Commuting Cost
What the journey to work costs. The average commute is 9.2 miles each way, and two thirds of commuters drive it - at October 2026 prices the fuel alone is £815 a year, and £2,488 counted properly - a diesel, £833 and £2,077. This is the year the comparison changed: petrol is up £185 on the year while fares froze and the bus cap is being cut.
The commute
9.2 miles
each way, 18.4 a day · NTS 2025
The fuel, a year
£815
petrol - £833 diesel, five days a week
The same drive, all-in
£2,488
petrol basis - £2,077 for diesel
This year
+£185
petrol up 29% while fares froze
Provisional: fuel at this edition's 3 weekly snapshots to date, month in progress. Authored by findpetrol.co.uk Research. Published twice a year, April and October.
The finding: the year the comparison changed
The average British commute is 9.2 miles each way, and two thirds of commuters drive it. At October 2026 prices the fuel for that drive - five days a week, 47 working weeks - is £815 a year in a typical petrol car. Count the whole cost of the car, on the basis of our Annual Cost of Motoring report - tax, insurance, servicing and depreciation as well as fuel, about 57.5p a mile - and the same journey costs £2,488. A diesel does the same week for £833 of fuel - and, its £3,987 annual bill spread over a longer typical year, £2,077 all-in.
This is the year the comparison changed. Petrol has risen 39.5p a litre since last October - the fuel alone is £185 a year more - while rail fares were frozen for the first time in thirty years and the bus single cap is cut from £3 to £2 in January. On the longest corridors the season ticket now undercuts the fuel alone: Southampton to London by car costs £7,001 in fuel against a £6,168 season.
Where the remote-working era shows up is in the working week. With 27% of working adults hybrid and the average worker at home 1.8 days a week, each home day saves the average car commuter £3.47 in fuel and £10.59 counted properly. And where you live barely moves the bill - £781 to £823 across every region - but whether the commute is a fuel bill at all varies enormously: 79% of Welsh workers drive to work; in London, 26%.
The typical commute
The National Travel Survey 2025 - the DfT's diary of personal travel - counts 112 commuting trips and 1,031 commuting miles a person: 9.2 miles each way on average, the longest of any trip purpose. Commuting is still 19% below its 2019 level; the hybrid era is baked in. The average journey to work takes 28 minutes.
| How Britain commutes | Share of commutes | Typical time |
|---|---|---|
| Car or van | 67% | 26 minutes |
| Walk | 11% | 15 minutes |
| Rail, tube and tram | 11% | 64 minutes |
| Bus or coach | 7% | 40 minutes |
| Cycle, motorcycle, other | 5% | - |
Shares: usual method of travel to work, Great Britain - Labour Force Survey, Oct-Dec 2024 (DfT TSGB). Times: TSGB 2024. Working patterns: ONS, July 2026 - 40% travel only, 27% hybrid, 14% fully remote.
The car commute, priced
The same 18.4-mile round trip, priced for the four working weeks of 2026: five days is the full-time anchor, two days the committed hybrid. The all-in column carries the whole cost of the car onto the commute, at the Annual Cost of Motoring report's 57.5p a mile.
| Working week | Miles | Petrol | Diesel | Electric | All-in, petrol | All-in, diesel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 days a week - full time | 4,324 | £815 | £833 | £317 | £2,488 | £2,077 |
| 4 days a week | 3,459 | £652 | £667 | £254 | £1,990 | £1,662 |
| 3 days a week | 2,594 | £489 | £500 | £190 | £1,493 | £1,246 |
| 2 days a week | 1,730 | £326 | £333 | £127 | £995 | £831 |
Fuel only in the petrol, diesel and electric columns; the all-in columns are the full cost of a mile from our Annual Cost of Motoring report - petrol at 57.5p, diesel at 48.0p over its longer typical year. Electric at the Ofgem price-cap rate; 42 and 47 mpg; 3.59 miles per kWh; 47 working weeks.
Read the two ends together and the stakes appear: the committed hybrid saves £489 of fuel a year against the full-timer - but £1,493 counted properly, because the car's fixed costs ride along with every plan. An electric car cuts the energy line to £317 at the price-cap rate, £84 on an overnight tariff - a quarter of the petrol bill for the same miles. The diesel columns tell the same story a pound dearer in fuel and £411 cheaper all-in, because its fixed costs spread over a longer typical year.
