commuting into London - what is cheapest?

[Seaxwyn]

I'm going to be commuting into London 5 days a week, but to two different destinations.

3 days a week I will travel Redhill to Waterloo (no onward journey)
2 days a week I will travel Redhill to London Bridge then take bus or tube to Old Street.

I assume I should get a season ticket from Redhill to London terminals, and do the onward travel to Old Street with an Oyster card.

But is there anything else I should know? And what is the best way of paying for Oyster cards? I currently pay PAYG but it's a pain queueing up every time it runs out.

[dzug1]

You are probably correct in your assumptions.

You can arrange for auto topup on your Oyster - you need to register it online to do this.

[chuckley]

1-6 travelcard. no paug needed.

[Seaxwyn]

I'm outside the zones unfortunately.

[chuckley]

u not starting @ redhill?!

or are you a-b and then starting from C (redhill)?!

[surreysaver]

Redhill is outside the zones. Although there is a TfL bus service to Redhill (405) you can use a Travelcard on, you cannot use a 1-6 Travelcard there on the train. You can get an out-boundary Travelcard, but if you are using TfL services only a couple of days a week it is not worth it. Just do as you suggested and get a Redhill-London Terminals season, and get an Oyster Pay as you Go with auto top-up (I think you can get one sent to you?) for TfL services.

[skintas]

is there any bus or caoch services into london as my partner used to go on coach into london worked out far cheaper than train

[skintas]

deffo get a oyster as buses are £2 without oyster and £1 with

[surreysaver]

405 bus (Travelcard valid on) to Purley (zone 6) then train - a 1-6 Travelcard would be valid this way - that would probably be cheaper.

[Seaxwyn]

Thanks everyone. I didn't know travelcards were valid on the 405 bus - that's interesting. But I'll stick to the train for speed reasons.

My next dilemma is how long a season ticket to buy, as I'm only doing 5 days/week for 7 months (as far as I know) then going down to 2..... time to get out the calculator.

[surreysaver]

Probably cheapest to get a 7-month ticket (you can get a season ticket for any length between 1 and 12 months, including odd days).

[surreysaver]

Thanks everyone. I didn't know travelcards were valid on the 405 bus - that's interesting.

Handy if the trains have gone down the pan.