

Let that sink in: 343 km away. That is 686 km round trip total. You cannot say this is a typical commuting distance.

The actual commute

Here's how my typical commute to Barcelona looks, and yes, it's a full-day affair:

1. (30 mins, 6:00 to 6:30) Tube from home to the train station in Valencia. This part's pretty straightforward, just a sleepy / reading metro ride while the city is still waking up.
2. (3 hrs and 30 mins, 6:50 to 10:20) Train from Valencia to Barcelona. This is where the bulk of my commute happens. A few hours with my laptop or catching up on sleep. It sounds long, but I make it productive.
3. (15 mins, 10:20 to 10:45) Tube from Barcelona train station to the office. Almost there, just one last quick hop on the metro.
4. — Spend the day in the office –
5. (15 mins, 17:00 to 17:15) Tube from the office to Barcelona train station. A quick video call with the family, checking in and hearing about their day.
6. (2 hrs and 40 mins, 18:15 to 21:10) Train from Barcelona to Valencia. This is my downtime. I either catch up on work or indulge in a TV show (a rare treat with kids at home).
7. (30 mins, 21:30 to 22:00) Tube from Valencia train station to home. By this point, I tend to be knackered. I listed to a football podcast or just about anything that doesn't require brain power.

In total, close to 8 hours of travelling plus spending the day in the office.

How my commute measures up to Spanish standards (or averages)

WFH is not the commuting reality for most in Spain

Working from home is not widespread in Spain. In addition, there are multiple sectors where working from home is simply not an option. This means that lots of people are commuting to their workplaces five days a week. So, how much commuting would that be over a full week?

According to data from Eurostat [1], the average commuting time to work is 40 minutes. And of course, this is an average. I haven't been able to find data specifically for Barcelona, but I would assume it is, at least, the same or higher. This means, 1 hour and 20 minutes per day. Which adds up to roughly 6 hours and 40 minutes per week.

Looking at the bigger picture, I'm definitely a bit of an outlier, but not by much. During my time in London, I knew many people who would surpass 8 hours of commuting each week. So, while being away from home for the entire day is a challenge, it's reassuring to see I'm not alone in my commute struggle. Now, let's turn our attention to another important dimension: commuting costs.

Is my commute a money drain?

The real cost of long-distance commuting

Taking a long-distance train is expensive. However, in Spain, it's not as costly as you might think. Below, you can see the distribution of the cost of my train tickets.

Driving costs for a 5 day commute

According to Observatorio de Movilidad Arval [2], nearly 70% of people in Spain use their private car to commute to the office. In addition, if we take Madrid as an example, there was a study carried in 2010 [3] which showed that the average commuting distance was between 12 to 20 km. With this in mind, let's run some high level numbers:

• Tags: Commuting Data Science hybrid-work Leadership Management

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