Most of us bear the commute to work grudgingly. We’ll even compromise on where we live just to make the back-and-forth from work as fuss-free as possible. But Adam Tranter, founder and director of a PR and media business based in London, decided to do the opposite. He chose to quit the capital and make Kenilworth, just outside Coventry, his home instead. And it’s transformed his work-life balance.
A passionate cyclist before bib shorts and sportives became cool, Tranter actually grew up near Kenilworth where he worked as a “Saturday lad” in his local bike shop as a teenager. While he was still at school, he started his company Fusion Media, making websites for local businesses.
In 2008, Team GB’s cycling success at the Beijing Olympics was the first in a decade-long series of events that helped raise the profile of Tranter’s No 1 passion right at the time when he decided to focus his business on cycling. Buoyed by the staggering rise in popularity of all things two wheels since then, Fusion Media has grown from a solo enterprise into a business that employs more than 15 people and looks after brands in cycling, running and triathlon.
In 2018, he founded The Running Channel – a YouTube channel dedicated to putting the fun into running, by informing and inspiring beginners.
It’s this passion for the outdoors that led him to create a work-life setup that might seem extreme to some. In 2012, Tranter and his wife upped sticks and quit the urban sprawl in search of somewhere greener to raise a family. Lured back by the Warwickshire countryside, he returned home.
“I spend quite a lot of my life on a train back and forth, but it means I get the best of both worlds,” says Tranter. “We were able to buy a house that we wouldn’t have been able to afford in London, we’ve got access to great schools and really good greenery in a very chilled out place.
“For work it’s great to be able to get two different points of view,” he says. In London, riding a bike is often a mode of transport, “whereas cycling is seen as more recreational where I live”.
“I like to have a different view. Though I don’t live in two places, I feel like I almost have two cities that I know quite a lot about,” he says.
Tranter’s commute to London involves a five-mile cycle to Coventry station, followed by a train ride to London and then a short pedal from Euston to Farringdon. Recent improvements to London Northwestern Railway services have cut the train journey time from Coventry to London to under 90 minutes, which has confirmed to Tranter that he made the right call.
“Time is our greatest commodity and any marginal gains – as we call it in cycling – are of course important. The hour-and-a-half journey is just the right amount of time for me to make the most of,” he says.
“I work on the train and get in a solid uninterrupted hour a day each way of emails, so when I get to the office I’ve got a headstart and when I get home I can feel like I’ve done what I need to do without it eating into my home life,” Tranter adds.
With those benefits, and when – according to Acas – the average time Londoners spend commuting is already 74 minutes a day, the trade-off for living in the place that feeds your passion isn’t perhaps as big as you think.
Book rail tickets in advance and get the best fares on trains to Coventry. Sit back and relax, because we have it covered, with free wifi and mobile tickets. For more information on London Northwestern Railway destinations, routes and timetables head to LNR.co.uk
