London commuting is worst in Europe

Commuting in London is worse than anywhere else in Europe, according to a major new survey.

Daily disruption and ageing infrastructure mean the average journey in the capital takes 51 minutes - longer than in any other major European city and contrasting with 33 minutes in Barcelona and 36 minutes in Frankfurt.

When passengers finally alight from their crowded carriages and arrive at work, they also have to put up with the worst-rated office space in Europe.

Poor lighting, cramped space and inadequate equipment and furniture were top complaints.

Despite such drawbacks, however, the capital's office workers were the least stressed of the eight European cities surveyed. Only 18 per cent said they found working in London stressful.

London's "play hard, work hard" culture offers high salaries, good career opportunities and lively after-work socialising that compensate for the trials of commuting.

The survey for property consultant Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker compared attitudes of more than 800 office workers in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Frankfurt, Madrid, Milan, Paris and London.

The firm's chairman, Colin Hargreaves, said the research underlined the reality that Londoners have "little choice but to put up with the city's public transport and office space". He said: "They face a miserable journey to and from work, and they spend their day in poor offices with little natural light, poor views and limited space."

Jo Valentine, chief operating officer of inward investment specialists London First, said: "This survey underlines more clearly than anything before the absolute necessity of urgent investment in London's transport system.

"The Government and the Mayor must work to resolve the Tube investment issue quickly and stop prevaricating."

Only Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris have comparable commuting problems to London, with average journey times of 47, 44 and 42 minutes respectively. Only Parisians have a similar dependence on underground transit systems, with 69 per cent using the French capital's Metro against 53 per cent using the Tube. London scored highly for being lively, with 51 per cent saying it was a main attraction of the capital, a higher figure than any other city.

Some four in 10 of the Londoners asked cited good money and career opportunities as important factors behind the capital's appeal .

Perhaps surprisingly, London office workers feel safer on the streets than their Continental counterparts.

In London 92 per cent feel safe, while in Madrid and Brussels only 55 per cent and 61 per cent feel unthreatened.

But 56 per cent in London said the poor reliability of public transport was the major negative factor - the highest rating by far of all the cities.

Transport and office space apart, London emerged positively with more people saying they were happy working here than any rival cities except Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Some 76 per cent in London said they were very or fairly happy, compared to 88 per cent in Amsterdam and 84 per cent in Frankfurt.

London was also the city people around Europe most want to work in.

It was chosen by 14 per cent of the 800 people surveyed compared to 13 per cent for Paris, six per cent for Barcelona and five per cent for Rome.

The survey's findings will put further pressure on the Government to resolve the standoff over its controversial public- private partnership (PPP) plans.

Mayor Ken Livingstone has not ruled out a further legal challenge to back a scheme already running more than a year late and which many critics claim will be inefficient and potentially unsafe.

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