This post reaches the peaks of mundanity, but it is not completely pointless. Does anyone know of anyone who commutes from West Virginia to DC on a daily basis? Is this a feasible thing to do?
Please provide your definition of “feasible”, since it may differ from standard. 
At any rate, you haven’t provided much in the way of info. I suggest that you can glean some useful information if you google “commuting from west virginia to dc”.
LOL, I was just listening to “Country Roads, Take me Home” like an hour ago…
Where in “DC”? I know people who do it, but they work in Crystal City. They generally work off hours (6 AM to 3 PM, for example).
By car? By train? Is public transportation even an option?
Im thinking from maybe Martinsburgh to Union Station. True, I could just google “commuting from West Va to DC,” but for some reason, one I can’t fully articulate at the moment, I thought posting here would be more fruitful. I thought I would get some useful anecdotal information and maybe a few responses to the effect that I suck and I should never have been born for writing such crappy thread topics.
I’m not sure what the easiest place commute to DC from is, I just threw Martinsburg out there because it’s on the Marc. I want to live in WV because the lax zoning laws allow for tiny homes and what not; that way me and the misses could save more money. I want more land too; I’d like to grow my own veggies and have one of those hydroponic systems; I’ll raise Tilapia and maybe catfish. I would also try to form crappies. My SO’s brother is doing a project with hydroponic systems so he would probably be able to help us.
And I want a goat. I just always wanted a goat.
ETA: I guess for me feasible means commuting 4 days a week won’t likely cause significant psychological or physical damage.
It’s not a fun ride on public transit, but you can do it - there are MARC (Maryland Commuter Rail) stations in Harper’s Ferry, Duffields, and Martinsburg, West Virginia. It’s roughly a two-hour ride between these towns and DC’s Union Station. One-way tickets are twelve bucks, or you can pay $95 for a weekly ticket.
Martinsburg and Harper’s Ferry have Amtrak stations as well, but Amtrak doesn’t run a commuter-friendly schedule through there - the first trains to DC are around 11 AM.
The MARC goes WV to Union Station.
I know people who do it. Is it a job that allows flexible hours or weird hours? Because they all do something like that. Start and leave early, or work fewer, longer days.
I know a few folks who rent a closet-sized sleeping space for during the workweek. This is especially attractive if you can go the fewer, longer days route. Come to think of it, one of my grandfathers did that for a while when he lived west of Philly and worked in or near NYC for a while.
My cousin-in-law commuted WV to DC for a couple of years; it’s doable as long as you’re ok with a ridiculously long commute (public transit) or ridiculously long, hair-raising, stressful commute (driving). He was rarely home, and with two small boys, full time job, full time online graduate degree, and a wife that was also in school it became a real issue for him. They ended up moving closer.
I should add that the reason you need to not be commuting during rush hour, if it’s not obvious, is that the driving time can double. I’ll often drive to Charlottesville on a Friday afternoon. That’s a 2.25-hour trip coming back late Sunday evening, but it’s taken me 4.5+ to get there.
Harper’s Ferry area is doable without traffic. However, most folks who live there are probably trying to work weird hours too, so that may spread the heavy traffic out into wider time range.
What about slug lanes? Marc 1/2 way slug the other 1/2?
I don’t work with any sluggers and couldn’t say. I know the HOV lanes on 95 and 66 (outside beltway) aren’t much faster than regular traffic
Not worth it; you’d have to come too far into VA to make the slugging worthwhile, then you’d have to factor in standing in line which (trust me) is unpredictable on the best of days. I believe the only lots out that way are in Manassas.
I nearly did it for seven years. I lived on the VA/WV border - several Dopers have been to that place, they know - and commuted down to The Hill.
It crushes your soul. Especially if you have children. Hell, I moved to Ohio to stop having to do it.
Of particular hell? NPR’s ‘All Things Considered’ is on a two-hour loop. About every other day I’d hear a story twice. Not fun.
But I’ll answer what I can. And if you could take the MARC train to Union Station instead of driving I’d advise that.
There’s been at least two folks in my office who have done it, and both of them drove to Martinsburg and took the train in. I’m not sure about one of them, but the other did 10-hour work days which meant they only came in four times a week. It was pretty hellish for them, even with sleeping on the train, because once the commute was factored in it meant they pretty much couldn’t do anything but work for four days out of the week. The other three days they tended to have to cram in everything that other people would have spread out during the entire week. (They were single, so there wasn’t anyone else to do things like grocery shopping, cooking, etc.)
One coworker ended up moving closer in, the other found a job closer to them.
Based on that, and comments from other coworkers, it is doable: at least for the short term. Long term, not so much unless you’re the type who doesn’t want/need much of a life outside of work and commuting, and either don’t have family or have family that doesn’t have a problem with you effectively not being available for the majority of the week.
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Another issue with the MARC train is that in the morning, all the trains go in, then there’s a big gap in the middle of the day where there’s no service, then in the afternoon they all go out of the city. So if you needed to work odd hours, or got sick at 11am and wanted to go home, you’re boned because there aren’t any trains. And sometimes the trains break down, or run very slowly due to weather, or are canceled altogether. My mom commutes on the MARC line that goes out to WV and she bitches about it all the time. And she at least has Metro/Ride On buses as a backup option, since she lives near the end of the Red Line–you wouldn’t have that.
I knew someone who commuted from, I think, Martinsburg to Langley via van pool. Mind you, he arrived at the office at something like 5 or 6 in the morning and left about 3 in the afternoon. It was a long trip, both ways, but he said it was worth it for the quality of life for his family.
I know people who commute daily from Martinsburg, West Virginia, to Arlington, Virginia, using a combination of the MARC train (commuter rail) and MetroRail (subway). It’s about 2-and-a-half hour commute each way.
I don’t commute from West Virginia, but I do take the MARC every day to work. Not all the trains go to West Virginia, but it is a two hour trip from Union Station to Martinsburg, though it’s far shorter to Brunswick, Maryland which a lot of people do.
If you’re going to do it you’ve be far better off taking the train either to Rockville, to catch the Red Line, or all the way to Union Station, I-270 is a bitch in the mornings and wouldn’t be worth it to get off the train and try and catch a ride. There are people who do it, they leave a car at Metropolitan Grove, where I catch the train, and drive from there, but I’m guessing they work in the Gaithersburg/Rockville area.
Yes, there can be problems, like not being able to get home easily if need be, but it can be done. For the most part the trains run on time, but if something goes wrong it can take hours to get anywhere. Thankfully that only happens once or twice a year, if that. The worst is when it gets crowded, and the trains are becoming more crowded, and it gets to be standing room only.
I know plenty of people who come from West Virginia to DC so it’s doable. Martinsburg is way the hell out there though, and between there and Harpers Ferry it’s being built up so you might have to go further out to find what you want. I do know one guy who lives well out past Berkley Springs and drives an hour plus to Martinsburg then takes the train to Silver Spring. If you like to read, or sleep in the mornings, that really helps, how people can just sit there for 30 minutes or more is beyond me.