Londoners content to put with the stresses and trains of commuting

Londoners may endure the longest journeys to work, and in the most trying of conditions, but they remain among the most contented commuters in Europe, a survey published yesterday suggests.

Londoners may endure the longest journeys to work, and in the most trying of conditions, but they remain among the most contented commuters in Europe, a survey published yesterday suggests.

The long-suffering capital worker faces on average a 51- minute journey to get to the office. This compares with 36 minutes in Frankfurt and 33 in Barcelona.

A total of 56 per cent of Londoners – the highest figure in Europe – cite the poor reliability of public transport as the aspect of their journey they most dislike.

Sixty-seven per cent of commuters find their trip to and from work unpleasant, but 4 per cent find it pleasant, according to the survey by the property consultants, Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker. Yet Londoners nevertheless emerge as among the most stoical Europeans, finding that the quality of their free time offsets the drudgery of their daily grind.

More than half of them – a greater proportion than in any other European city polled – like the place where they live for the extra-curricular amenities on offer.

The report concluded that Londoners had a "work hard, play hard" mentality, a theory borne out by the fact that fewer Londoners disliked the "stressful lifestyle" than the inhabitants of any other city in the survey.

London also belied its reputation as a dangerous place to live, with respondents considering it safer than residents of the other cities also visited by the survey – Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Milan, Barcelona, Paris, Madrid and Brussels.

Of the 100 people interviewed in each city, 76 per cent of Londoners were either "very happy" or "fairly happy" about working in the city.

A spokesman for the Department of Transport said: "Commuting times are influenced by distance travelled. London is one of Europe's largest cities, so it is natural that people travel from a wide area into the city, which affects the average travelling time. Paris, a city of similar size, has a similar travelling time."

Angie Bray, Conservative transport spokesman on the Greater London Assembly, was less generous. She said: "This survey will come as no surprise to Londoners – we have known for years that our transport system is appalling."