This year: the train froze, the fuel didn't
- Petrol: 134.7p last October to 174.2p - up 39.5p, or 29%. The five-day commute costs £185 more in fuel alone.
- Diesel: up 56.4p to 199.2p - 40% on the year.
- Rail: fares frozen in 2026 - the first freeze in thirty years - and regulated seasons held until March 2027 (ORR).
- Bus: the £3 single cap holds to 31 December, then falls to £2 for 2027 (GOV.UK).
The alternatives, priced
The same job - the 9.2-mile trip each way, five days, 47 weeks - priced every way it can be done. One honest caveat before the table: in life, mode and distance choose each other. Nobody walks 9.2 miles each way, and the average rail commute is far longer than the average car one; the rail lines here are the named corridors below, not this distance.
| Mode | A year | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Walking | £0 | free, where you live close enough |
| Cycling | £90 - £270 | running costs only; commercial estimates, bike purchase excluded |
| Electric car, overnight tariff | £84 | home charging at about 7.0p/kWh |
| Electric car, price-cap rate | £317 | home charging at 26.3p/kWh |
| Car, petrol - fuel only | £815 | 42 mpg at 174.2p a litre |
| Car, diesel - fuel only | £833 | 47 mpg at 199.2p a litre |
| Car, diesel - all-in | £2,077 | the diesel profile, £3,987 over 8,300 miles |
| Bus, at the £3 cap | £1,410 | England outside London; £940 at the £2 cap |
| Bus, London | £823 | TfL £1.75 a single - £1.85 from 1 November |
| Tube, Zones 1-2, London | £2,092 | at the £8.90 daily cap, frozen to March 2027 |
| Car, petrol - all-in | £2,488 | the petrol profile, £3,567 over 6,200 miles |
| Rail season, short corridor | £2,364 | Leeds-York, 24 miles by road |
| Rail season, long corridor | £6,168 | Southampton-London, 79 miles by road |
The finding worth staring at: the £3 bus cap prices the average commute at £1,410 a year - close to twice the fuel bill of driving the same miles (£815). Even at January's £2 cap the bus stays dearer than the petrol for this distance, which is not an argument against the bus - most bus commuters have no car option for these trips - but is exactly why fare policy is the cheapest lever governments hold over commuting costs.
The same corridor, both ways
The honest comparison is not the average commute against the average season ticket - it is the same road against the same railway. Four named corridors, five days a week, 47 weeks: the frozen annual season against the fuel, and then the whole cost, of driving them.
| Corridor | By road | Season | Petrol | Diesel | All-in, petrol |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leeds-York | 24 mi | £2,364 | £2,127 | £2,173 | £6,490 |
| Manchester-Liverpool | 34 mi | £2,840 | £3,013 | £3,079 | £9,195 |
| London-Brighton | 54 mi | £5,204 | £4,786 | £4,890 | £14,604 |
| Southampton-London | 79 mi | £6,168 | £7,001 | £7,154 | £21,364 |
Season tickets: standard class annuals, frozen since 2 March 2026 - the Guardian, 11 March 2026 (Southampton-London) and trainticketcost.com pricing checks, July 2026. Road distances approximate; petrol at 174.2p and 42 mpg, diesel at 199.2p and 47 mpg; all-in on the petrol profile.
On the longest corridors the maths has flipped: Southampton to London costs £7,001 in fuel alone against a £6,168 season - the train is now cheaper than the petrol, before a single pound of the car's other costs. Manchester to Liverpool is near parity at £3,013 against £2,840. Only on the short corridors does fuel undercut the season - and even Leeds-York, at £2,127 of fuel, costs £6,490 all-in, nearly three times its season. A diesel runs the same roads dearer still - £7,154 on Southampton-London, where even petrol beats the season. For two- and three-day commuters, the flexi season - eight day-passes a month - is the product that matches the hybrid week.
