This surprising city has been named Britain’s worst for commuters

Ah, the commute – a prospect that brings dread and fear to workers everywhere. Whether you’re blasting your favourite album through your earphones, attempting to read a book or just staring blankly at the train floor, we all have our ways of coping with the rush-hour crowds. But some inevitably have it worse than others. 

Being a massive, people-packed capital city and all, you’d think Londoners have the worst time when it comes to getting to and from their workplace. But turns out that Edinburgh actually presents the biggest nightmare for daily commuters. According to finance company Capital on Tap, the Scottish capital has the longest average commute time in the UK. 

Researchers analysed the UK’s 30 most populated cities and found that Edinburgh workers spent on average 11.52 hours a week commuting. That amounts to dozens of days spent commuting every year. 

Of course, London didn’t rank far behind. The capital came in second place with an average commute time of 7.83 hours per week. 

But warning, Londoners – there are some upsetting stats coming your way. Even though the days spent travelling are less, London apparently has the most extortionate monthly travel costs out of all the cities researched. On average, commuters spend a whopping £182.28 a month getting to and from the office, whereas Edinburgh’s workforce only spends £59.93. 

Wolverhampton, Coventry and Stoke-on-Trent ranked as the third, fourth and fifth worst places for the daily commute. 

At the other end of the spectrum, though, Belfast was revealed as the best city for commuters, while Sunderland, Leeds, Kingston-Upon-Hull and Sheffield also ranked well in the study. 

People are always out to discover what cities are best (or worst) for certain things. Though they’re bound to cause a bit of debate, there are plenty of non-exhaustive studies that think they have found the answer. One southern city was recently named the most relaxed and the most vegan-friendly place in the UK, while a small Scottish city was declared as having the best standard of living and a pretty surprising place was named the nation’s nightlife capital.