Cambridgeshire · commuter town data · September 2026
Living in Ely: London commute, house prices & costs
Ely is a commuter town in Cambridgeshire, around 70 minutes from London by direct train from Ely (longer than average for the towns we track), with below-average prices at £320,000. It ranks #106 of 118 on Rightroute's balanced commuter score (September 2026 data).
48
Rightroute score
Bottom quarter · #106 of 118
Ely at a glance
Commute and cost
70 min
Train to London
From Ely, 59% slower than the 118-town median.
£7,052
Annual season ticket
About £588 a month, 40% dearer than the 118-town median.
£320k
Average house price
£320,000, 22% below the 118-town median.
£958
Average rent
A two-bed in East Cambridgeshire, per month, 26% below the 118-town median.
Living there
Moderate
Safety
Crime index 40 on a 0–100 scale (lower is safer).
892Mb
Broadband
Average available download speed, 1% below the 118-town median.
8.0
Life satisfaction
ONS Personal Well-being mean score, 0–10 (higher is better).
What’s nearby
42
Historic landmarks
Nationally protected buildings, monuments and gardens within 3 miles, 14% more than the 118-town median.
63
Hectares of parks and fields
Public parks and playing fields within 3 miles, 74% less than the 118-town median.
77
Places to eat and drink
Restaurants, cafes and pubs within 3 miles, 51% fewer than the 118-town median.
The commute from Ely
Direct trains from Ely take around 70 minutes into King's Cross / St Pancras, running on Greater Anglia. That makes it #110 out of 118 towns for speed into London.
An annual season ticket costs about £7,052, roughly £588 a month or £35,260 over five years. That's 40% more expensive than the 118-town median of £5,041.
How Ely compares to the other 117 towns
| Metric | Ely | Median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Train to London | 70 min | 44 min | #110 |
| Annual season ticket | £7,052 | £5,041 | #100 |
| Average house price | £320,000 | £409,000 | #21 |
| Price to local earnings | 9.4x | 10.1x | #46 |
| Average rent (2 bed) | £958/mo | £1,298/mo | #7 |
| Rent to local earnings | 34% | 39% | #14 |
| Crime index (lower is safer) | 40 | 52.5 | #37 |
| Broadband speed | 892 Mb | 903 Mb | #68 |
| Life satisfaction (0–10) | 8.0 | 7.6 of 116 | #13 |
Overall, Ely ranks #106 of 118 on the balanced Rightroute commuter score. Different priorities give different answers, so you can weight the criteria yourself in the comparison page.
Ely commuter FAQs
How long is the commute from Ely to London?
Direct trains from Ely take around 70 minutes to King's Cross / St Pancras. Ely is served by Greater Anglia.
How much is a season ticket from Ely to London?
An annual season ticket from Ely costs about £7,052, which works out at roughly £588 a month.
What is the average house price in Ely?
The average sold price in Ely is £320,000 (HM Land Registry), which is 22% below the median across the 118 London commuter towns we hold a price for.
Is Ely a safe place to live?
Ely scores 40 on a 0–100 crime index (lower is safer), which is a moderate level of safety relative to other London commuter towns.
Is Ely a good commuter town for London?
Ely ranks #106 of 118 London commuter towns on Rightroute's balanced score, which weighs commute time, house prices, season ticket cost, safety and broadband. If your priorities are different, the Rightroute compare view lets you weight the criteria yourself.
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House prices are the median of that town's own sales from HM Land Registry Price Paid, August 2025 to July 2026, refreshed monthly; the crime score is the mean monthly count from police.uk over August 2025 to July 2026, placed on a 0 to 100 scale where lower is safer, also refreshed monthly. Rent is the average for a two-bed in the local authority, from the ONS Price Index of Private Rents, August 2026, refreshed monthly. Train times are typical off-peak direct rail to the destination city (National Rail) and season tickets the annual fare to the same place. Broadband is the average available download speed from Ofcom Connected Nations; life satisfaction is the ONS Personal Well-being mean for the local authority. Those are reviewed periodically rather than monthly. Heritage sites, green space and places to eat are counted within three miles from Historic England, OS Open Greenspace and the Food Standards Agency, built September 2026, and refreshed annually. Figures are for comparison between townsrather than exact values.