Six hour round trip: How long people are willing to travel to work

They are the people who put even the earliest of risers to shame - long haul commuters who travel hundreds of kilometres each day to be able to work in Sydney.

Long haul commuters Rob Dougherty, Nick Martin and Julie Song share their stories.

Nick Martin spends six hours and 20 minutes a day commuting — just two hours shy of the average work day.

While most people are still asleep, he’s already on a train, making the long journey from Kiama to Sydney. To many, the sheer length of his trip seems unthinkable. To Mr Martin, it’s just another day.

The 47-year-old is part of a growing group of ‘long-haul commuters” who wake up at the crack of dawn, to commute from their regional town, travelling hundreds of kilometres to be able to work in the city.

For Mr Martin, who works in events, the 260km round trip is worth it because he gets to live in the coastal paradise of Kiama. He has managed to cut his office days down to three days a week, which he says offsets the lengthy travel times.

Nick Martin, who commutes from Kiama to Sydney for work. He says the commute is long but the sunrises make it worth it. Picture: Supplied.

He wakes up at 5am, boards his train at 6am, and gets off at 8.30am before making the walk to his office. By the time he gets home, it’s often as late as 8:45pm.

“If I don’t get out of the office on the dot at five o’clock, then I miss the train. The trains get less frequent on the South Coast line (after 5pm). It’s just really nice to come home. It’s worth the slug, even though it’s a long day,” Mr Martin said.

“The reality is there was no way we were going to be able to buy anywhere in Sydney. I really love my job and it makes it worthwhile.”

He says the commute also has its upsides: “I see the most amazing sunrises every ­morning.”

A morning sunrise on the train from Kiama to Sydney. Nick Martin said the commute is long but the sunrises make it worth it.

The price he pays is time. It’s a cost an increasing number of NSW residents are willing to pay. Research from data analysis company Informed Decisions found that in 2021, just over 27,000 NSW residents worked for an employer located 100km or more in Sydney. This represented around 1.2 per cent of all NSW residents working in Sydney.

The main home locations for these commuters were Lake Macquarie and The Central Coast, representing almost more than one in 10 for all workers with employers over 100km away in Sydney.

Demographer Mark McCrindle said they represent a changing workforce.

“In the last five or so years we have seen a decrease for many in commute times, due to them working from home, but at the same time an increase in commute times for others,” he said.

“During Covid a lot of people moved to regional areas but as work from home has come back to a hybrid model, you have people not wanting to give up their (often more affordable) residence, but they are having to commute.

“It’s beyond what would have been possible for full time commuters but commuting a couple of times a week or for some, a couple of times a fortnight, means they can manage in that new location.

“Australians are chasing affordability and that means moving further away from the CBD.

“It shows the Aussie dream is alive and well. Young couples are looking to buy a home and if they can’t buy a home where they grew up, they will buy on the fringes. They are looking for homeownership but they obviously want to maintain their jobs, and they need those roles to pay.

“Those trends are set to continue and young people are prepared to do this. They are prepared to take on a long unpaid commute as part of that responsibility.”

Aerospace and defence journalist Rob Dougherty spends about five hours a day commuting from Lithgow to North Sydney three days a week for work.

“I usually get up around 5.30am, drive to my local station and get on the train anywhere from 5.40am to 6am. I commute to the North Sydney office and get into the office by 9am,” he said.

Rob Dougherty travels from Lithgow to Sydney for work. Picture: Rohan Kelly

He spends his time occasionally reading books, but often sleeping, because “there is normally no one on the train at that time.”

“I leave the office by around 5pm and I am getting home around 7:30, it can be as late as 8:30,” Mr Dougherty said.

Despite the almost five hour daily commute, Mr Dougherty says that his work-life balance is “pretty good.”

“I feel like it is quite good in that you can leave work behind, you see the city disappear and you are back out in the Blue Mountains,” he said.

“ From a mental health perspective, it’s an unbelievably good work-life balance.

“The only downside is you have to sacrifice a couple of hours each day to do that.

For Julie Song, who travels from Newcastle to Sydney (2.5 each way) by train, the trip is well worth it.

“I don’t see it as a waste of time because I am making use of that time,” Ms Song said.

The 29-year-old works in recruitment, making the journey three times a week.

She uses her commute time to “finish work, do life admin, or just chill out.”

Julie Song commutes to the city each day for work from Newcastle so that she can keep her beach lifestyle. Picture Thomas Lisson

“It’s really not that bad,” said Ms Song.

“I am having the opportunity to live at the coast which has been quite the sea change, with the benefit of working in a job I absolutely love. I feel like I have the best of both worlds.”

There is also Richard Shepherd, 39, who makes a 400km round trip from Bathurst to Sydney for work – six hours and forty minutes on the train.

“There are equivalent jobs to mine in the country but they cover a lot larger area, a lot more responsibilities and a lot larger teams. If I wanted to advance quickly and keep my current job, I definitely could not do that in Bathurst,” Mr Shepherd, who work in transport, said.

“I only ever rented in Sydney … I have since bought in Bathurst, which would have been completely unattainable for me (in the city).”

Originally published as Six hour round trip: How long people are willing to travel to work