The regional commute
Our own contribution: the five-day petrol bill of the average commute in each region, at that region's own pump prices from this edition's 3 snapshots - beside the share of workers there who commute by car. The distance is held at the national average on purpose: there is no fresh official regional distance series, and we would rather state one honest number than vary it on five-year-old data.
| Region | Petrol | Fuel, a yr | Diesel | Diesel, a yr | By car |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North East | 173.1p | £810 | 198.9p | £832 | 75% |
| Wales | 173.7p | £813 | 198.9p | £832 | 79% |
| West Midlands | 175.1p | £820 | 199.8p | £836 | 78% |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 173.1p | £810 | 198.8p | £831 | 74% |
| North West | 174.2p | £815 | 198.9p | £832 | 75% |
| East Midlands | 175.0p | £819 | 199.6p | £835 | 78% |
| Northern Ireland | 166.8p | £781 | 192.3p | £804 | n/a |
| Scotland | 175.5p | £821 | 200.5p | £839 | 70% |
| South West | 175.0p | £819 | 200.0p | £836 | 74% |
| East of England | 175.1p | £820 | 199.9p | £836 | 75% |
| South East | 175.9p | £823 | 200.4p | £838 | 74% |
| London | 174.7p | £818 | 200.1p | £837 | 26% |
Car share: usual method of travel to work, region of workplace, LFS Oct-Dec 2024 (DfT TSGB0109). Fuel bills: 468 litres of petrol and 418 of diesel at each region's prices. Northern Ireland sits outside the LFS table, so its share is n/a.
The spread is £43 on petrol and £34 on diesel, cheapest in Northern Ireland - the price of two months' worth of commuting. The share column is the real regional story: whether the commute is a fuel bill at all. In Wales 79% of workers drive; in London 26%, where 45% take the train and the commute is a fare instead. The share of income that fuel takes in each region is the subject of our Regional Fuel Affordability report.
The hybrid factor
The working week is now the biggest single variable in the cost of commuting. One day a week at home - the difference between five and four - is worth £163 a year in fuel and £498 counted properly.
What one home day saves
- Fuel not burned
- £3.47
- Cost not carried
- £10.59
- The diesel driver
- £3.55 fuel · £8.84 all-in
- Bus fares not paid
- £6
- The average worker, a year
- £294 fuel · £896 all-in
Fuel: 18.4 miles at 42 mpg petrol (174.2p) or 47 mpg diesel (199.2p). All-in: every cost of the car, 57.5p a mile petrol, 48.0p diesel. Average: 1.8 home days a week.
The saving is real but unevenly distributed. A season-ticket holder saves nothing by staying home - the ticket is bought - which is why flexi seasons and contactless capping matter more than any fare freeze for the hybrid commuter. A driver saves the full cost of the miles. And the fully remote worker - 14% of working adults - has no commute bill at all, which is the quiet subsidy behind every return-to-office mandate.
The diesel commuter saves £3.55 of fuel a home day against the petrol driver's £3.47, but only £8.84 counted properly. And the other half of the arithmetic: moving the same week from petrol to an electric car charged overnight saves £731 a year - more than most families' energy-efficiency projects - and unlike a home day, it does not depend on the employer.
Methodology, in brief
The commute profile. DfT National Travel Survey 2025 (published 11 September 2026): 1,031 commuting miles over 112 trips, 9.2 miles each way; 47 working weeks. Modes and times from DfT TSGB 2024 (Labour Force Survey, Oct-Dec 2024). Working patterns from ONS (July 2026) and the 2025 Global Survey of Working Arrangements.
The car. Fuel from our own weekly collection - the same snapshots behind the Fuel Price Index and both sister reports. Consumption at Which? real-world economy (42/47 mpg); electric at HMRC's 3.59 miles per kWh and the Ofgem price cap. The all-in line carries the Annual Cost of Motoring report's full profiles onto the commute - petrol at 57.5p a mile, diesel at 48.0p. Full methodology →
The alternatives. Rail: ORR Rail fares index 2026 - fares frozen, regulated seasons held to March 2027; corridor seasons are named route prices (the Guardian; trainticketcost.com checks). Bus: the £3 England cap to 31 December 2026, £2 through 2027 (GOV.UK); London fares from TfL. Cycling running costs are commercial estimates, stated as such.
Using this data
These figures are free to use in articles, research and reporting. We ask only that you credit findpetrol.co.uk and link to this report, so readers can see the current figures and the method behind them.
https://www.findpetrol.co.uk/reports/commuting-cost
Pump price data is published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Other components are credited to their sources throughout. Data enquiries: findpetrol.co.uk/contact.