Katie and I are doing a cost/benefit analysis of staying living in Sutton rather than moving closer to Barnes. Anyone who drives from Sutton/Cheam to New Malden/A3 regularly in rush hour (say 7.30 in morning) care to estimate how long it takes?

No idea here unfortunatly Maybe a few test runs are in order? Maybe we could send half a dozen MINIs from each location, and record fuel consumption and journey times

Good plan

We save £325 a month staying in Sutton. Pretty sure petrol would be around £120 a month, so it's still a substantial saving providing it doesn't mean a hugely tiresome journey every day. I used to go that way to Kensington to work, and seem to remember Worcester Park being the only real choke-zone! Katie is going to try it a few times in next few weeks.

Can't comment directly, but off a night shift I drive the opposite way at that time of day, past Barnes Station at about 0725 then towards the A3 and along it to Tolworth. Observations of traifgic in the opposite direction to me are:

1) Red Rover junction - nothing noticable, sometimes queues up to the bus lane towards the end of Roehampton Lane but never much more.
2)roehampton itself. Traffic often queues from the A3 to the lights in Roehampton
3) Robin Hood Roundabout. Often a queue here, normally from where the road goes from 3 lanes to 2 but sometimes starts 300 - 400 yards before that. As for the stretch from Robin Hood to Roehampton lane, this usually appears free flowing.

Nothing else to report, the rest of the A3 appears to be free flowing, but my observations are based on 0725 - 0745.

Hope that is of some use, Im afraid I can't advise how long it takes to pass through.

PK

Lived at North Cheam, 15 years ago mind you !, & then it was a pain in the backside getting through WP High St in the morning rush hour - say a good 20 minutes if not more - don't know if it's improved these days (doubt it) !

Before say 7.45 the traffic flows . After that time, especially after 8.0am them expect to sit in traffic and .................

Excellent feedback, thanks chaps! That definitely confirms what I thought was the case from my own experience 10 years back. Katie would be aiming to arrive by 8am in Barnes, so I reckon if she leaves at 7.15 she should be safe.

It's either stay in Sutton, save money and have a rush hour drive, or move closer and do without holidays and new furniture etc, and Katie seems to think she will be happy in her little MINI, at least for teh first 6 months or so while she sees how it goes.

If she is aiming to be in Barnes by 8.00 then she should beat the worst of the traffic. She will be safe at school before all the parents then block up the road bringing the little darlings in!!

Have travelled Epsom to New Malden for many years 7.30-8.00 but gave up with going via Worcester Park high street a couple of years ago when Hamptons new housing/Green Lane traffic lights began and added traffic entering from all side roads = jams. Stop/start all the way to A3....so now use a longer complicated network of residential back roads to by-pass WP!

I know a back way down the back of Sutton to a level crossing near Raynes Park then onto A3 at Crispy Creme, but the level crossing seems to close every 30 seconds and stay shut for 15 mins these days!! So that is probably worse in rush hour!

That level crossing in particular sees about 8 trains an hour in the London direction, and at least 6 an hour in the other direction which is why it's down so often. The reverse is then true in the evening rush hour. Possibly best avoided then I guess Paul.

Is it enhanced health and safety regulations these days that mean th ebarriers have to be down so long before and after the train comes, Phil? Ten years ago they shut and a minute later the train went through - these days they seem to shut a good 3-4 mins in advance, which seems eternal!

I don't know the answer to that one Paul. Thing is these days Level Crossings are the biggest risk a lot of the time - and have a large sum spent on media campaigns about Level Crossing abuse so I wouldn't be surprised if the timings have changed.

When they come down I don't know, except that every train I used to get home from work would always have a 'Yellow' at Raynes park, then a green when it got to the signal that protects the level crossing, so I'm guessing the barriers were only lowered as the train left Raynes Pk (at low speed due to the yellow signal) rather than before it arrived. Whoops, I seem to have gone

Paul, I'll let you know the reasons on Sunday if you're coming along.